The Wauwinet

The Hotel

The Wauwinet sits at the easternmost tip of Nantucket Island, on a private isthmus 11 kilometres from the village core where Nantucket Bay (the calm, swim-friendly bay-side beach with the lighthouse and the seal colony) meets the open Atlantic Ocean (the wild, surf-battered Coatue beach). The property has held the Wauwinet name and operated as a hotel continuously since the 1850s — making the property one of the longest-running unbroken hotel operations in New England — and was admitted to Relais & Châteaux in 2010 under the current ownership of Nantucket Island Resorts. The two-beach positioning is the structural distinction that no other Atlantic-coast luxury hotel can match: every Wauwinet guest can choose calm-bay swimming in the morning and Atlantic-Ocean surf-walks in the afternoon without leaving the property.

The 32 keys are spread across three categories. Cottage Suites (the property's signature unit, 50 sqm in restored 19th-century shingled cottages along the bay-side beach line, with private outdoor patios facing the bay) are the most-requested category. Inn Rooms (the smaller heritage rooms in the original 1850s main building, 30 sqm each) are the entry-tier. The Wauwinet Suites (60-90 sqm, the property's high-end multi-bedroom configurations) hold the upper rate tiers and include private bay-front decks and the only fireplaced bedroom-and-sitting-room configurations on the property. The interior register is the Nantucket Island Resorts contemporary-coastal-heritage signature applied throughout — restored shingled exteriors, hand-painted period furniture, custom-made New England wool textiles, and the deliberate decision to keep the heritage character without converting to a contemporary-design boutique.

Topper's — the in-house fine-dining restaurant — is the structural centre of any Wauwinet stay. The kitchen has held one position as Nantucket's most-decorated fine-dining venue for thirty years (Wine Spectator Grand Award since 1990, the only Massachusetts coastal hotel to hold the honor) and runs a contemporary-American tasting register that builds against the surrounding bay-and-ocean fishery — Nantucket Bay scallops in season, Atlantic stripper bass, the Nantucket-cranberry-sourced sauces that the kitchen has standardised — plus a 600-bottle wine cellar focused on Burgundy and California vintage with the strongest Nantucket-island-vintage list anywhere on the property. The complimentary daily Topper's-on-the-Water boat shuttle from White Elephant on the harbour-front to the Wauwinet's bay-side dock — running noon and 6 PM in summer — is the most-photographed luxury-hotel boat operation in New England.

The structural reason the Wauwinet is the considered Nantucket Honeymoon and Anniversary stay is the seclusion combined with the dining and the two-beach positioning. The 11-kilometre distance from the village core makes the Wauwinet structurally feel like a different island — but the daily Topper's boat shuttle gives access to White Elephant's harbour-front pool and the village's restaurant inventory across the day. The Cottage Suite category, the bay-front private patios, and the Topper's-and-wine-cellar combination give the property a level of luxury-meal-and-seclusion register that no other Nantucket property attempts. For a Nantucket honeymoon that wants the eastern-moors seclusion register, an anniversary that takes Topper's tasting menu as the structural anchor, or a multi-night island stay that pairs the Wauwinet's eastern remoteness with a White-Elephant village split, the Wauwinet is the most-considered choice.

Best Occasion Fit

Practical Information

Also Great in Nantucket