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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.
A reader emailed us this week with a question plenty of people have. They are planning a trip for May 2027, nearly a year out, and they wanted to know one simple thing: what would be open?
It is a fair question. Martha's Vineyard has a reputation as a summer place that rolls up the sidewalks after Labor Day, and if you only read big travel sites you might picture a ghost town from October to June. It is friendlier than that. More than 20,000 people live here all year. They eat breakfast, borrow library books, fill prescriptions, catch movies, and ride the ferry in February just like they do in July. Everything that keeps them going is open for you too.
Filmed February 2022The island moves on: shops, signs and prices may differ from what you see here. The text of this guide was checked October 2026.
For a shoulder-season trip, this and our spring guide or winter guide will cover you.
In brief
The Steamship ferry runs every day of the year, and the buses every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas. Every town keeps a year-round core of restaurants, cafes, museums and trails. Seasonal places open in waves through May and nearly all are running by Memorial Day weekend; the deep-quiet months are January through March. For a specific season there are our spring, fall and winter guides.
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What surprises people most is that the Steamship Authority sails between Woods Hole and Vineyard Haven every day of the year, weather permitting. Christmas morning, a random Tuesday in February, it does not matter. In the deep off-season all boats use the Vineyard Haven terminal (the Oak Bluffs dock is seasonal, mid-May to late October), and vehicle reservations that are a battle in July are easy to get in the quiet months. Full details are in our complete ferry guide.
Cape Air flies between Boston and the island airport year-round, about 40 minutes in the air. And the VTA, the island's public bus system, runs every day of the year except Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, on reduced winter frequencies. Rides are fare-free through June 30, 2027. So a car-free off-season visit works fine; our without-a-car guide explains how.
A bluff over the water on a gray winter day, with old snow along the fence and the water flat and quiet below.
Every business below either says it is open year-round or has been reported open through the off-season by the island's own press. Hours shrink in winter and a few places take short breaks, so for a January visit it is always worth a quick look at a menu page or a phone call. For the full dining picture, see our restaurant guide.
The ferry town is the island's year-round front door. The Black Dog Tavern serves breakfast, lunch and dinner on the harbor all year (holiday hours post in December), and its bakery on Water Street keeps the muffin case full for the boat line. Waterside Market on Main Street calls itself a year-round market and cafe and is open daily from early morning. The ArtCliff Diner Temporarily closed Closed until further notice, per its own site, a favorite breakfast spot, was closed until further notice in September 2026 and its website still said so on October 1; when it is open it works year-round with a couple of weekday rest days in the off-season, so check before you build a morning around it. Up on State Road, the Scottish Bakehouse turns out meat pies, scones and coffee; a call ahead helps in winter, when hours can change. There is more coffee nearby: Delicious MV Bakery and Sweet Bites both keep winter hours, and Nat's Nook carries on into the fall.
Sweet Bites on Beach Street, one of the Vineyard Haven bakeries that keeps going through the winter.
Inside Nat’s Nook in Vineyard Haven: the coffee counter, crepes on the board and an iced latte on the table.
Beyond food: Bunch of Grapes, the island's landmark bookstore, is open daily, and the MV Film Center screens films every week of the year. The Martha's Vineyard Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday in every season (it trims to 10 a.m.–4 p.m. in the colder months and closes only a handful of holidays), and in winter its First Light Cafe doubles as one of the town's coziest lunch stops, no admission needed.
Circuit Avenue is quiet in winter, but plenty stays open. Offshore Ale Co. is the island's only year-round brewpub, and with its fireplace, wood floors and house-brewed ales it is a good place to spend a January evening. Sharky's Cantina advertises being open 364 days a year, and the Ritz, a Circuit Avenue institution since 1944, keeps live music going on winter weekends (last winter it took a break from mid-February to mid-March). The newest arrival is Highlands General, which opened in 2026 in the space that housed Linda Jean's for four decades and was set up as a year-round breakfast-and-lunch spot for the neighborhood.
Offshore Ale under its winter lights, with the OPEN flag out.
Highlands General took over the old Linda Jean's space on Circuit Avenue in 2026, built to stay open all year.
Edgartown keeps more open in winter than people expect. Rockfish, owned by island restaurateur Mike Santoro since late 2022, stayed open last winter apart from a late-February break, and Alchemy takes a midwinter break (January 1 to February 11 in 2026). The Newes from America, the colonial-era pub below the Kelley House, serves lunch and dinner, daily in season and Wednesday to Sunday last winter, and has been an Edgartown winter standby for generations; in the deepest off-season it is worth calling ahead. For coffee and breakfast, Espresso Love is open daily from 7 a.m., and both Rosewater Market (after a short January break) and the Cozy Corner Cafe stay open through the off-season.
