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Main Street in Vineyard Haven at dusk, with the street clock on the sidewalk and cars parked along the shops.
The complete guide to Vineyard Haven, Martha's Vineyard's year-round port town. Main Street shopping, Black Dog Tavern, Owen Park, and ferry terminal.
Vineyard Haven is the island's year-round town: the main ferry port, a working harbor with an arty streak, and the place where islanders live and shop twelve months a year. Three major new restaurants opened in 2025, the new Woods Hole terminal opened in June 2026 after a multi-year rebuild, and the dry-town era is officially over. A mile up the hill on Greenwood Avenue is Camp Jabberwocky, the tuition-free summer camp the island has run since 1953.
Filmed May 2021The island moves on: shops, signs and prices may differ from what you see here. The text of this guide was checked October 2026.
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Opened August 27, 2025, inside the former Martha's Vineyard National Bank, a stone building with a domed ceiling and stained-glass arches. Chef Marc Orfaly (seven-time James Beard nominee) cooks coastal Mediterranean food. The 9,000-pound bank vault door is now a common table in the dining room, and the vault itself is the wine cellar. Wednesday to Sunday, bar 4–9 PM and dining room 5–9 PM; hours shift with the season, so they are worth checking. Fine dining ($$$$). Reservations via OpenTable.
The happy hour board at The Ocean Club door, set between the old bank building's fieldstone walls.
Opened July 2024 in the former Copper Anchor space, next to Mansion House Hotel. The menu calls itself "New World cuisine" and mixes Asian, Peruvian and Italian ideas: cast-iron swordfish, lobster pappardelle. 130 seats. Entrées ~$25–50+. Fall 2026 hours: dinner 4–9 PM Monday, Tuesday and Thursday to Saturday, 4–8 PM Sunday, closed Wednesday. Phone: (508) 338-7431.
Opened May 22, 2025, in the old Little House Café spot. Chef and co-owner Carlos Montoya studied at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park and has cooked on the island since 2008, at the Sweet Life, Détente Temporarily closed Closed for the season; back in the spring, per its own site and the Edgartown Yacht Club, before opening his own place. The pasta is made by hand in house and changes with the season. Lunch Mon–Fri 11 AM–2:30 PM, brunch Saturday 10 AM–2 PM, dinner Mon–Sat 5–9 PM, closed Sunday. The Maker Market counter sells fresh pasta by the pound and sauces to take home.
Maker Café on State Road on an October night in 2026, with string lights along the ramp and mums and pumpkins by the yellow door.
The Five Corners room that was the Golden Bull and then, briefly, MV Tap is now a Brazilian steakhouse. Vineyard Grill is run by José Pedro dos Santos and Marcos Nascimento, who came from the Brazilian Grill in Hyannis: churrascaria-style beef, a signature pound-and-a-half top sirloin with yucca fries, a lunch buffet from 11 to 3, a full bar, and the Vineyard Bakery attached next door with Brazilian cakes. Open every day 7 am to 11 pm with breakfast, lunch and dinner menus (as reported in May 2026; confirm before a special trip).
The Vineyard Grill at Five Corners, blue shingles and a sandwich board on the bricks: Brazilian steakhouse, lunch and dinner, full bar, bakery attached. A two-hour parking sign stands at the curb.
Inside the Vineyard Grill in October 2026: the pastry case and coffee station of the Vineyard Bakery side, the steam table for the lunch buffet along the windows, and the chalkboard at the door.
The bar room at the Vineyard Grill, October 2026: a bar faced with log ends, pumpkins and paper leaves strung from the ceiling, screens above the shelves.
Mocha Mott's VH (15 Main St) closed for good on January 18, 2026, after 20 years on Main Street; the building and business were sold to the owners of Toccopuro. The last day was a customer appreciation day with free coffee and plenty of goodbyes. The building was sold to Toccopuro, the island coffee chain with cafes in Edgartown and Oak Bluffs, and by early September 2026 Toccopuro and Co. was open in the space under a green awning: doors at 6 am, coffee, smoothies, bubble tea, breakfast and lunch, tables on the sidewalk. Mocha Mott's Oak Bluffs shop is still open. Copper Anchor, Little House Café and Model Deli have also closed, and the new places above took over their spaces.
