Martha's Vineyard Blog: Travel Tips, Guides and Island Stories

The rules visitors break on Martha's Vineyard, sorted into state law, town bylaw and plain custom: speed limits and one-way streets, bike lights and sidewalks, beach regulations and fines, dog rules by town, noise hours, boat sewage, shellfish permits, and the manners that mark a guest from a tourist.

Uber and Lyft work down-island on Martha's Vineyard in daylight; up-island in Chilmark, Menemsha and Aquinnah they are scarce, nearly impossible late at night and expensive, and there are stretches with no cell service. The ten taxi companies with phone numbers, published zone fares, the free bus and its last runs, and how to plan the ride home.

Is Martha's Vineyard a dry island? Town by town: Chilmark is fully dry and BYOB, West Tisbury and Aquinnah pour beer and wine with meals, Vineyard Haven serves full liquor but has no liquor store, and only Oak Bluffs and Edgartown have package stores. Corkage, beach rules, the ferry and the state laws, checked September 2026.

Every farm stand and visitable farm on Martha's Vineyard, checked with the farms in September 2026: Morning Glory, Beetlebung, North Tabor, Mermaid Farm's 24-hour dairy shed, Native Earth, Allen Farm, Island Alpaca, the FARM Institute and the West Tisbury Farmers Market, with hours, honor-system rules and the fall pumpkin dates.

Flying to Martha's Vineyard in 2026: which airlines serve MVY and from where (Cape Air year-round; JetBlue, Delta and American in season; Tradewind from private terminals), what parking costs, and how to get from the terminal to any town by free bus, taxi or rental car.

Which Martha's Vineyard tour is worth it, by the trip you are on: the Edgartown walking and Jaws tours, the three-hour island bus tour, private charters, the MV Skipper party boat, Felix Neck kayak tours and the all-in day trip from Boston, with 2026 prices from the operators.

East Chop Lighthouse in Oak Bluffs: the 1878 cast-iron tower on Telegraph Hill, the Sunday sunset openings run by the Martha's Vineyard Museum, the semaphore and Chocolate Lighthouse history, and the bus stop and parking below the hill.

The Hallmark Martha's Vineyard Mysteries are not filmed on Martha's Vineyard: Victoria, British Columbia plays the island on screen. But the books behind the movies are pure Vineyard, and the real places are better than the set.

Lake Tashmoo in Vineyard Haven hides a century of stories: the 1887 waterworks that watered the town, a golf course where a bull was a hazard, town baseball and the frozen winters when islanders raced ice boats.

Dates, the lighthouse lighting, the Main Street parade, winter ferries and who is open: a fact-checked local guide to the island's biggest December weekend (Dec 10-13, 2026).

A reader planning a trip for May 2027 asked us what would actually be open. The honest year-round map: restaurants, cafes, trails, museums and services that never close, town by town, plus the calendar of when everything else reopens.

The Gay Head Cliffs are sacred Wampanoag land, not just a viewpoint. What visitors are welcome to in Aquinnah, what the rules protect, and how to be a good guest.