This Nantucket Itinerary for Children has six days of enjoyable summertime actions for your loved ones! Combine and match the times to construct your individual Nantucket trip.
Final summer season, we fell in love with Nantucket. It is the perfect vacation spot for a household trip. We liked this charming island, which is simple to get to because of direct flights from Chicago and Boston and ferries from New Bedford, Cape Cod, and Martha’s Winery.
This was revealed in Could 2025. At all times double-check particular person web sites for up-to-date schedules and data.
What to Find out about Nantucket
It is costly. In 2023 it topped the checklist of costliest seashore locations on the earth. Each lodging and eating places are pricy.
It is kid-friendly! We discovered the island to be stroller pleasant and it felt so protected. Most eating places have kids’s menus. Seeing pre-teens biking round Sconset with out their mother and father jogged my memory of my childhood in Maine.
It is busy in the summertime. It’s best to make reservations for actions and eating places upfront.
Need to learn extra about Nantucket? Try my information to Issues to Do in Nantucket with Children!
Nantucket Itinerary for Children
I created six day by day itineraries primarily based on themes and ease of getting from place to put. Some days have extra actions than could also be possible for a day. You possibly can take your time to select the actions that your loved ones will take pleasure in. The purpose was to spotlight teams of high kid-friendly spots which are close to one another as a way to benefit from your time on Nantucket.
Day of Arrival
The primary day is about settling in and beginning to discover.
Arrive and Hire a Jeep
Whether or not you arrive at ACK airport or take the high-speed ferry (the Hy-Line), you’ll most likely wish to lease a automobile. Automobile leases can be found all through Nantucket Island, together with on the airport and within the middle of city. In the event you lease a Jeep, you possibly can drive on the seashore – one of the crucial common issues to do in Nantucket. Reserve your automobile upfront, be certain that the automobile has an oversand allow, and observe the directions for letting some air out of the tires earlier than driving on the sand.
Store for Provides and Seaside Toys
Earlier than you head to your resort, chances are you’ll wish to cease on the native grocery retailer, the Cease & Store, for snacks. That is additionally the proper place to select up a number of seashore toys and sunscreen. Store & Store has two places, one in direction of the airport and one other close to the pier the place the ferry arrives.
Seize Lunch
Each One thing Pure and Provisions are Nantucket staples recognized for his or her freshly made sandwiches.
One thing Pure is simply outdoors downtown and has a big garden with picnic tables and a picket boat play space for teenagers. It is an awesome possibility for letting youngsters run round whilst you eat. You possibly can even order forward on-line.
Provisions is within the busy Harbor Sq.. If you wish to shortly decide up sandwiches to eat at Kids’s Seaside (which does have a playground) that is place to go.
Verify In
The very best Nantucket resorts for households embrace the Harborview Nantucket, the White Elephant Nantucket, and the Nantucket Resort.
The Harborview is each downtown and on the waterfront. It presents 10 luxurious cottages ranging in measurement from 1-3 bedrooms.
White Elephant Nantucket has been freshly renovated and presents rooms and cottages. This resort is a brief stroll from downtown, has a pool, and gives visitors with complimentary seashore cruisers.
The Nantucket Resort is open year-round and has a complimentary youngsters’ membership with counselor-led actions in the summertime.
If you’d like extra space, many rental residence choices exist on the island.
Discover Downtown
Nantucket’s downtown space has charming cobblestone streets, darling boutiques, and lots of eating choices. It’s an unbelievable vacation spot for procuring, with a mixture of high-end designer retailers and regionally owned retailers.
Discover the Secret Sweet Retailers
Essentially the most important merchandise on a Nantucket itinerary for teenagers is visiting the retailers which have hidden sweet shops! My daughter’s favourite store was TownPool because it has a hidden sweet retailer and a scavenger hunt exercise the place youngsters win “duck bucks” that they’ll alternate for a bit of sweet. This store is the proper place to select up a Nantucket sweatshirt.
Drive 5 Watersports, an attire and surf store, additionally has a secret sweet store.
Ice Cream at Juice Bar
Positioned within the coronary heart of downtown on Broad Avenue, Juice Bar is arguably the island’s most well-known ice cream store. The waffle cones and 40 flavors of ice cream (together with vegan choices) are all selfmade. Be ready that there’s usually a protracted line for ice cream after dinner, so I counsel going as a day deal with.
