What is the great appeal of Nantucket?

[msRB311]

Hotel on fire in Nantucket:

https://www.wcvb.com/article/veranda...setts/40563609

[porterhouse]

Originally Posted by Space_League

25 years in MA…Everyone always asks about the Cape and the Islands and expects you to have 'summered' there.

Lived here longer than that and never once have had someone use the term “summered” to me in conversation.

[cb2008]

Originally Posted by msRB311

I recently spent a few days in Nantucket at a friends house. I have been a handful of times in my life and thought it was a pretty place. I've always thought of it as a place that very wealthy people and young girls in their 20's like to hang out at. After being there this weekend I feel no different. Pretty place with lots of wealthy people trying to keep up a certain image.

It has a very pretentious vibe. We got to talking about Martha's vineyard and I said Martha's vineyard is definitely more diverse in many ways. (From what I can see Nantucket is filled with very rich white people). Someone said, oh there's diversity on Nantucket as far as the service workers go. I was thinking, that feels even worse in that yes, they're there to service the uber rich white people and their children.

I guess anywhere that is an island and has the beach is going to be exclusive and expensive? What makes Nantucket so much snobbier than Martha's Vineyard though? The two places are very similar but I would say Martha's vineyard has a more welcoming vibe to different social classes and types of people. Nantucket feels like a big multi millionaire's country club and you're not really in it unless you own a home there. Even if you rent a place for 30k a week it's just not the same as being a home owner and part of the club there.

I will likely go back because I have a free place to stay but I'm not sure i see the draw to Nantucket unless you're a pretentious person or you're a person who enjoys a pretentious vibe. It's pretty but so is the cape. The beaches on the cape were just as nice, some I might say are nicer. If you are shocked by MA prices, take a look at Nantucket: https://www.zillow.com/nantucket-ma/

There's a home for sale for 56 million bucks.

Am i the only one that doesn't have an obsession with Nantucket?

We have been there several times. I always find it is a place where people seem very impressed with themselves that they are in Nantucket.
Absolutely agree about Marthas Vineyard, where we prefer Oak Bluffs.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by porterhouse

Lived here longer than that and never once have had someone use the term “summered” to me in conversation.

I live in a town with ~ 1000 summer houses. I spent a decade summering in my summer place and wintering at my ski place. Here, “I summer in <insert name of summer community>” is a normal part of life. It’s been like that since I was a little kid in the 1960s. Snowbirds winter in Florida.

[msRB311]

Using summer as a verb sounds pretentious for some reason.

[WestieWhitie]

Originally Posted by porterhouse

Lived here longer than that and never once have had someone use the term “summered” to me in conversation.

Proper summering requires 8+ figure net worth.

Originally Posted by cb2008

We have been there several times. I always find it is a place where people seem very impressed with themselves that they are in Nantucket.
Absolutely agree about Marthas Vineyard, where we prefer Oak Bluffs.

…while in reality they’re spending thousands of dollars to stay at crappy hotels, eat crappy food and see the well-heeled ones hold their noses as they walk by.

[msRB311]

The people at the veranda house are probably pissed at whatever they spent.

[WestieWhitie]

Originally Posted by msRB311

The people at the veranda house are probably pissed at whatever they spent.

I mean, I’ve spent less on staying at an actual palace and eating at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Europe than I would have spent on a musty shoebox-sized hotel room and bone-dry steak in Nantucket.

[msRB311]

Ok I’m glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t quite get the expense of Nantucket. It is a nice place but i just don’t think it’s all that amazing.

[Space_League]

Originally Posted by porterhouse

Lived here longer than that and never once have had someone use the term “summered” to me in conversation.

I've never heard someone use the term itself seriously lol I'm talking about living out of state when MA comes up people expect you to have spent holidays or vacations on the Cape. I figure this part is implied because it comes up after they already know that I didn't live there year-round.

It actually happened last week I was chit chatting with an IT lady from Shreveport while she fixed my computer. Ever since I learned on here that Boston has a bad reputation in the black community I've been curious and asking people their true opinion when I think they might be holding back to be polite. Turns out she did have bad feelings about Boston as a city but was in love with the Cape. Kept asking about it and said she was back there for the 4th with her husband. Told her honestly she's probably spent more time there than I have, but I did enjoy it whenever I went.

Most of the time it's just the generic "Cape" that comes up. MV comes up more often than Nantucket but both have come up at times.

One thing I do know about Nantucket is that it offers prime access to the best ocean fishing locations in the region.



This is a neat image where the sand is visible through the shallow water. . Georges Bank is the greenish area to the west of Nantucket/Cape and Nantucket Shoals the one directly South of that Island. Two world class fishing shallows and Nantucket is smack dab in the middle of them.