Faraway Nantucket has that old-school summer charm we keep chasing for the Holiday: VR Summer Club Collection ☀️🦢. A chic, antique-filled boutique hotel set on cobblestone streets, where beach towels are slung over shoulders and coffees are sipped before your bike ride to the local shop in town for a scoop of homemade ice cream. It delivers summertime nostalgia in the best way, like the kind of holiday you thought grown women with good linen closets and funny friends were having. 

This Nantucket hotel and venue feels like your are visiting the summer estate of a woman who knew how to sail, collect beautiful antiques around the world and return home with a stories over wine brought back from a faraway land. Which, in a way, it is. Part of what also makes this hotel such a perfect fit for the Holiday: VR Summer Club☀️🦢 collection is the fictional backstory stitched right into its design: a female ship captain and her all-women crew set off to sea and come back to Nantucket with weathered treasures, quirky objects, curious keepsakes, and the sort of lore that makes a place feel less like a hotel and more like a world. Each corner of Faraway reads like a page from her diary. A salty, storied space with just enough nostalgic grandeur to feel like summer got dressed up for dinner.

Sister Ship Bar / Photo Matt Kisiday

 

The Overall Vibe: Maritime-Meets-Martini

If the Hawaii edition of Summer Holiday Club was about the tiki glamour of the classic summer holiday updated, this is the electic East Coast cousin. This Nantucket hotel feels like a sea captain’s house that had a really good stylist at its helm and it makes a strong case for the friend trip because it does the heavy lifting. It gives you the walkability, the bunk bed rooms, the courtyard for pre-dinner hangs, the restaurant for easy group dinners, the bikes for afternoon adventures and four different venue spaces for dinner parties, weddings and celebratory moments. 

It’s basically a hotel with the spirit of a summer house but with the amenities of a hotel and the ease of being in town. Then you add in the playful whimsy of the seafaring lore to make the whole trip feel a little more "this trip feels like an Elin Hildebrand beach read but without the drama", and you've officially entered the VR Summer Holiday Club Collection ☀️🦢 

Set across historic cedar-shingled homes anchored by the island’s 17th-century Quaker Meeting House, the architecture leans classic Nantucket, but the interiors (designed by Jenny Bukovec) loosen things up. Made up of six buildings, 62 rooms, a restaurant, and an outdoor courtyard right in the heart of downtown, the fictional female sea captain and her crew storyline is running through the design of it all. It shows up in collected details rather than anything overly literal: weathered objects, curious keepsakes, a mix of polished and slightly offbeat pieces that feel like they’ve traveled and rooms layered in rattan.

It’s coastal, not the cliché kind of way, but more of a delightfully collected and “well-styled summer house with stories from faraway lands". 

 

Federal Suite (sleeps 6)

Two Bedroom Suite (two queen beds)

Deluxe Bunk Quad (sleeps 4)

The Rooms to Know

Faraway is made up of 68 historic captain’s rooms, and each one has its own feel. Some of the rooms are in more lively, social spots and some are quieter and tucked away.

For two, if your group is splitting into smaller rooms:

• Meeting House Petite King: This is for the girls who like to be in the middle of things. It sits just above Sister Ship, so you can roll straight from bed to coffee bar and be in the thick of the hotel’s hum without trying.
• Roberts House Eaves King: A cozy hideaway with low-pitched ceilings that feels like the reward for a full day of sun, walking, and slightly over-ordering at dinner.
• Roberts House Eaves Queen: Quiet, tucked away, and romantic in that sloped-ceiling, island-attic sort of way. Great for one or two who want a little less bustle.

If your group wants to bunk together: 

• Federal Suite: This is the one if you want the summer-house fantasy with hotel service attached. It sleeps up to six, and it’s the best argument for bringing a slightly bigger crew. There’s room to spread out, plus a kitchen for cheese boards, snacks, late-night leftovers, and the inevitable “should we stay in for a bit before dinner?” moment.
• Two Bedroom Suite: A very good middle ground. Two queen rooms, a private bath, and a cozy common space with rattan fixtures and marble details. It feels polished without feeling precious.
• Deluxe Bunk Quad: Our favorite for the right kind of girls trip. A chic grown-up sleepover situation with twin beds, coastal comfort, and just enough camp energy to make it feel fun instead of fussy.