Toccopuro and Co. in the old Mocha Mott's building, September 2026: green awning, sidewalk tables and a 6 am start.
Founded in 1971 by Captain Robert Douglas, who sketched the building on a napkin and named it for his dog, Black Dog, a Labrador-boxer mix named after a character in Treasure Island. Open year-round. Open daily 7 AM–9 PM, this fall included (breakfast and brunch 7 to 3, dinner from 5), and the tavern serves breakfast, lunch and dinner all year. Lobster roll, signature quahog chowder, and prime rib specials on Thursdays this fall. Full bar.
White hydrangeas around the Black Dog signpost in Vineyard Haven, pointing the way to the tavern, bakery and general store.
Year-round, open daily 7 AM–5 PM. Breakfast sandwich $10, lunch sandwiches $17–20, lobster roll $38, and lobster Benedict. Breakfast all day. Online ordering via Toast with curbside pickup.
Upstairs from Waterside Market (not at the Mansion House), with a Prohibition-era speakeasy feel. Open nightly, all year, from 3:30 to 9 PM, with half-price appetizers for dine-in guests during happy hour, 3:30 to 6. Burgers, steak and seafood, and what it calls the largest bourbon collection on Martha's Vineyard.
Waterside Market with The Attic glowing upstairs: Main Street after dark, striped awning and all.
Open since 1943 and a regular MV Magazine "Best Breakfast" winner. The Old Faithful (2 eggs, meat, home fries, toast) $15. Three-egg omelets $16–18.50, plus daily specials. Normally Mon/Thu–Sun 7 AM–2 PM, year-round, but the diner was closed until further notice in September 2026, so check before you go.
ArtCliff on September 5, 2026: closed until further notice, the sign says, with the 2026 Cape Cod Life Best Of sticker beside it. Worth checking before you plan a breakfast around it.
Family-owned for 75+ years and seasonal, usually open from late April through September. Fish and chips, lobster roll, the "Obama Burger." Budget-friendly by MV standards. Mon–Sat 11 AM–7 PM.
The mermaid on the hook marks the turn: John’s Fish Market and Sandy’s Fish and Chips share the sign and the building, a fish counter in back and a fried kitchen in front.
Fish market, takeout and sushi bar. Daily ~9 AM–7 PM. Ships seafood nationwide. Lobster roll ~$25–35.
The Net Result fish market at Tisbury Marketplace in Vineyard Haven.
The dinner room at Tisbury Marketplace, sister restaurant to State Road in West Tisbury: New American cooking built on island seafood and produce, with a glassed-in porch looking over Lagoon Pond. Dinner Tuesday to Saturday from 5 PM as of fall 2026 (the days shift with the season); book ahead in season.
The Beach Road restaurant at 79 Beach Road, a shingled dinner house with Lagoon Pond just behind the porch.
Known for all-day breakfast, breakfast burritos, smash burgers and a Key lime pie that a Gazette food writer called the best on the Island. Check their website for current hours. There is a farm on site.
New for 2026: The Wave has taken over the marina waterfront spot that was Garde East, opening in late May. Same front-row harbor views, new name and new kitchen. It also hosted the closing-night party of the September film festival. Seasonal; check current hours before you go. Joshua Slocum, the first solo circumnavigator, sailed out of this harbor for the last time in 1909; the story is worth ten minutes.
The Wave’s sign on Beach Road at the marina, the waterfront spot that was Garde East until 2026.
Vineyard Haven's Asian bistro standby on upper Main Street. Its former Oak Bluffs outpost at 6 Circuit Avenue has become The Black Dog Pub (opened summer 2026, daily 7 AM to 10 PM), so Main Street is where you will find Mikado now.
Inside Mikado on Main Street, where a mounted sailfish hangs over the dining room.
Opened summer 2024 with outdoor Mexican street food overlooking the SSA terminal: 70 seats, tacos, burritos and tequilas, a few steps from the ferry.
An all-vegan organic café with açaí bowls, smoothies and plant-based dishes, open year-round.