Espresso Love’s porch in the quiet season, with the online-order pickup shelf by the door.
In West Tisbury, three places stay open all year. State Road Restaurant serves dinner most of the year (Thursday to Saturday in winter), pausing for about five weeks in late winter. 7a Foods hands sandwiches and baked goods over the counter from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., every day of the week by its own website (last winter it closed on Sundays). And Alley's General Store keeps West Tisbury supplied every month of the year, opening early every morning; the store asks you to call (508) 693-0088 for the current hours.
The plaque at Alley's: a general store since 1858, now looked after by the Vineyard Preservation Trust, and open every month of the year.
The chalkboard menu at 7a Foods in West Tisbury this October: breakfast from 7 to 11, a fall veggie melt on the lunch side, and two soups, a veggie chili and a curried lentil.
Chilmark, Menemsha and Aquinnah get very quiet from late fall. The Menemsha food shacks and most shops near the Aquinnah Cliffs are seasonal, though the trails and beaches up there stay open. One up-island exception is the self-serve farm store at North Tabor Farm in Chilmark, open year-round from dawn to dusk with produce, meats, winter soup and prepared food for any meal.
For a fall trip
The Vineyard in the Fall, free
The Derby, the beaches that open to everyone and what closes when, date by date. Free with the island letter, together with our other three island guides.
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The island's outdoors never closes, and in the off-season most of it is free.
Mytoi is open sunrise to sunset all year, and free from November through April. The Chappy Ferry that gets you there runs all year.
The newcomers of 2026 so far:
The island's mini golf course on State Road, back in play since summer 2026 under new island ownership.
Yommi and Morning Dew Juice share the old Pie Chicks storefront on State Road: frozen superfood bars on one side, cold-pressed juice on the other, and a popsicle on the shingles so you cannot miss it.
The Putt Up and Eat truck at Steere The Course mini golf on State Road: burgers and dogs named for the game, eaten at the picnic tables between rounds.
The full running list of openings, closings and changes lives in our What's New on Martha's Vineyard roundup.
The hospital entrance on Beach Road between Vineyard Haven and Oak Bluffs, mid-September: a utility crew and a police detail holding traffic. Roadwork season starts the week the crowds leave, so give the Beach Road drive a few extra minutes in the shoulder months.
Most of the "will anything be open" worry is really about everyday services. Groceries: Cronig's Market (both the Down-Island store in Vineyard Haven and the Up-Island store in West Tisbury), Stop and Shop in Edgartown, and Reliable Market in Oak Bluffs are all open year-round, daily apart from a few holidays (Cronig's closes on Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas). Hours for all of them are in the grocery stores guide. Pharmacies: the Stop and Shop pharmacy in Edgartown, Vineyard Scripts in Vineyard Haven (closed Sundays), and Conroy Apothecary in West Tisbury; there is no CVS or Walgreens on the island and no 24-hour pharmacy, so plan refills ahead. Medical care: Martha's Vineyard Hospital in Oak Bluffs, the island's only hospital, provides emergency care year-round (508-693-0410). Gas stations, banks, hardware stores and the post offices all run on normal mainland-style schedules.
Conroy Apothecary, the up-island pharmacy, open through the winter with wreaths up on the porch.
Inside a West Tisbury grocery: a full meat case and the everyday shelves of a year-round town’s market.
Plenty of inns close for some or all of January through March, but several stay open all year. The Mansion House in Vineyard Haven stays open all year and throws in a 75-foot indoor pool and spa, which counts for a lot in January. The Vineyard Harbor Motel, on the water in Vineyard Haven and named the island's best budget-friendly lodging for 2026 by MV Magazine, is year-round too. Winter rates are much lower: one Edgartown inn, the Ashley Inn, publishes January-to-April rooms at $195–225 that run $525–625 in August (2026 rates). Our where-to-stay guide marks which properties are year-round.
The Vineyard Harbor Motel on Beach Road: open year-round, its own private beach, and Martha’s Vineyard Magazine’s Best Budget-Friendly Lodging pick for 2026.
The winter closure windows, week by week, are in our Thanksgiving-to-March guide.
Around the year-round core, the seasonal island turns on in a predictable sequence each spring and winds down each fall. The dates below are the 2026 pattern; they drift by a few days year to year, so confirm current schedules once they publish, but the rhythm is dependable.
The Black Dog Bakery Cafe out on State Road, one of the places that stays open every month of the year.