Bookshops
Mitchell’s E-book Nook and Bookworks each have well-curated youngsters’ sections.
Kids’s Clothes
Peachtree Children and Pinwheels Nantucket provide lovely clothes choices for kids. Murray’s Toggery cannot be missed.
Dinner
Cisco Brewers
This Nantucket brewery is thought for being family-friendly and dog-friendly. Throughout the summer season months, there’s stay music on a regular basis at 4pm and meals is offered from meals vehicles on-site.
A free shuttle is offered from the nook of Federal and East Chestnut Avenue (a block from the Whaling Museum) to the brewery’s entrance.
Breeze on the Nantucket Resort
If it occurs to be a Monday or Thursday, you may wish to try the Nantucket Resort’s twice-weekly conventional New England Clambake with stay music.
Seaside Day One
Nantucket is thought for its picturesque seashores. This present day of the Nantucket Itinerary for Children is all about spending time on the seashore.
Brunch
Begin your day with brunch. Eat at your resort or head downtown to attempt native favorites, Lemon Press or Black-Eyed Susans. Lemon Press presents espresso, smoothies, and grab-and-go pastries on the bottom stage, which tends to be fairly busy. We had no drawback getting a desk for a sit-down brunch upstairs.
Barlett’s Farm
You possibly can decide your individual fruits, greens, and flowers at this family-owned farm. There may be additionally a market with produce, foodstuffs, wine, and presents, and a kitchen providing breakfast, salads, sandwiches, dinner, and grab-and-go meals.
Tickets for the Choose Your Personal Flowers and Choose Your Personal Greens Excursions can be found on-line upfront. Choose Your Personal Strawberry season is within the early summer season.
Lunch at Sandbar at Jetties Seaside
This restaurant beside Jetties Seaside is the proper place for an informal meal, and it has a lot of out of doors seating. We liked it since our daughter fortunately performed within the sand whereas we ate. The menu has a mixture of contemporary seafood, burgers, sandwiches, and salads. The children’ menu has all of the classics: scorching canines, burgers, hen tenders, PB&J, and mac and cheese.
Jetties Seaside
Along with its massive restaurant and bar, Sandbar additionally has a merch store that provides seashore tools leases. Seize some seashore chairs and head to the ocean. We preferred this seashore as a result of it has a playground, loads of parking, loos, and lifeguards.
Jetties Seaside is thought for its calm waters, massive sandbar accessible at low tide, and hotter waters than a number of the different seashores. The water depth will increase very progressively right here, making it a perfect seashore for younger kids.
Dinner at Pizzeria Gemelle
This pizza joint serves 12-inch Neapolitan-style pies. You possibly can eat there or decide up takeout to carry to the drive-in.
Discovery Playground at Hinsdale Park
This playground is open from dawn till sundown and is on the way in which to the drive-in film. A cease right here could possibly be alternative for teenagers to burn off any additional vitality. This photograph exhibits a small portion of the huge playspace.
See a Drive-In Film
Dreamland, a non-profit movie and cultural middle, hosts a summertime drive-in film collection at The Enjoying Fields at 7 Nobadeer Farm Highway. Heads up that tickets should not bought on the gate and must be bought on-line upfront – they’ll promote out. Films begin at 8:30, however you must get there a minimum of quarter-hour early.
Wet Day Nantucket Itinerary for Children
Even when it rains, there’s a lot of household enjoyable in Nantucket. Listed here are a number of the greatest choices.
Barnaby’s Toy and Artwork Shack
Barnaby’s is a toy retailer and kids’s artwork studio providing a number of youngsters’ artwork lessons day by day. Class choices embrace portray, working with clay, making slime, and making Fairy Homes.
The Nantucket Whaling Museum
Be taught concerning the historical past of the whaling business and Nantucket at this downtown museum. Exhibitions embrace huge whale skeletons, plus effective and ornamental artwork.
Maria Mitchell Aquarium
Get an up-close take a look at marine life at this seasonal aquarium that’s open throughout the summer season months. It is best to order your tickets upfront. The aquarium opens for the season on June ninth.