The slice counter a minute from the Steamship terminal, sharing the building with the Menemsha Blues shop: whole pies, slices, thin crust or deep dish, picnic tables under red umbrellas out front, and evening delivery down-island (508-693-6200). The place to eat a cheese slice while the ferry line moves.
Porto Pizza's red picnic tables outside Menemsha Blues on Water Street, next to the sign telling tractor trailers and buses to turn left.
Family-run small-batch bakery and cafe with American and Brazilian sweet and savory things: coffee and espresso, breakfast and lunch sandwiches, tarts and pies, acai bowls, custom cakes. Pink door, no pets, and the case empties early on a ferry morning.
Sweet Bites on Beach Street: cakes, pies and Brazilian pastries behind the pink door, a short walk from the ferry.
Prepared meals to go by day, chef dinners and classes some evenings, and a proper coffee bar at the front under a green ceiling of glassware and teapots. The board in September 2026 read drip coffee $4, cappuccino $5, latte $5.50, matcha or a London Fog $6, plus boozy coffee, house wine and beer. Hours shift with the events calendar, so check the door.
The coffee bar at S and S Kitchenette: the menu board, the cake case and a shelf of cookbooks under the counter.
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Bunch of Grapes Bookstore (23 Main St): founded in 1964 and a well-known independent bookstore. In 2008 a fire at neighboring Café Moxie destroyed the store's interior. Historian David McCullough said: "If there should be no Bunch of Grapes, where would Vineyard Haven's Main Street be?" The store rebuilt and reopened across the street. At the end of August 2022, Molly and Brendan Coogan bought the store from Dawn Braasch. Barack Obama shopped here for his summer reading on his island vacations. The store is also a stop on the Jaws filming locations tour. Year-round with author events.
Brickman's (south end of Main St): in business since 1913. Clothing, footwear, sporting goods, and toys in a "Tardis of a store" that is far larger inside than it appears.
C.B. Stark Jewelers (53A Main St): known for Martha's Vineyard charms, custom work, sea glass jewelry, and wampum. In business since 1966.
Rainy Day (66 Main St): a gift shop now owned by Melissa and Bob Scammell, with cards, home decor, jewelry, candles, toys and MV-themed things. It turned 50 in 2023 and has a second shop in Edgartown.
Act Two Second Hand Store (66 Main St, the storefront beside Rainy Day): a nonprofit thrift shop that opened in March 2022, selling donated clothing, jewelry, furniture, housewares and art. The proceeds go to island theater, music and arts education programs; by spring 2025 the store had given away about $39,000, per the MV Times. Open Tuesday to Saturday 9 to 4, closed Sunday and Monday, as of October 2026.
Act Two Second Hand Store on Main Street: a stained-glass lamp and a chalkboard set out on the sidewalk, Rainy Day next door.
LeRoux at Home (62 Main St): three floors of kitchen goods, tableware, and home decor. LeRoux started on the Vineyard in 1980, and this is still its home store.
The Seven Sisters (19 Main St): recognized by Boston Magazine's "Best of Boston" for clean/green shopping and independent artisan goods.
Martha's Vineyard Made: an online shop for island makers, with pottery, prints, jewelry and pantry items, that sets up seasonal pop-up shops.
Lennox and Harvey General Goods: home goods and furniture, opened by Mark Chung and Eric Coles, who moved to the island from New York in 2017 to start it.
Nearly every shop on Main Street is independently owned; the island has actively fought to exclude chain stores.
Second Nature at Eden on State Road: the old Eden garden center, with native plants outside and a chalkboard for local honey, jam and flowers at the gate.
Out of the center, on State Road past Cronig's, Second Nature at Eden (427 State Road) is the old Eden nursery, which Reneé Clermont bought from Donaroma's in 2024, with native plants outside and a gift shop, the She Shed, stocked with local honey, seeds and island-made things. Seasonal, into mid-October.
The She Shed at Second Nature at Eden: baskets in the rafters, sunflowers and the first small pumpkins of the autumn stock.