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| Mid-April | The Flying Horses Carousel is already turning on spring hours (it opens in early April), Back Door Donuts Temporarily closed Closed for the 2026 season; back in 2027, per its own site fires up the fryers, and the first seasonal ferry (Seastreak from New Bedford) starts sailing. |
| Mid-May | The big switch. The Steamship Authority opens the Oak Bluffs terminal (May 14 in 2026), summer vehicle fares begin, and seasonal restaurants open in waves through the month. |
| Memorial Day weekend | The traditional season kickoff. The Island Queen and the Falmouth-Edgartown ferry are running, the Gay Head Lighthouse opens for climbing, gatehouses go up at Mytoi and Wasque, and most seasonal restaurants aim to be pouring by this weekend. |
| June | The last pieces arrive: the West Tisbury Farmers Market (first Saturday), East Chop Lighthouse sunset tours (mid-June), and lifeguards at the big beaches (late June). |
| After Labor Day | Crowds thin, almost everything stays open, and the things that take planning in summer (a dinner table, a car on the ferry the same week, parking near the harbor) get easy. See our after-Labor-Day guide. |
| Mid-October | Most seasonal ferries make their last runs around Columbus Day weekend (Hy-Line’s last Hyannis–Oak Bluffs run in 2026 is October 25), gatehouses come down, and seasonal kitchens close in waves. Our fall guide tracks it. |
| Late October | The Steamship Authority goes Vineyard Haven-only for the winter (October 23 in 2026). |
| December | One last flare: Christmas in Edgartown lights up the second weekend, then the island settles into its deep quiet from January to March. |
Come in early May and you will have the year-round island above, all of it, plus cheaper car-ferry fares (the summer rate tier historically starts mid-May), empty roads and blooming towns, with the trade-off that many seasonal restaurants and shops are still stretching awake. Come mid-month and you will watch the island switch on around you. Come Memorial Day weekend, which falls on May 29–31 in 2027, and essentially the whole island is running, at a fraction of July's crowds. Any of the three works; they are different trips. Our April and May guide and best-time-to-visit guide go deeper on the trade-offs.
Aisle six at a West Tisbury grocery, with juice on one side and cereal on the other.
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Yes, more than most visitors expect. Ferries and buses run daily, and every town keeps a year-round core: the Black Dog Tavern and Waterside Market in Vineyard Haven (and the ArtCliff Diner, once it reopens); Offshore Ale, Sharky's and Highlands General in Oak Bluffs; Rockfish, Espresso Love and the Newes from America in Edgartown; State Road, 7a Foods and Alley's General Store in West Tisbury. Museums, libraries, trails and beaches stay open too.
The Steamship Authority runs Woods Hole to Vineyard Haven every day of the year, weather permitting. The passenger-only seasonal ferries (Island Queen, Hy-Line, Seastreak) operate roughly mid-spring through October, and the Falmouth-Edgartown boat from Memorial Day to Labor Day; in 2026 Hy-Line’s last Hyannis–Oak Bluffs run is October 25. Seastreak also runs a Thanksgiving weekend schedule from New Bedford to Vineyard Haven, November 25–29, 2026.
In waves through April and May, with most aiming to be open by Memorial Day weekend. A few stragglers slip to June, and a few early birds are going by mid-April.
Yes, by a lot. Lodging typically runs 50–80 percent below peak rates in spring, car-ferry fares are lower outside the mid-May-to-mid-September window, off-season parking is mostly free, and the VTA bus is fare-free through June 30, 2027.
Yes. Walk on the ferry, stay in Vineyard Haven (the year-round ferry town), and use the VTA, which connects all six towns year-round. Our car-free guide covers all of it.
The island's farmers markets, checked October 2026: the West Tisbury Farmers Market at the Agricultural Hall (Saturdays to October 31, 9 AM to noon), the Harvest Festival on October 24, the indoor winter market, Edgartown's summer Tuesday market, and the farm stands that stay open all year.
Where Martha's Vineyard's oysters, bay scallops and quahogs come from: the public solar hatchery on Lagoon Pond that turned fifty in 2026, the dozen oyster farms in Katama Bay, Menemsha Pond and Vineyard Sound, the wild beds in the great ponds, the autumn scallop season and its limits, visitor shellfish permits by town, why rain closes a pond, and where to eat them.
Lobster on Martha's Vineyard from trap to paper plate: how the small Menemsha fleet fishes, the Massachusetts rules on size, egg-bearing females and whale-safe gear, where to buy lobster off the boat (Larsen's, Menemsha Fish Market, The Net Result), how to eat it on the dock with your own bottle, and how a visitor can get a permit and catch a few.
Every supermarket and market on Martha's Vineyard with posted hours: Stop and Shop, Cronig's, Reliable Market, Alley's, the meat and fish markets, the Falmouth Stop and Shop before the ferry, Instacart and pre-stocking delivery, and an honest word on island prices.
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.
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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