Edgartown Rental Pick of the Week 4-8-2009
April 8, 2009 by Anne Mayhew
Filed under Families, MV Rentals, Martha's Vineyard
A wonderful combination of history and modern living. This property is known as the Emily Post house in the center Edgartown. The house has been fully restored while maintaining it’s historic integrity. There is lots of living space for a large group of people. The front sitting room is reminiscent of the more formal sitting room while the living room offers more casual comfort. There are three bedrooms in the main building portion of the house and then a fun secret cat walk that connects to two more bedrooms. The playroom on the second floor of the main house provides another nook that will be hard to draw the children away from!
The spacious courtyard is the place to be in the summer. Stunning gardens with Dahlias dating back to the 1920s and beautiful roses decorate the picket fences. Nothing says Edgartown more that the lovely rose covered fences in summer.
The interior design and color scheme draw you in and give you the feeling of easy summer living while appreciating the history of the property and the town.
MV RENTAL PICK OF THE WEEK 4-3-09
April 3, 2009 by Anne Mayhew
Filed under Edgartown, Families, MV Rentals, Martha's Vineyard, Vineyard Beaches
What more can you ask for? The ultimate vacation house with great proximity to South Beach, one of the best beaches on the East Coast! This property offers all the bells and whistles with great play areas as well as a great floor plan for multi-generational occupancy.
Enjoy summer afternoons and evenings on the upper level deck basking in the sea air while enjoying the Edgartown Harbor Views. This houses offers another deck off of the kitchen with an open fireplace/grill for the cooler nights.
Which Should You Book First? Your Vacation Home or Your Ferry Reservations?
December 24, 2008 by Anne Mayhew
Filed under Families, Getting Here, MV Rentals, Martha's Vineyard
It is a frequently asked question! Most renters that make the Vineyard an annual vacation destination are now in the decision making process of when, where and how. Because The Steamship Authority will be opening up vehicle ferry reservations for the summer months soon, many regulars are now trying to fit together the puzzle pieces.
Historically the primary turnover day for weekly rentals has been Saturday. We now see almost half of our owners use Sunday as the turnover day. This has occurred for a couple of reasons. The steamship authority is no longer able to handle the volume of cars being brought back and forth on Saturdays alone and owners have also been having difficulty finding a cleaning crew that can turn over that number of rental houses in one day.
We also now see a few owners consider mid week turn over days for the same reasons. Many of our tenants tend to like this as it gives them a full weekend on the island instead of having to pack and leave on one of the busy Saturday or Sundays.
When making your Martha’s Vineyard vacation plans you should try to book your rental home in advance of your ferry reservation so you know what days you will need to travel on. If this is done far enough in advance you should not have a problem come travel time! Many of our owners will try to be flexible on the turn over day as it gets closer to season if they can. Many of their weeks will be boxed in with prior bookings.
It always pays to plan ahead for your Vineyard vacation!
Martha’s Vineyard Vacation Rental: Chappaquiddick
December 15, 2008 by Anne Mayhew
Filed under Chappaquiddick, Edgartown, MV Rentals, Martha's Vineyard
Wile away the summer days on the island of Chappaquiddick. It is a special place with many unique characteristics. This house offers what we like to call “Chappy Charm” with many updated amenities. The views across the meadow and out to the marsh and ocean make this the perfect picture of serenity.
This house and guest house not only offer great proximity to the highly desirable south shore beaches at Wasque but also a mooring for your boat near the Chappy ferry. Enjoy beautiful summer days and nights with the ocean breezes and lovely sunsets right from the deck and screened porches on this property.
The master suite on the upper level with an enhanced view out to the sea also has a cat walk to a screened gazebo style porch making this a lovely romantic getaway. There’s not much more you could ask for in a Chappy rental!
For more information please contact Anne Mayhew at annemayhew@gmail.com
How Does the Steamship Authority Work?
December 9, 2008 by Anne Mayhew
Filed under Getting Here, MV Rentals, Martha's Vineyard, Services
For those of you that have been to the island of Martha’s Vineyard, you know that the process of bringing a vehicle along on your Vineyard vacation can be very trying if you don’t know the process! Our island population goes from around 15,000 year round residents to 100,000 August visitors. You really do need to take a ferry to and from the island. It is a 45 minute ferry ride from the Cape.