For the other kind of shopping, the Thrift Shop on Chicken Alley (38 Lagoon Pond Road, off Beach Road) has been raising money for Martha's Vineyard Community Services since 1962, and it is a good rummage: clothes, books, kitchenware, furniture, bikes. The shop's posted hours are Tuesday 10 to 7, Wednesday 10 to 3, Thursday and Friday 10 to 5, Saturday 10 to 4, closed Sunday and Monday (changes go up on its social media), and there is no on-site parking, so customers park at Veterans Park across the road. Our shopping guide has the rest of the island's thrift circuit.
Veterans Park in October: a paved path around the playing fields, a short walk from Five Corners.
The door at Chicken Alley: hours in English and Portuguese, a bell, and the customer parking sign pointing across to Veterans Park.
On August 11, 1883, fire started at a harness factory on Main Street. With no fire department and nothing to fight it with but cisterns and a bucket brigade, the town watched 62 buildings burn, including every store in town but one. A northeast wind drove the flames through a town built of wood, and the buildings lost were valued at $200,000. The Tisbury Fire Department was established in 1885 as a direct result.
The white steeple of the 1844 church on Spring Street that is now Tisbury Town Hall.
One block west of Main Street, this district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and has 56 contiguous properties along William, Spring, Church, Franklin, and Main Streets. Most houses were built 1830–1860 in the Greek Revival style by sea captains, merchants and builders. The fire of 1883 missed the district, so it is the town's oldest surviving neighborhood. It includes the Playhouse, Tisbury Town Hall, the Proprietor's Burying Ground (dating to 1770), and several historic churches. It makes a quiet walk past big old houses under old shade trees.
William Street on a sunny September day: fieldstone walls, the old trees, a church with an arched window and the houses the 1883 fire never reached. The whole district is on the National Register.
Tisbury was dry from 1834. In 2008 a vote to allow beer and wine tied 690–690, a hand recount left the tie in place, and the measure failed. Voters approved beer and wine with food in 2009, full liquor in 2017, and drinks without food in 2022 (1,317 to 626, about 68 percent). Restaurants now serve full liquor, but the town still has no liquor stores or standalone bars. Chilmark is now the only dry town.
First Friday and Welcome banners on a lamp post in downtown Vineyard Haven.
First Friday. 2026 dates: June 5, July 3, August 7, September 4, October 2, December 4. Art market with 30+ makers, live music, food trucks and a silent DJ party on the beach. Free. The daytime art market runs 10 AM to 2 PM and the evening program at Owen Park starts at 5 PM; firstfridayvh.com posts each date's lineup.
Vineyard Haven Band: founded in 1868 by 18 returning Civil War veterans. Then called the "Vineyard Haven Silver Cornet Brass Band," it played for President Ulysses S. Grant during an 1874 visit and turned 150 in 2018. Today 15 core musicians and 20+ seasonal players (ages 7 to 84) give free Sunday evening concerts in July and August (7:30 PM at Owen Park in 2026) at Owen Park, alternating with Ocean Park in Oak Bluffs. The Gazette has called it one of the three oldest bands in the country that have played regularly since their founding, and the band calls itself the island's oldest continuous nonprofit cultural organization.
Built in 1833 as a Methodist Meeting House, the building has been a town hall, a Masonic lodge and, since 1982, a theater. A renovation in 2011–2014 added a new lobby and full accessibility. It is now a professional nonprofit theater running year-round in a small ~112–150 seat black-box space (the Patricia Neal Stage). Since the 2025 merger it has been part of Circuit Arts, which posts the current schedule and ticket prices. Phone: (508) 696-6300.
Opened in March 1913 as the Vineyard Theatre and renamed Capawock in 1932, it was for decades the oldest continually operating movie theater in Massachusetts. A renovation of over $1 million reopened it on May 29, 2015, with Carly Simon at the ceremony. The MV Film Society ran it, showing 200+ films to 35,000+ patrons annually. It has been dark for most of the 2020s; in April 2026 the MV Times counted it among the Main Street buildings that have long stood without tenants, and the spring 2026 film festival used the Playhouse and the Grange Hall instead. Films in town now play at the MV Film Society’s Film Center at Tisbury Marketplace, which runs all year.
Blue Fathom’s window on Main Street, one of the galleries inside the Vineyard Haven Harbor Cultural District.