Varied summer season day camps for teenagers ages 5 and up are additionally out there!
Hinchman Home Pure Science Museum
Be taught concerning the island’s biodiversity, see stay animals, and discover interactive shows. Do not miss the shows with over 900 species of birds. This museum reopens for the summer season season on June ninth.
Nantucket Atheneum
Nantucket’s public library presents numerous packages for kids, together with music on Tuesdays, crafts within the courtyard on Wednesdays, and a dance occasion within the backyard on Thursdays. Teen crafts are supplied on Tuesday afternoons.
See a Film at Dreamland
The Cinema for the very younger collection invitations little ones to G-rated sensory-friendly brief film screenings on Tuesday and Friday mornings at 10:30 runs by June seventeenth.
Nantucket Shipwreck & Life-Saving Museum
This museum, which tells the story of the over 700 shipwrecks which have occurred on Nantucket’s waters and honors volunteer {and professional} lifesavers, is open seasonally within the summertime. Throughout July and August, the museum presents drop-in family-friendly actions on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.
A Day in Sconset
Visiting Siasconset, affectionately known as Sconset, is an absolute should for any Nantucket Itinerary for Children. Sconset is situated on the jap aspect of the island and might be reached by taking the Nantucket Regional Transportation Authority’s (NRTA) free WAVE bus should you do not wish to drive.
Sconset is thought for its rose-covered cottages, hydrangea-lined strolling path, and ocean views. It’s merely gorgeous.
Sconset Bluff Stroll
The Sconset Bluff Stroll is a public footpath alongside the island’s east shore, previous a number of the most gorgeous houses on Nantucket. The path is simply too slim and bumpy to carry a stroller, however it’s a straightforward stroll.
Deliver some money – usually, you’ll find a lemonade stand alongside the trail.
Sankaty Head Lighthouse
The Bluff Stroll used to finish on the Sankaty Head Lighthouse, however erosion has altered the trail. In the present day, it’s a brief half-mile stroll to proceed on to see this lighthouse. On the finish of the Bluff Stroll, flip proper and stroll down Baxter Highway.
Lunch at Sconset Market, Claudette’s, or Summer time Home
After trying out the lighthouse, take the Bluff Stroll again to Sconset’s Principal Avenue. There are three lunch choices. Sconset Market is probably the most informal. It’s a common retailer, cafe, bakery, and ice cream store.
Claudette’s Sandwiches serves breakfast sandwiches, deli meat sandwiches, and a widely known meatloaf sandwich. We grabbed a fast PB&J for our daughter right here.
Summer time Home’s Beachside Bistro is a sit-down restaurant with a big patio. The menu options a lot of contemporary native seafood, together with clam chowder, fish tacos, swordfish, cod fish and chips, shrimp, and a lobster roll. There may be additionally a kids’s menu.
Codfish Park Playground
This nautical-themed playground is right for youthful kids (5 and below). It is a couple of 5-minute stroll from the trio of Sconset eating places listed above. A go to to this darling playground is an important a part of any Nantucket itinerary for teenagers.
Sconset Seaside
Sconset Seaside is simply throughout the road from Codfish Park. Since it’s on the island’s east finish, and never on the Nantucket Sound like a number of the island’s different seashores, the waves right here generally is a bit greater.
Dinner at Brotherhood of Thieves
Make your manner again downtown to dine at this family-friendly 1840s whaling bar with a big beer backyard and a comfortable British-style pub. Typically, there’s stay music. The menu right here is all over, however they do all of it properly. Brotherhood of Thieves is called one of the best place on the island for sushi, however the menu additionally has American pub fare.
Saturday Nantucket Itinerary for Children
Certain, you are able to do most of those actions any day of the week, however I constructed this itinerary with the puppet present at Kids’s Seaside in thoughts.
Breakfast Born & Bread
Choose up breakfast sandwiches, pastries, and low at this bakery on Centre Avenue and head to Kids’s Seaside for a picnic.
11 am Puppet Present at Kids’s Seaside
Native Nantucket artist and puppeteer Lizza Obremski places on a weekly present at Kids’s Seaside on Saturdays from July twelfth by September thirteenth. Moreover, there are Tuesday exhibits at Cisco Brewery at 11:30 a.m. from June third by August twenty sixth.
