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Video tour of Vineyard Haven, Martha's Vineyard. Visit the MV Museum, Main Street shops, Owen Park, and the top things to do in this port town.
Vineyard Haven has plenty to do. Our picks:
Downtown Vineyard Haven after dark, the storefronts lit and the street empty.
This video walks you through the town and the stops on that list.
A few notes on each stop, and the full Vineyard Haven guide has the rest:
The Martha's Vineyard Museum moved to its current Marine Hospital campus in 2019 and tells the island's story from Wampanoag history through the whaling era to today. Allow at least 90 minutes. The art galleries along Main Street change their shows through the summer, mostly island artists working in painting, photography and sculpture.
The Capawock Theater on Main Street opened in 1913 and has been dark for most of the 2020s. For a rainy-day film, the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center at Tisbury Marketplace shows movies all year. West Chop Lighthouse is about a 40-minute walk from downtown, or a quick drive, and the view across Vineyard Sound is the reward.
For biking around the harbor, rental shops near the ferry terminal rent by the hour or the day. The roads around the harbor are flat, which makes Vineyard Haven an easy town to bike.
Filmed June 2021The island moves on: shops, signs and prices may differ from what you see here. The text of this guide was checked October 2026.
The harbor from the ferry rail on a summer day, every mooring taken and the town beach on the far shore.
A shingled cafe storefront under a porch roof, with orange tables out on the patio beside it.
The other half of Quitsa Kitchen is a shop: canvas totes at $30, island cutting boards, chips and crackers for the beach, hoodies and tees, and a shelf of Mud coffee beans, all on grey shelves against the flowered wallpaper.
A red rowboat on flat water in the harbor on a still day.
Joshua Slocum, first to sail alone around the world, spent his last years farming in West Tisbury and vanished from Vineyard Haven harbor in November 1909. The voyage, the farm called Fag End, the last departure, and what a visitor can actually see: the harbor, a marker stone by a country road, the museum's Slocum papers, and the book itself.
The red bus that gets the loudest cheer in the Edgartown Fourth of July parade belongs to Camp Jabberwocky, a tuition-free summer camp for people with disabilities that has run on the Vineyard since 1953. An islander's account of where it came from and what it is. For anything official, the camp's own site is the source.
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.
Take a guided Jaws tour of Martha's Vineyard with local guide Mike Currid. Walk the real Amity Island in Edgartown and book the “Amity” Walking Tour.
A first-hand look at the Edgartown Historic Walking Tour and “Amity” Jaws Tour with Mike Currid of the Edgartown Tour Company: what to expect, what you'll learn, and how to book.
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.
Island tip of the day Timing No. 61 of 79 New tip at midnight, island time
Visit Edgartown on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Same beautiful town, maybe 30% of the weekend crowds. Most restaurants have availability without reservations.
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