Louisa Gould Gallery (54 Main St), established in 2003 and voted "Best MV Gallery," is the biggest name, and its Small Wonders Holiday Show runs every year. Kennedy Studios / Island Art Gallery (66 Main St) has photographs, original art and custom framing, and Blue Fathom Gallery shows work by several island artists. Most galleries are seasonal with longer summer hours, and all sit inside the Vineyard Haven Harbor Cultural District.
A blue chair under a pine on a waterside lawn in Vineyard Haven, with the Martha's Vineyard Museum on the hill behind.
The museum's boat shed, across the courtyard from the main building, holds the working end of the collection: a whaleboat, ship models, a carved wooden battleship, the wheel of the steamer Uncatena. Outside on the grounds stands Sunbird, Tim Laursen's 2020 kinetic sculpture, whose wings flap faster the stronger the sun and slower when you take over with the hand crank, a gift of the South Mountain Company.
Sunbird, Tim Laursen’s kinetic sculpture on the museum grounds. The wings flap faster the stronger the sun.
The boat shed: a carved battleship, a whaleboat and a row of ship models under the rafters.
After a year-plus renovation that added a new meeting room, the library reopened at its permanent 200 Main Street home in July 2026. Hours on vhlibrary.org in October 2026: Tuesday to Thursday 10 AM–6 PM, Friday 1–5 PM, Saturday 10 AM–5 PM; the library is temporarily closed on Sundays and Mondays. Programs include Storytime with Weezie, Lego Build Club, book groups, and author talks. Dogs are not allowed inside except service animals, under the Town of Tisbury policy. Director: Amy Ryan. Phone: (508) 696-4210. All six town libraries, with their programs and visitor cards, are in our island libraries guide.
The Vineyard Haven Public Library's new cedar-shingled entrance and covered porch, with ribbons from the July reopening still on the posts.
Inside the library after the renovation: new oak floors and the stacks back in place.
Sunbird's panel: turn the crank and see whether you can match a square foot of sunlight. It gets easier on a cloudy day.
Still water on Lake Tashmoo in Vineyard Haven, a small float on the pond and a mast beyond the trees.
The William Barry Owen gazebo in Owen Park at dusk, Vineyard Haven Harbor just beyond it.
Owen Park Beach: Calm harbor water, playground, no lifeguards, ADA accessible, swimming float, free. About a 10-minute walk from the ferry. The park has public restrooms, open-air showers, and a playground with swings. In December 2024, Tisbury secured a $1 million state grant to replace the pier. The existing pier, never fully rebuilt in nearly a century, was "crumbling underfoot." The rebuilt Owen Park Dock with ADA-accessible ramps is confirmed for the 2026 boating season. Lake Tashmoo Beach (see our complete beaches guide). You can swim in the pond or on the Vineyard Sound side. 1 mile down a dirt road, but the town lot at the end of Herring Creek Road has been closed to all motor vehicles since July 17, 2026 under the state's endangered species law (bikes and walkers are welcome). Tisbury bans swimming and diving in the channel itself, where the current can run hard. Lifeguards in summer. Lake Tashmoo held mostly fresh water until a 1932 storm cut through the sandbar at its mouth and let the Sound in. The pond's longer backstory, from the Victorian waterworks to golf links and ice boats, has its own history piece.
Vineyard Haven Harbor full of boats on a summer day.
The West Chop Lighthouse marks the northern tip of the West Chop peninsula, roughly 2 miles from downtown, about a 35-minute walk or a short bike ride north along Main Street. The current brick tower dates to 1891. When the station was documented for the National Register, it still had its original fourth-order Fresnel lens, with a 15-mile range. The light was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
West Chop is the only Martha's Vineyard lighthouse not open to the public, because the property is Coast Guard housing. You can see and photograph it from the road. Parking is limited to street-side spots near the West Chop tennis courts on Franklin Street.
The West Chop Woods, a 90-acre conservation property managed by Sheriff's Meadow Foundation, has 1.5+ miles of marked walking trails through mostly pitch pine forest. The Red Trail follows an old cart path that once connected Vineyard Haven to the lighthouse. A bike rack marks the Main Street entrance, about 1¼ miles toward West Chop from downtown, and a small lot for two or three cars sits off Franklin Street.
