• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

The Hotel Green.    (Photo: Courtesy of Vanessa Noel Hotels)

Shoe designer turned hotelier Vanessa Noel caters to the trend-obsessed with her two boutique hotels in the heart of Nantucket. The Vanessa Noel Hotel goes heavy on the heavenly whites, the bathrooms sparkling with Philippe Starck fixtures and the funky, ground-floor Café V looks transported direct from Nolita. Though fashion-forward, the small quarters (there are just eight rooms, all wedged into a historic 1847 building) aren’t suited to families with small kids.

Next door, Noel’s newly opened Hotel Green offers the island’s only ecoconscious lodgings: The furniture comes from recycled materials; the cleaning products are all biodegradable; and the wall paint is milk- rather than latex-based. Bring kids and pets, but if either is bigger than a carry-on, you might want to reserve the one suite.

Traditional, country-club Nantucket lives on at the Wauwinet, set on the island’s northeastern coast far from Nantucket town (although a free jitney runs there several times daily). Rooms and cottages are outfitted in tasteful chintz, with Pratesi linens and fresh-cut flowers. The on-site Spa by the Sea gives caviar facials, and Topper’s restaurant pairs excellent Bloody Marys with outrageous sunsets.

Published on Jul 5, 2007 as a web exclusive.