Start from 48 curated places around Martha's Vineyard, MA, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
State Road Restaurant
A farm-to-table tavern in West Tisbury surrounded by its own herb and vegetable gardens, drawing heavily on island farmers and fishermen. It is the up-island choice for a real dinner without the Edgartown scene, and a James Beard hospitality semifinalist. Daytime it turns into a bakery and coffee stop.
The Sweet Life Cafe
Seasonal modern American in a restored Victorian house in Oak Bluffs with a string-lit garden patio, owned by the same couple since the late 2010s. It is the island's special-occasion dinner with a daily-changing menu and a tasting option. Service is the kind that arranges flowers for an anniversary table.
Trails & outdoors
Long Point Wildlife Refuge
A Trustees refuge in West Tisbury with sandplain grassland, freshwater ponds, and a barrier beach on the south shore, with a flat loop of roughly 2 to 3 miles. The walk ends at one of the island's least crowded ocean beaches. Easy underfoot but exposed and sandy.
Menemsha Hills Reservation
A Trustees property in Chilmark climbing through woods to a high overlook near Prospect Hill, one of the island's highest points, then dropping to a cobble beach on Vineyard Sound. About 3 miles round trip with real elevation by island standards. The harder, more rewarding up-island hike.
Things to do
Martha's Vineyard Museum
The island's main history museum, in a converted building above Vineyard Haven harbor, covering whaling, maritime life, and Wampanoag history with indoor galleries and grounds. The original Gay Head Light Fresnel lens is displayed here. It is the rainy-day anchor and the place to understand the island you are standing on.
Featherstone Center for the Arts
A community arts campus in Oak Bluffs with galleries, working studios, and an outdoor lawn used for summer concerts and a flea-and-artisan market. It is where island artists actually show and teach, not a tourist gallery. Free to wander and family-friendly.
Landmarks & sights
Gay Head Lighthouse
The brick lighthouse at the island's western tip, moved back from the eroding clay cliffs in 2015 and now run by the town. It is open to climb on a limited seasonal schedule, and the deck looks straight down the multicolored Aquinnah cliffs to the ocean. Go for the late-day light when the clay glows.
Aquinnah Cliffs
A National Natural Landmark of striped clay bluffs dropping into the Atlantic at the island's far west end, on Wampanoag tribal land. The public overlook gives the postcard view; the beach below reaches the raw cliff face. It is the most dramatic landscape on the Vineyard and worth the drive up-island.