Oak woods on West Chop in early October, with low shrubs underfoot and the first yellow leaves showing.
The West Chop neighborhood has rambling waterfront houses from the 1890s–1900s looking over Vineyard Sound, and properties often list at $3–$11 million+.
Tisbury runs two public court sites, and neither is a free-for-all in summer. The Church Street courts (50 Church Street, two unlighted clay courts, in play May through November) are booked through the town's CourtReserve system, which issues a gate PIN with the reservation; the town fee schedule lists $30 for a 90-minute slot, with the money going back into court upkeep. The Lake Street courts (Lake Street at Powell Lane) are the pickleball site, three hard courts with permanent lines and portable nets, $20 an hour by the same booking system, and the town runs youth clinics there. Questions go to the Parks and Recreation office, (508) 696-4220. If you want to play without a booking, the nearest walk-on courts are Niantic Park in Oak Bluffs.
Founded in 1917 by four Lithuanian Jewish immigrant brothers: Sam, Ed, Henry, and Tebby Cronig. Sam arrived around 1905, reportedly the first Jewish person to settle on the island. Steve Bernier, who ran Cronig's for 35 years, chose Andrea Donnelly, the company's bookkeeper who started as a 15-year-old cashier, as his successor in 2021; the sale became official on January 3, 2023, keeping the store in island hands, and he stayed on to help her run it. Cronig's was the first grocer on the East Coast to accept credit cards, and one of the first to put up its own solar array. Hours: Mon–Sat 7am–7pm, Sun 9am–6pm. Deli with prepared foods, organic and local products. There is a second store in West Tisbury. Cronig's does not sell beer or wine; packaged alcohol is sold in Oak Bluffs (Tony's Market) and Edgartown.
Cronig’s Market on a winter day, snow piled outside the doors: the island’s year-round grocery anchor since 1917.
Right across from the SSA ferry terminal, so it is the easy first stop off the boat. A full-service supermarket with produce, dairy, meat, deli and prepared foods (note: no pharmacy counter here; the Stop and Shop pharmacy is at the Edgartown store). Also operates a gas station at 86 Beach Road. Hours: Mon–Sat 6am–11pm, Sun 6am–10pm.
Ackee Tree Caribbean American Grocer (25 Beach Rd): a small yellow-doored shop stocked with Jamaican and Caribbean staples, salt fish, plantains and hard dough bread, plus hot patties and home-cooked food to go. It doubles as a neighborhood hub for the town's Caribbean families, and the patties are worth the stop.
One planning note while you are shopping: Vineyard Haven has no liquor store. Restaurants here pour beer, wine and cocktails, and since 2022 you can order a drink without a meal, but bottles for the rental come from Edgartown or Oak Bluffs, or from Our Market in Oak Bluffs, which delivers.
The Ackee Tree Caribbean American Grocer on Beach Road, with its yellow door and a Western Union sign on the shingles.
In business for 30+ years, with fresh organic foods, meals made daily, Brazilian specialties and gourmet products. For every supermarket and market on the island with posted hours, see our grocery stores guide.
The post office is on Lagoon Pond Road. For FedEx there is a self-service drop box on State Road beside the Black Dog Bakery Cafe: the last weekday pickup is 3:30 in the afternoon, there is no pickup at all on Saturday or Sunday, and the box holds no supplies, so bring the package packed and labeled. A staffed FedEx Authorized ShipCenter, The Mailroom, is at 243 Edgartown to Vineyard Haven Road on the Edgartown side. Anything dropped after the Friday pickup leaves the island on Monday, which is worth knowing if you are shipping a rental key or a forgotten passport. One more thing, new in September 2026: a notice on the post office door says a parcel addressed to a street with no mailbox and no PO Box is returned after one day, so ask a clerk about a PO Box or rural delivery if you expect packages.
The FedEx drop box on State Road: last pickup 3:30 on weekdays, none on weekends, and the holiday schedule printed on the lid.
