I am so excited to sit down and share our recent escape to Martha’s Vineyard, our first time visiting! I have big plans to return soon, but in the meantime please enjoy this write-up about our weekend at the MV Wine Fest. I suppose I should begin by saying we were baby-free this weekend – our lovely friends stayed at our home with her and we couldn’t be more thankful for them. It was our first overnight away from Evie and while we totally missed her (and were embarrassingly looking at photos of her at dinner), it felt nice to have a night off.
I am going to attempt to keep the text to a minimum, but I want to let you in on all the details. Like how we got there, where we stayed, what we did, etc. But I will organize it so it will be an easy reference/bookmark for your future trip(s) to MV! Travel. Getting to Martha’s Vineyard from Boston is super easy thanks to the quick 45-min. Steamship Authority ferry that leaves from Woods Hole, MA (1.5 hour drive from Boston). You can either bring your car on the ferry or park it in their off-site lot which is about 3 miles from the ferry destination. The ferry runs every hour and 15 min. beginning pretty early and it was only $37 round trip for both Cody and myself (you can purchase a ticket once you arrive if you don’t plan on bringing you car). Stay. Once we arrived, we took an Uber to Edgartown (a short and beautiful drive) and dropped off our bags at The Sydney, a petite & stylish boutique hotel of the Lark Hotels group. The Sydney is just a few steps from many cute shops, restaurants, coffee shops, bike rentals, beaches and gorgeous Greek Revival style homes. They have a self check-in process that basically means your key will be in a cute box in front of your door upon your arrival! They give you all the details in a welcome email before you get there.
One of the many reasons I adore The Lark Hotels brand is their unique approach to embrace each inn destination, which in turn makes your entire getaway/vacation experience even better! Not only that, but the interior design details are always so thoughtful, vibrant and encompass the surroundings as well. Marla and Julie, the lovely innkeepers at The Sydney and The Christopher (just down the street that opened just days ago), are full of such positive energy and make you feel right at home! Next place to stay on our bucket list: Summercamp in Oaks Bluff on MV. Follow #onalark on instagram for photos from their different locations and guests!
MV Wine Fest // Grand Tasting
Cody and I attended the Grand Tasting Event on the lawn of the Kelley House which was just around the corner from The Sydney. I am going to need all of you wine, spirits and beer lovers to go ahead and plan on a trip to MV next year for this event. We had the opportunity to speak with a lot of the makers and it was wonderful to get to know their stories. There were so many amazing options it was hard to keep track so I decided to snap a photo of our favorites. I’m not sharing them all because…hey, I had a lot of wine by the end of the event and my photos weren’t as great. Ha! So I will share a few of the good ones. Luckily the VIP bag (thank you MV Wine Fest!!) had a cute notebook so I could write them down while they were fresh on the brain!
Things to do + see.
dinner: we had a wonderful date night at L’etoile, conveniently located on the first floor of The Sydney. I highly recommend the surf & turf – I will dream about the lobster for weeks. We also heard The Port Hunter is a great spot that we hope to try next time!
lunch: with a nice view, go to Atlantic! We LOVED this spot and everyone was so friendly.
coffee: we really wanted to go to Rosewater to get more Chilmark coffee after trying it in our breakfast basked provided by The Sydney, but I thought it was closed on Sundays…come to find out I was looking at it too early and it said closed but opens later in the morning…oops! How dreamy does it look?! It’s on the list for our next trip there.
afternoon fun: We walked around for most of Sunday looking at beautiful homes along the water, various local shops, and people watching. One of our favorite shops was Portobello Road, it was full of so many treasures. Next time we are going to rent bikes and cruise around. Until next time, Martha’s Vineyard!
explore more of our recent travels on instagram: #ohidesigntravels
Thank you to Marnely Murray of Cooking with Books for the kind invitation to MVwinefest! You and the rest of the team did a phenomenal job! We will be back next year for sure.