The thirty-mile, two-hour sea crossing to NANTUCKET may not be an oceangoing odyssey, but it does set the "Little Grey Lady" apart from her larger, shore-hugging sister, Martha. Halfway here from Hyannis, neither mainland nor island is in sight, and once you've landed you can avert your eyes from the smart-money double-deck cruisers with names like Pier Pressure and Loan Star and let the place remind you that it hasn't always been a rich folk's playground. Indeed, despite the formidable prowess of its seamen, survival for early settlers on the island's scrubby soil was always a struggle.

The tiny cobbled carriageways of Nantucket Town itself, once one of the largest cities in Massachusetts, were frozen in time by economic decline 150 years ago. Today, this area of delightful old restored houses - the town has more buildings on the National Register of Historic Places than Boston - is very much the center of activity. From the moment you get off the ferry you're besieged by bike rental places and tour companies. Straight Wharf leads directly onto Main Street with its shops and restaurants; the information office - which has a daily list of accommodation vacancies, but doesn't make reservations - is nearby at 25 Federal St (tel 508/228-0925). The Chamber of Commerce , 48 Main St (tel 508/228-1700, ), carries the best range of island information. The main sights in town are the excellent Whaling Museum (daily 11am-4pm; $12) on Broad Street at the head of Steamboat Wharf, where you should look out especially for such scrimshaw artifacts as a set of twenty-one whale types carved from whale teeth, and the astonishing harpoon corkscrewed in the "lurry" or last struggle of a dying whale, and the Peter Foulger Museum ($5), which covers island history next door.

After a stroll around Nantucket Town, it's customary to cycle the seven flat miles east to the village of Siasconset (always abbreviated to 'Sconset), where the venerable cottages stand literally encrusted with salt, and then to meander back across the heaths and moorland. Buses also link Nantucket Town and 'Sconset. NRTA (tel 508/228-7025) runs shuttles from late May through early October and charges $1 each way.

Nantucket

• Nantucket
• Ferries to Nantucket
• The whalers of Nantucket
• Eating

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