About the house and Property:
Old world charm, new world amenities. On the Massachusetts Historical Commission's registry of historic homes. A central wall in the home is over 240 years old. This is a real Martha's Vineyard country farmhouse set on over 20 acres of land continuously farmed to this day. This half cape was the home of the last heath hen.
Modern conveniences.
The home features central air conditioning, take care in booking, many MVY homes have no air conditioning. Our central air conditioning is supplemented by units in the upstairs bedrooms to keep the whole house cool and dry. Two King size beds! You won't find that in many MVY homes, and definitely not in homes at this price point. Almost all living spaces have hardwood floors or tile, stylish, clean, and hypoallergenic.
The home also features an outdoor shower. It is on the side of the house, not under the house. You can look out at the State Forest while showering. The huge copper rain shower head provides a downpour that is warming even on a cold day, and so inviting, take care to save hot water for the next person. The shower has a built in bench and easily fits two, we daresay this feature is actually kind of sexy:)
The house is centrally located, equidistant to the three prominent towns, Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, and Vineyard Haven. But also provides easy access to what Islanders call "up island" which curiously is the southwest part of the island (down or left in the mind of most looking at a map:)).
The property abuts the bike lane and provides easy access to this lovely paved bike trail that connects a significant part of the island with bike only trails that are physically separated from the main roads, in most places by a tree line, making these bike trails picturesque and very safe. Martha's Vineyard is mostly flat with a few rolling hills. A great place to bike, with paved trails that are almost all physically separate from the main roads, this is a safe and beautiful place to ride a bike.
Towns:
Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, and Vineyard Haven are the three main towns. Edgartown is classy, expensive, and the most beautiful town on the planet in the opinion of this author. Oak Bluffs is diverse, eclectic, with numerous dining options than won't break your wallet, and features a whole town within a town, the Campground, consisting of hundreds of tiny homes dating back a century or more, way before tiny homes became a thing. Vineyard Haven is the primary port, although you may come in through Oak Bluffs. Vineyard Haven features numerous services and shops, some great dining across the board in price, including the world famous Black Dog. Other "up island" towns include Menemsha (go here on a clear evening for the sunset and picnic on fresh seafood from the local stores), Chilmark (go here for a visit to the Chilmark store), West Tisbury (go here for farmer's markets and artisan's fairs), and Aquinnah (go here for a spectacular view, lunch, a trip to the clothing optional Lucy Vincent Beach, and shopping at stores owned by the indigenous Wampanoag Indians).
Beaches:
Go to South Beach (a/k/a Katama) for big waves. State Beach is usually calm and a short walk from parking. Lucy Vincent Beach in Aquinnah is clothing optional. Long Point Wildlife Refuge features a beach you have to pay for but offers long walks around beautiful ponds a big beach and some seclusion from summer crowds. To really get away from it all ride the "On Time" ferry (called the On Time because there is no schedule, so it is always on time) to Chappaquiddick (yes, the one of Ted Kennedy fame) drive to Mytoi Japanese Gardens then walk to an extraordinary east facing beach with lots of space and natural beauty.
Restaurants:
Martha's Vineyard features so many fantastic restaurants that it is difficult to pick out which to feature.
In Edgartown, go to the Atlantic (fantastic steakhouse, very expensive), Rockfish (amazing wood fired pizza and sushi), Seafood Shanty (decent food, right on the water, decent price), and Atria (everything great, very expensive).
In Oak Bluffs, go to Lookout Tavern (waterfront bar and grill, great for lunch), Nomans (for an afternoon snack and a beer), Giordano's (for pizza), Lobsterville (go upstairs for less or no wait, great food, fantastic view of the harbor), Fat Ronnie's (for great burgers). The possibilities are almost endless.
In Vineyard go to Rocco's (for pizza), the Black Dog (because 4 presidents have), the Net Result (a seafood shop, dine in for lunch, and bring home something to cook for dinner), Waterside Market (great sandwiches), Mikado (the only good Chinese on the Island), and John's Fish Market (great fried seafood at a reasonable price).
TRIP INSURANCE
We recommend that you purchase trip insurance. Purchase trip insurance instead of relying on an owner cancellation policy. You'll hardly ever use the cancellation policy but the trip insurance will let you rest easy. Even the most liberal cancellation policies will not offer a refund within a month or two of your stay. Almost all of the types of events that would cause you to cancel your trip are unforeseen and will arise in the days or at most weeks ahead of your trip.
Purchase trip insurance from the insuremytrip website. We are not affiliated with that company and make no money from that referral.
We use insuremytrip for our personal travel. They have really good prices compared to travel vendors like cruise lines and travel sites. They answer their phone, their CSRs speak English as a first language, and they are knowledgeable. But by far the most important reason to use insuremytrip.com is that they waive the pre-existing condition clause in the policies they sell.
So why is waiver of the pre-ex clause so important? Trip insurance covers you if you or someone in your travelling party, or a close relative gets sick. A pre-existing condition is something that existed at the time of purchase of the coverage. So if your mother is ill with heart disease when you book your vacation, and she goes in the hospital with heart failure 2 days before your trip then most travel insurance companies will reject the claim on the ground of a pre-existing condition. The problem is that almost all the events or conditions that could cause you to miss your trip were pre-existing at the time you book your trip. So the pre-ex clause swallows most of the situations that might occur and routinely denies you coverage. Therefore a waiver of this clause is the single most important aspect of purchasing trip insurance.
The thinking at insuremytrip is that no one books a trip intending to not go, but many of us have a loved one with some pre-existing condition.
So why purchase trip insurance as opposed to relying on the cancellation policy of your travel vendor? Because most causes of not going on vacation are not known until very close in time to departure. Hurricane, power outage, or again, imagine Mom has heart disease, she is declining and is in an out of the hospital every few months. If she is in the hospital a month or two before you go, chances are she is going to be out by the time of your travel. You don't know she is going to have another decline and hospital admission until days before you depart. At that point almost no travel vendor, and certainly no VRBO rental cancellation policies, are going to refund your money.
So, again, we wholeheartedly endorse purchasing trip insurance from insuremytrip. By the way, the foregoing has been composed by the owner of this rental house, who is a lawyer, and has studied this area sufficiently to be well informed on this topic.