Kids’s Seaside Playground
There’s a playground beside the seashore, and it is best to most likely consider a while for a go to.
The Critter Cruise or Ice Cream Cruise
These tremendous common cruises go away Straight Wharf, lower than a 10-minute stroll from Kids’s Seaside.
The Critter Cruise is an hour lengthy cruise by the harbor with Captain Josh who hauls fish and lobster traps. Each aboard will get a fishing pole to attempt fishing. Any critters which are caught go right into a contact tank so that children can get an up-close look.
The Public Harbor Tour and Ice Cream Cruise is an hour lengthy, and visitors can take pleasure in ice cream whereas listening to a narrated tour of the harbor.
Brant Level Lighthouse
Nantucket has three lighthouses. In the event you take the ferry to Nantucket, you’ll move this lighthouse. In the event you do not see it upon arrival to the island, it is simply beside downtown, north of Kids’s Seaside. Brant Level Lighthouse stands simply 26 toes tall and is New England’s shortest lighthouse!
Bike Trip
Nantucket has glorious bike paths. You possibly can go for a non-public guided bike tour with Nantucket Bike Excursions or lease bikes from Younger’s Cycle Store and embark on a self-guided bike tour. Younger’s has e-bikes out there, which could be useful if you wish to take the 18.2-mile round-trip journey from city to Sconset. There are a number of choices for teenagers’ leases, from youngsters’ bikes to coated trailers and trail-a-bikes.
Seafood Dinner
Attempt low-key native favourite Sayle’s Seafood or the Nantucket Lobster Entice, a basic New England seafood shack.
Sayle’s Seafood is a fish market that provides seafood dinners, which might be loved on its waterfront deck or ordered as takeout. They provide a full clambake dinner with lobster, clam chowder, steamers, mussels, corn on the cob, and crimson potatoes. This meal is a must-try for any seafood lover. For individuals who do not love seafood, hen tenders and fries can be found. Sayle’s Seafood presents on-line ordering on its web site.
Nantucket Lobster Entice has a meals truck at Cisco Brewery and a sit-down restaurant downtown. The menu presents extra kid-friendly choices, reminiscent of hen fingers, burgers, grilled cheese, and scorching canines, along with New England seafood classics: lobster rolls, scallops, lobster by the pound, steamers, mussels, and a uncooked bar.
Jeep Trip
Younger’s Bicycle Store rents Jeeps, too. They even have automobile seats and booster seats out there. Nice Level and the Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Refuge are thought-about one of the best locations for a Jeep trip on the seashore. This tour will take you out to Nice Level Lighthouse. Word {that a} $50 day move is required to take the route. Earlier than you go, learn these directions for letting air out of the tires and driving on the seashore.
Seaside Day Two
Discover a seashore on the west aspect of the island.
Choose up Sandwiches at One thing Pure
The drive to the island’s west aspect will take you previous One thing Pure, so chances are you’ll wish to decide up sandwiches for the seashore in your manner.
Dionis Seaside
This seashore has calm waters because it faces Nantucket Sound. It wasn’t as busy as a number of the different seashores, and there was a lot of parking.
Madaket Seaside
Or, choose to go to Madaket Seaside. This seashore would not have a car parking zone, however the NRTA bus stops right here. Positioned on the island’s westernmost level, this seashore can have rougher surf than Dionis Seaside. Madaket Seaside is without doubt one of the greatest locations on Nantucket to look at the sundown.
Steps Seaside
In the event you choose to remain nearer to downtown, Steps Seaside is between Dionis Seaside and Jetties Seaside. Like Dionis and Jetties, this seashore has calm waters and a sandbar. Nevertheless, there are not any lifeguards or loos, and parking is proscribed.
The seashore will get its title from the lengthy collection of steps guests must take to entry it.
Dinner at Millie’s
In the event you went to the island’s west aspect, go to Millie’s in Madaket. Or, should you went to Steps, you possibly can go to Millie’s Mid-Island location on the rotary. The menus at each places embrace tacos, sandwiches, salads, and quesadillas. Additionally they provide a Maine lobster roll field that feeds eight. The kids’s menu has taco, burrito, quesadilla, and crispy salmon choices.
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