Banquette seating perfect for dinner parties and groups at onsite Sister Ship Restaurant 

 

Your Group Dining Plans

There’s something deeply relaxing about a hotel that already has a fabulous onsite restaurant. Sister Ship is Faraway’s signature 140-seat restaurant, anchored by a lush central patio. It works beautifully for friend-trip dinners because it gives you that built-in “Where should we go tonight?” answer without feeling like a fallback plan. The long banquette (pictured above) is perfect for you and your gals and guys to line up for a fabulous dinner party. 

The restaurant offers shared plates, seafood, cocktails, a little Mediterranean influence and a little New England freshness.The mood here is: one person says “let’s just get a few things,” and suddenly the table looks like a very stylish seafaring mutiny.

What to Order

A fun way to do it is to start salty then order one thing that feels a little extravagant (and absolutely do not skip something fried):

• Start with the cold, salty, pretty plates:
  • Big eye tuna crudo is bright and citrusy and summertime perfection
  • Pocomo Meadow oysters are served with Fresno hot sauce, cava mignonette, and lemon. Mandatory island order.
  • And yes, the shrimp cocktail still deserves a place on the table because some classics are classic for a reason.
     
• Then move into the “one of everything in the middle” category:
  • The tarama salata with trout roe, crudité, and grilled bread 
  • The aperitivo board has cheeses, salumi, spiced olives, almonds, garden picklesg and gives the table a little shareable structure. 
  • The patatas bravas are a non-negotiable. Crisp potatoes, harissa aioli, tangy tomato sauce, pimentón. Every girls’ dinner needs one universally loved potato moment.

Then order a few mains to share or keep to yourself. The seasonal catch works for the seafood loyalists. the roasted half chicken with caramelized cabbage and salted lemon is a perfect garden party dish, and if your table wants a grand finale moment, the seafood paella is the one to share. 

* Worth noting: before tucking into those patatas bravas, an espresso martini is a very good pre-dinner move.

Your Morning Coffee Plans, Sorted

Onsite, Cymbals Café makes mornings easy. Which is exactly what you want on a girls trip. The move here is simple: house-made donuts for the group, then your coffee order of choice. Iced coffee if you’re heading straight out on a bike ride or walk around town.  Espresso if last night got ambitious or a cappuccino if you want to feel like you are starring in an Italian remake of a Nantucket vacation.

Cymbals Cafe

Amenities + Experiences Galore

There are complimentary bikes, which may be the best accessory a Nantucket hotel can offer. The terrace and courtyard are bordered in ivy and are the perfect sot for coffee, cocktails, regrouping, and catching up. There’s a walk-up coffee bar tucked into the courtyard for La Colombe, matcha, and wellness-latte types. The hotel offers complimentary beach chairs and towels, which removes an annoying layer of beach logistics. And the Byredo bath products are a nice little post-saltwater luxury.

Faraway also offers access to more offbeat island experiences, and the property can host everything from private dinners to friend gatherings to full hotel takeovers, which makes it especially interesting for birthdays, bachelorettes, and celebratory weekends.

• complimentary bikes
  → easiest way to get around, and actually fun (not just “well I guess we should”)
• courtyard + terrace
  → coffee in the morning, drinks before dinner, a place to land between plans
• coffee bar (La Colombe, matcha, etc.)
  → no one has to go on a full coffee mission first thing
• beach chairs + towels
  → removes the flustering part of beach days
• Byredo bath products
  → small detail, but great for post beach salty skin 
• Barbour jackets + boots to borrow
  → very Nantucket, very useful when it gets chilly, also makes everyone feel slightly more put together
• event hosting
  → There are four different event spaces that work for birthday dinners, corporate offsites, weddings, small gatherings, or full buyouts/ 

Around town: Nantucket 

Nantucket is the kind of place that practically begs for a girls trip. It already comes with built-in beach-read mythology thanks to Elin Hilderbrand, the island’s unofficial queen of summer fiction, and her recent Netflix mini series, The Perfect Couple, plus the islands quiet cameos in Gilmore Girls. 