Once you have booked your Vineyard vacation rental, you will need to work on making arrangements for getting here. The Steamship Authority does not take reservations for the summer season until sometime in January. This year they open reservations online and via mail on January 20th. Mark your calendars! They will open the phone lines up on January 27, 2009.
Sometimes it feels like you have won the lottery when you get just the right times for your reservations for your August vacation. The process can seem unbearable much of the time but following are some tips that might help:
- Go online to the Steamship Authority and sign up for your profile number and pin prior to making your reservation.
- Go online as soon as you can on January 20, be patient as you may get bumped off the site due to high volume.
- Book any time you can on the day of travel or as close to the day of travel and request to be wait listed for your preferred times.
You should know that the wait list system does seem to work out for most travelers that are reserving their tickets this far in advance. The steamship has represented in the past that they do not completely book all of the boats so they will have some flexibility. Things do shift around but you may not know for sure right up until travel time. They do also have a day of sail number you can call to try to change your reservation while you are on the road.
I once had a customer call and book a house one Saturday in August, drive down and get right on the boat and arrive at my office to pay for their vacation home and pick up their key, all in the same day. This is not the norm and I do not recommend you wait to see if this works but, please realize that some of the systems that may seem very flawed can work well in the end!
Holiday Giving from Anywhere and Everywhere
December 1, 2008 by Anne Mayhew
Filed under Martha's Vineyard, News
This is the time of year when I take a few moments to contemplate the holiday season and what my holiday giving will be. The Red Stocking Fund is an annual giving avenue for me and will continue to be because they are so active on a local level.
I have found another great opportunity to give to a very great organization this year. It was brought to my attention by some really great travel bloggers who have organized a fundraiser called Passports with Purpose. It is a raffle with many great prizes and you can participate too! Raffle tickets are $10 each and you can choose which gift(s) you would like to take a chance on. I have contributed a $100 gift card for Amazon.com.
All of the proceeds will go to Heifer International. This organization focuses on ending world hunger and believes that they can accomplish their goal and has been successful to date based on the following Cornerstones:
- Passing on the Gift
- Accountability
- Sharing and Caring
- Sustainability and Self-Reliance
- Improved Animal Management
- Nutrition and Income
- Gender and Family focus
ON THE
- Genuine Need and Justice
- Improving the Environment
- Full Participation
- Training and Education
- Spirituality
“PASSING ON THE GIFTS”
The holidays can be stressful but I find making these kinds of contributions brings me back to the core and resets my outlook on what the holidays mean to me.
When Should You Book Your Vineyard Vacation?
November 25, 2008 by Anne Mayhew
Filed under Aquinnah, Chappaquiddick, Chilmark, Edgartown, Families, MV Rentals, Martha's Vineyard, Oak Bluffs, Vineyard Beaches, Vineyard Haven, West Tisbury
On Martha’s Vineyard, we begin booking rental homes for the following season before the current one ends! Many families decide they like coming to the island every year for a least one week. If they like the rental property they are staying in, and know they will be back, it makes sense for them to commit to the same house while they are here.
Rental home bookings continue through the fall and right up until the beginning of the season. Critical things to consider when trying to decide when to book your vacation home:
- Most owners know whether their repeat tenants are coming back by the end of September. If you are a new tenant or looking to change houses it may be difficult to get a commitment prior to that.
- Steamship Authority (vehicle ferry) opens up ticket sales for the summer months around mid January. Tickets sell out quickly for the weekend turnover days during the season.
- January is a strong booking month because of the ferry ticket sales and many popular houses will book up quickly.
- Rental homes are listed through out the season, to a certain degree, making last minutes bookings a strong possibility.
All in all, you should consider booking your Martha’s Vineyard vacation home ahead of time, especially, if you have specific criteria, price and dates in mind. If you can be somewhat flexible, any time is a good time! We have a house for you with over 500 listings in our inventory.
