Friends, food, fresh air.

Spontaneous adventures await.

Photo by Arthur Poulin / Unsplash

Checking Into Nantucket's Breeziest Hotel

76 Main
Nantucket, Massachusetts
Preppy 'n' cute; Affordable in low season, expensive in high season

The dreamiest way to visit preppy American beach towns is to stay with friends in their rambling, well-lived in, totally cozy old house. But let's say you don't have those preppy friends with empty guest rooms. The next best option on Nantucket is to check into 76 Main. The sweet, 20-room hotel is located (as you would guess from the name) amid the cobblestones on Main Street, convenient to downtown's shops and restaurants and museums. The hotel was designed to be as homey as possible, with overstuffed sofas, armchairs just waiting to be napped in, and bookshelves filled with Nantucket objects and nautical accents. The decor — a foundation in shades of white — is accented by a nautical palette of blue, white, and green stripes, florals, and geometric prints in the accent pillows, wallpapers, curtains, and carpets. The hotel lack many amenities (no gym or in-house restaurant), but can be very affordable if you can snag one of the low rates. If you're as easy-going as a summer breeze, you've found your hotel.

The Vibe: You've walked into a preppy catalog of a breezy, beachy good life.

Standout Detail: A toss-up between the lobby's facing sofas and the outdoor firepit, both inviting areas for making new friends.

This Place Is Perfect For: Low-maintenance travelers who want central and inexpensive access to Nantucket.

Welcome to Foodtopia

Asheville turns meals into celebrations like nowhere else. Dive into French bistros, barbecue smokehouses, organic vegetarian restaurants or a classic Southern breakfast spot. Sample the mountain trout caviar and the hormone-free beef. You’ll find outdoor dining options throughout Asheville and the surrounding areas, so you can always feel connected to the local land.

A Nantucket Guide for All Seasons (But Especially the Summer)

World-class hotels, celebrated restaurants, high-end boutiques, and galleries have gracefully adapted to the quirky 18th- and 19th-century architecture, creating an eclectic community that gives visitors something new to explore year after year.

Portofino's Wild — and Splendido — Side

My mind still wanders to the way the thrown-open windows let in a breeze that made curtains dance across the marble floor, and the relief of cool condensation on a spritz cocktail served on the wisteria-clad terrace.

Girls Gone Wild in Switzerland

Journalist and memoirist Alyssa Shelasky is a longtime friend of Fathom, having written for us many times over the years — always with characteristic charm and honesty, whether praising the basic hotel or sharing why it's so good to be in love and in Venice. Her excellent new book, This Might Be Too Personal, is a few hundred pages of her signature wit and big-hearted emotions, a collection of essays that recounts her journey to motherhood, to love, and to life, and the adventures and pitfalls she lives through with lovers and losers and a few celebs along the way in NYC, LA, and around the world.

We devoured the book in two days; our only wish that she had shared a few hundred more pages. In this excerpt from the chapter titled "May You Be Happy," Alyssa recalls a bawdy press trip to ritzy Zurich and Gstaad, which she just so happened to have written about for us, in case you want to hear even more about how she was spoiled rotten in Switzerland in a frenzy of girls-gone-wild debauchery. Read it on the beach, on your next flight, along your daily commute, or on your sofa. It's a joy to be transported into Alyssa's mind and heart.

• Best Travel Journalism Website • Travel Is Better In Color • The New Travel •