Faraway sits right in the heart of downtown Nantucket, (arguably the chicest setup of all). You can walk from the ferry, walk to dinner, walk to ice cream, wander into bookstores, go antiquing and stroll home. 

• For breakfast and bread-board provisions, go to Born & Bread. This is where you pick up naturally leavened sourdough, breakfast sandwiches, and picnic-worthy bread if your suite is doing a snack-and-wine moment later. Their pain au levain, multigrain, cranberry with flax, and black olive levain all feel very “we are taking vacation carbohydrates seriously.” The bacon, egg and cheese is the easy crowd-pleaser. 35 Centre St, Nantucket, MA.
• For a post-beach, pre-dinner energy shift, head to Cisco Brewers. It’s Nantucket’s only brewery, winery, and distillery, and it has the kind of lively summer atmosphere that works beautifully when your group is not ready to go home yet. Trivia, music, families, sunburnt happiness, all of it. 5 Bartlett Farm Road, Nantucket, MA.
• For an iconic island sugar run, go to The Juice Bar. This is the classic Nantucket ice cream stop. The kind of place you go because everyone says to, then understand immediately. It’s also very useful intel if you’re planning a birthday dinner, because they do ice cream cakes and pies with advance notice. 12 Broad St, Nantucket, MA.
• If your friend group likes active experiences, book a group surfing lesson with ACK Surf School. Their group lesson is ideal for three or more and includes the wetsuit, board, and instructor. Nobadeer Beach.
• For your cozy TV-reference moment, channel Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life and visit the Whaling Museum, where Emily Gilmore memorably becomes a docent in the final episode. It’s hard not to be charmed by the giant sperm whale skeleton and the immersive exhibits, and it adds a bit of old Nantucket texture to all the beach-read glamour.
• For shopping with a little soul, browse John Rugge at 5 India Street, Nantucket, MA. for antique furniture and stop into Mitchell’s Book Corner for Elin Hilderbrand-signed beach reads. It’s exactly the sort of outing that makes a girls trip here feel complete: a little antiques, a little fiction, a little fantasy, and a tote bag getting steadily heavier.

⛴️  Getting to Nantucket

• Fly direct into Nantucket Memorial Airport (ACK)  easiest (seasonal)
• Fly into Logan International Airport + quick 30–45 min hop
• Or ferry from Hyannis Harbor via Steamship Authority (1–2 hrs, very chic arrival)
• Once there: walk + bikes > renting a car 
   

🌤️ Best time to go

• June–Aug: peak summer, lively, beach + dinners
• Sept: best overall (warm, fewer crowds)
• Oct: cozy, slower, sweater weather
• May: quiet, just-opening energy
   

Why it’s easy:

• The hotel is within walking distance of the ferries
• It sits right downtown
• You can easily walk to shops, restaurants, coffee, and attractions
• There’s no real need for a rental car if your plan is a classic in-town Nantucket weekend with beach outings mixed in. For a friend trip, that means fewer moving pieces, fewer “Who’s driving?” texts, and more time getting dressed slowly.

Venue: Faraway Nantucket 
Photography: Matt Kisiday
Location: Nantucket 

This is exactly the sort of fantasy Holiday: VR Summer Club Collection ☀️🦢 is built for. The collection has always been about places that bring back the old glamour of vacationing with friends: taking a ferry to your hotel, long bike rides on beach cruisers, wandering cobbelstone streets, leisurely drinking coffee in a garden-filled courtyard and a little mischief that fuels your inside jokes for the next few years.