For UPS, and for anything that needs packing, printing or a notary, The UPS Store is at 455 State Road in the Woodland Business Center, the shingled building with the cupola about a mile out of town on the way to the airport (VTA Route 3 runs along State Road). The hours on the door are 8 to 6 on weekdays and 9 to 3:30 on Saturday and Sunday, the useful part being the weekend. It also takes Happy Returns drop-offs, and AARP and AAA members get a discount on services. Phone 508-696-0600.
The UPS Store in the Woodland Business Center, open seven days a week.
Tisbury Park and Ride (High Point Lane): free for stays of up to three days, or $2 for every day on a longer stay, with a free VTA shuttle to the ferry (~5 min, about every 15 minutes, all year). Old Fire Station Lot (Beach Street): $2/hour, 4-hour max. Main Street has 2-hour limits. If you can leave the car at home, this is the town where it is easiest.
Veterans Memorial Park (10 Causeway Road, just off Five Corners): the paved path, a bench and a drinking fountain along the ball field. The park lot is free, and it is where Chicken Alley sends its customers to park.
The island's most confounding intersection: five roads converge with no traffic light and no rotary. Two blocks from the ferry terminal. Beach Road has right-of-way. Police direct traffic only when ferries arrive. Locals depend on "politeness and whatever mood you're in." MassDOT is studying a redesign including a possible roundabout.
Five Corners in Vineyard Haven on a sunny day, with the crosswalk sign and the planted brick island in the middle.
The same corner on September 26, 2026, under a Coastal Flood Warning: water curb to curb at the Beach Road sign, sandbags and barricades by the Vineyard Grill. It sits low by the harbor, so on a storm day it is worth a look before you drive to the boat.
The original name, "Holmes Hole," was used for 225 years; one theory traces it to a Wampanoag word for "old man," another to an early English settler named Holmes. On February 21, 1871, the post office officially changed it to Vineyard Haven, a name credited to Sarah Crocker. Tisbury is the town and Vineyard Haven is the village, so both names point to the same place.
Before the Cape Cod Canal opened in 1914, everything under sail between Boston and New York came through Vineyard Sound, some 27,000 vessels in 1870 alone by one Gazette account, and Holmes Hole was the first or last safe anchorage on that road: a harbor of refuge with the chandlers, sail lofts, blacksmiths, bakeries and pilots to match. The canal took the traffic inside the Cape, the trucks and the railroad took the freight, and the working harbor of schooners became the harbor of ferries and yachts you see today. The boatyard and the schooners on the moorings are the part of that story that never quite ended.
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Vineyard Haven’s lodging is small and personal: boutique inns rather than big hotels. The Mansion House Inn on Main Street stays open year-round, with a spa, gym and indoor pool (check rates). The Crocker House Inn sits in the lanes just off the harbor (check rates), and Charles and Charles is the bed-and-breakfast pick (check rates). Up the hill at 60 Mount Aldworth Road, the Nobnocket Boutique Inn has seven rooms on two acres of gardens, for guests 16 and up and open all year (their site). For every option island-wide, with real prices by season, our complete Where to Stay guide covers 38 fact-checked properties.
From the top of the Mansion House, the hotel’s cupola camera watches the harbor all day:
The camera belongs to the Mansion House Inn, Health Club & Spa, shown here with their kind permission. The picture refreshes every 15 seconds while you watch.
At the other end of the budget, Harbor Landing at 15 Beach Street, under a sign that says established 1976, is a plain motel-style place with a shared kitchen and a harbor-view deck, and one of the few lower-priced beds within a few minutes' walk of the ferry. Our where to stay guide compares it with the rest of the town.
The Harbor Landing sign on Beach Street, a gull over the marsh and an established date of 1976.
The SSA ferry terminal (1 Water Street) is the only year-round port on Martha's Vineyard. Walk-on fares are $11 one-way / $22 round-trip. Children 5–12 pay $5.75. Bikes $5.25 each way. A car under 17 feet is $127 each way through October 31 and $79 from November 1. The 45-minute crossing from Woods Hole has roughly 14 departures a day, and the new Woods Hole terminal building opened in June 2026. The Steamship Authority lists all vehicle travel on the Woods Hole to Vineyard route as reservation-only, and on October 20, 2026 its board voted against bringing standby back (a limited Blue Line standby exists only for SSA preferred and excursion account holders), so every car needs a reservation. Walk-on passengers are not affected. The VTA bus hub is at the terminal; all routes connect here, and rides are currently fare-free. Bike rentals: Martha's Bike (4 Lagoon Pond Rd), Vineyard Bike Rental (delivers island-wide).
