If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD383.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Martha’s Vineyard bed and breakfast the Richard might be close to the coast, but there’s nothing fishy about its design, which veers off course from the nautical trappings favored by many a stay here, instead opting for a sleek black, white and gray palette (with splashes of purple) and sculptural furnishings. Days start with breakfast tapas; continue with bike rides to wild beaches, indie-boutique hopping and lighthouse adoring; then end with alfresco BYOB sundowners by the fire pit – we’re all aboard.
11am, but flexible, subject to availability (give as much notice as possible). Earliest check-in, 4pm; if checking in after 10pm, you’ll need to let staff know.
Prices
Double rooms from £336.44 ($420), including tax at 9.7 per cent.
More details
Rates include the Richard’s tapas-style breakfast plates.
Also
There’s a ramp entrance to the building, and the hotel has one accessible King Deluxe room on the first floor, although its shower, which has a step, is not roll-in.
Hotel closed
The hotel opens from April to October.
At the hotel
Garden with day-beds and a fire pit, lounge, concierge, free WiFi. In rooms: 43-inch smart TV, wine glasses and corkscrew, black-out shades, individually controlled air-conditioning, waffle bathrobes, and Lather bath products.
Our favourite rooms
With its sailing and whaling past, Martha’s Vineyard’s style has an ‘aye aye’ for maritime details, but we like the cleaner, more modern cut of the Richard’s jib. Its façade is classic white clapboard, but rooms are decked out in black, white and gray (with flashes of purple and green), furniture is sculptural and eye-catching, and graphic prints brighten the walls.
Packing tips
Bring any biking and boating wear and stock up on snacks and drinks (the hotel doesn’t have minibars or a bar, but there’s a corkscrew and glasses in your room).
Also
The Richard is in good company in Edgartown, a sister (brother?) property to other Lark Hotels, the Christopher and the Edgartown Inn.
Children
Kids can stay, but there’s only one two-bedroom room (the Lark Suite). However, there’s a lot for kids to do on the island, so this could serve as a homebase for those with tweens and teens to lay their heads after fun-filled days.
The made-for-two lounge chairs by the fire pit in the garden look mighty inviting.
Dress Code
More monochrome than maritime.
Hotel restaurant
The Richard leaves you to discover Edgartown’s excellent culinary offerings for lunch and dinner, but this bed and breakfast sends you out full for the day, with a selection of tapas-style breakfast plates. These might be omelettes filled with local veggies, mojito-infused melon balls and ‘piña colada’ overnight oats with pineapple and coconut, ‘everything’ flatbreads with cream cheese, zucchini frittata, and yogurt with watermelon and mint. And, you might find mango-banana muffins, blueberry-lemon bread and more pulled fresh from the oven.
Hotel bar
There’s no bar, so you’ll need to BYOB. Try Vintage MV Wines & Spirits, which has a great selection and is in walking distance.
The Richard is set along Edgartown’s leafy Main Street, a picture of old-school Martha’s Vineyard, with white-picket fences, Stars and Stripes fluttering in the wind and shaded porches.
Planes
Martha’s Vineyard Airport is a mere 10-minute drive from the hotel and has direct connections with New York, Boston, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and Chicago, so international arrivals can easily connect.
Automobiles
We strongly suggest swapping four wheels for two and hiring a bike locally or forgoing them altogether. Edgartown is easily covered on foot, Oak Bluffs is a pleasant pedal away passing Sengekontacket Pond, and electric buses or ferries can take you further afield. Parking at the hotel is very limited ($50 a day) and must be booked in advance.
Other
Ferries to Martha’s Vineyard run from Falmouth Inner Harbor, Hyannis, New Bedford, Rhode Island, and Nantucket.
Worth getting out of bed for
Former whaling hub, Edgartown is rife with briny charm and packed with quaint clapboard houses, and has more peaceful sailing pursuits these days (although fishing is still one of its strong points as dining out will attest). In more recent years its surroundings have become famous for another aquatic beast, as the setting for parts of Jaws (visit South Beach and the Jaws Bridge to the north), but day-to-day it’s a very peaceful spot. Find serenity at the Edgartown Lighthouse (spectacular at sunset), cycling along the Beach Road to Oak Bluffs to see its ‘gingerbread’ cottages (pick up bikes from Wheel Happy), or follow nature trails through Land Bank, Sheriff’s Meadow or MassAudubon’s Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary. Or ride the ferry out to neighbouring Chappaquiddick Island to meditate in the Mytoi Japanese Garden. Swing by the Carnegie Heritage Center to look into the island’s past, then head to the Harbor to get some wistful staring at the sea in (or grab an ice-cream), and pick up the sweetest souvenirs in the local boutiques: books from Portobello Road, paintings from Eisenhauer Gallery, vintage pieces from Past and Presents, sustainable clothing from Rooey Knots.
Local restaurants
With its coastal location, Edgartown is all set for (claw) cracking seafood meals. Alongside the many molluscs on offer at 19 Raw Oyster Bar are lobster and caviar sliders, shrimp and grits in a blackberry-tequila vin, and tuna many ways. Atlantic combines most of the sea’s creatures into its mammoth Le Majestique Bouquet tower; but there’s also lump crab cakes, mussels in a fragrant broth, Alaskan king crab slathered in yuzu butter, and plenty of ‘turf’ for those in need of a break from ‘surf’. Détente has an elegant seasonal menu; pick clean the pork ribs with taleggio, ras el hanout and figs in a plum sauce; tuck into tuna tartare with candied ginger and a vanilla-lychee purée, or indulge in beef tenderloin with a short-rib and porcini ragù.
Local cafés
Among the Flowers is indeed bedecked with blooms, which makes sitting on its porch all the more pleasant. And, they have an extensive menu of sandwiches, salads, shakshuka bowls and hashes, waffles, and smoothies. Among Vineyard Scoops’ creamy treats are banana splits, sundaes and root-beer floats.
Local bars
Swing by Bad Martha’s Brewery for some very good beer (including more unusual picks, such as strawberry-shortcake sour and oyster stout). And take home a jug or two to enjoy back at the hotel. If you’re here from Friday to Sunday, swing by the Port Hunter for live music, cocktails and an up-for-it crowd.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this mod and monochrome on the inside stay in quaint Edgartown and unpacked their locally made fudge and lighthouse prints, a full account of their historically halcyon break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside the Richard in Martha’s Vineyard…
Don’t be fooled by the Richard’s historic white-clapboard frontage and setting, a short stroll from the coast – once you get inside this sweet bed and breakfast, there’s no nautical frippery, rather stylish black, white and gray, with judiciously mixed and matched patterns, mod furnishings and graphic prints. Your locale, however, is awash with salty charm: you’re on the picturesque and white-picket-fence-lined Main Street in former whaling hub Edgartown, close to the harbor and lighthouse, and many a seafood spot. And, come evening, you can gather round the fire pit for BYOB sessions unravelling the day’s yarns, whether you biked to Oak Bluff’s ‘gingerbread’ cottages, sipped your way around the area’s microbreweries, or basked on the Jaws beach.