Leaving by boat: every winter ferry off the island goes from the Vineyard Haven terminal, first at 6:00 AM and last at 9:30 PM; our Vineyard Haven to Woods Hole guide has the full timetable and fares.
Sailboats on their moorings at dusk, seen from the shore a short walk from the Steamship Authority terminal. Some of the island’s wooden boats ride here all summer.
The Visitor Information Center kiosk stands right beside the terminal and is the place for a map and a question in season; it closes in the fall, and from then on the Chamber of Commerce’s main office at 24 Beach Street, around the corner from Stop and Shop, takes over (508-693-0085).
The Visitor Information Center kiosk beside the ferry terminal, shut for the season, the Jaws 50 posters still leaning against it. Off season the Chamber’s main office at 24 Beach Street takes the questions.
For the complete ferry options and fares, see our Ferry Guide. Planning a one-day itinerary? Vineyard Haven is the natural starting point.
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The Ocean Club opened in August 2025 inside the old bank on Main Street with its vault door as a dining table; 9 Craft Kitchen next to the Mansion House; Maker Café (the former Maker Pasta Shop) on State Road; and the Vineyard Grill Brazilian steakhouse at Five Corners. The new Woods Hole terminal opened in June 2026, and the dry-town era is over.
Yes. It is the year-round town: the main ferry port, a working harbor and the place islanders live and shop twelve months a year.
Mocha Mott’s on Main Street closed in January 2026 (the Oak Bluffs shop continues) and the space reopened as Toccopuro; the full list of openings and closures is near the top of this guide.
Yes. Restaurants pour beer, wine and full liquor, and since 2022 without requiring food. There is still no package store and no standalone bar in town.
The tuition-free summer camp for people with disabilities that the island has run since 1953, a mile up the hill on Greenwood Avenue. Our Jabberwocky story tells it.
Where Martha's Vineyard is, with our own maps: an island in Dukes County, Massachusetts, under four miles across Vineyard Sound from Woods Hole on Cape Cod, 75 miles from Boston and 70 from Providence by road. How big it is, the six towns, up-island and down-island, every way to get there and where the name comes from.
Martha's Vineyard in December 2026: First Friday on December 4, Light Up Oak Bluffs on December 5, Christmas in Edgartown December 10 to 13, 4:15 sunsets, one ferry into Vineyard Haven, and what stays open through Christmas.
All six town libraries on Martha's Vineyard, checked October 2026: hours and addresses, how visitors get a library card, free Wi-Fi, the concerts, art shows and programs, the Libraries of Things with beach chairs and stargazing kits, museum and beach parking passes, and a short history of each building.
Cell service on Martha's Vineyard town by town: towers down-island, no tower in Chilmark or Aquinnah and the named dead spots, what each carrier reports to the FCC, free Wi-Fi at all six libraries and on the ferry, the $10 xfinitywifi pass, prepaid plans and 911 when you have no bars.
The twelve things that catch first-timers on Martha's Vineyard, from car reservations and the two ferry terminals to resident-only beaches, the last bus from Aquinnah and cash for the Chappy Ferry, each with an easy fix, plus the fall and winter dates.
EV charging on Martha's Vineyard: about 34 public stations, nearly all Level 2, listed town by town with ports and prices (the Edgartown Park and Ride, town halls, libraries, the airport, the Aquinnah cliffs), two fast-charging ports at the VTA, the Chilmark plans, no Supercharger, the ferry's EV rules, and how to run an electric week on a 20-mile island.
Island tip of the day Seasonal No. 67 of 79 New tip at midnight, island time
Early-to-mid October is underrated. Foliage starts, restaurants are quieter, and you can walk into places with 6-week July waits. The Derby runs to mid-October (October 17 in 2026).
The free island library · 2026
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