A couple of our favorite beaches, Steps Beach and Jetties Beach, are within walking distance to town (a mile). If you go to Jetties beach and walk to the right, it will eventually bring you to Brant Point Lighthouse.

One-way distances for reference

Nantucket Hotel to White Elephant: .21 miles

Nantucket Hotel to Brant Point Light: .57 miles

Brant Point Light to Jetties (along beach): .93 miles

Jetties to Steps: .33 miles

Steps to Nantucket Hotel: about a mile

Brant Point

Established in 1746, Brant Point Light is the second lighthouse established in colonial America. It happens to be conveniently located at the end of Easton Street, the same street as the Nantucket Hotel and White Elephant. It is a short walk from either location, and rich in tradition in history. Find your way to Easton Street and walk towards the water. Brant Point Light is at the end of Easton Street. If you do walk down there, take time to walk up the gangplank, and around on the beach a bit.

Brant Point Information Resources

Children's Beach

Children's beach is also a stone's throw outside of town and has great views of the harbor. From the Nantucket Hotel, head down Easton Street and take a right on Harbor Way just before the White Elephant. If you are coming from town, walk out South Beach Street and take a right on Harbor Way, just past Lola 41.

Children's Beach Website

Fun fact: both Erica and John played at Children’s Beach when they were young. They may have been there at the same time. Who knew?

Children’s is the closest beach to town.

Jetties Beach (about a mile out of town)

From the corner of Easton Street and North Beach Street walk out North Beach Street away from town. Follow North Beach to Bathing Beach Road (and signs for Jetties Beach) and take a right. Jetties Beach is at the end of Bathing Beach Road. You are welcome to return the same way you came, but there are a myriad of other options. You can walk along the water back towards town and will wind up at Brant Point (best if at low tide). Alternatively, you can wander through Brant Point along Hulbert, Walsh or one of the other streets in Brant Point. You can’t get lost.

Jetties Beach Website

Steps Beach (about a mile out of town)

Same directions as Jetties Beach (above) but don’t take the right on Bathing Beach Road. Go straight and North Beach will turn into Jefferson Avenue. You’ll pass Cobblestone Hill on your left and then Pawgvet Lane on your right. If you look to your right down Pawguvet Lane, you’ll see what look like two small lighthouses that flank a house named The Shoe, noted famously in the book Cheaper by the Dozen written by Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. Steps Beach, the Cliffside Beach Club, and the Galley Restaurant are at the end of Jefferson Avenue. If you walk to the water, and look to your right, you’ll see the Jetties, and Jetties Beach. If you walk about 100 yards to your left, and then stop, and look up The Cliff, you’ll see the steps that give Steps Beach its name. You can return the way you came, or wander your way back along the water past the Jetties and Brant Point.

Steps Beach Website

Steps, Jetties, and Brant Point (a couple miles)

From the Nantucket Hotel head down Easton towards the water, go left on North Beach stay on same as it turns to Jefferson Avenue past Bathing Beach Road. Left up Cobblestone Hill, right on Lincoln Circle, stay on right side and look for the Steps Beach sign at the end of Lincoln Circle. Follow the sign to the top of Steps Beach. When at the top, note the view (Great Point Light can be seen in the distance, and the Nantucket Bar is clearly visible, especially at low tide). Then head down the steps and take a right (past Cliffside Beach Club, inspiration for Elin Hildebrand’s first book The Beach Club). Walk the beach towards the Jetties along Nantucket Sound and then when you pass the Jetties you’ll be walking along Nantucket Harbor. When you get to a series of rocks along the beach, you have a choice. You can either (1) walk up Charles Street (at beach 38C) and then take a left on Hulbert or (2) if low tide can walk along the beach back towards Brant Point light. Either way, end up at Brant Point Light at the end of Easton. Walk back up Easton to the Nantucket Hotel, if the Brant Point Grille is open you can stop in for a beverage.

Nantucket Conservation Foundation

This is a helpful website that also provides some of the great hiking trails on Nantucket.

Nantucket Conservation Foundation Trails

Or, you could just go on a rantum scoot of your own accord. What is a rantum scoot?

1896 DN 1.423 Nantucket MA, Rantum scoot: pleasure drive.

1916 Macy–Hussey Nantucket Scrap Basket 142, “Rantum Scoot”—A term, we believe, peculiar to Nantucket, and very old. It means a day’s “cruise” or picnic about the island, usually a drive, but it might be on foot. The distinctive feature of such an excursion is that the party has no definite destination, but rather a roving commission, in which respect such a trip differs from a “squantum”. . . “Rantum” is probably a corruption of random.

See definition

Easton St, Nantucket, MA 02554, USA

We highly recommend stopping in if you have extra time. Nantucket was built around its history of whaling.

13 Broad St, Nantucket, MA 02554, USA

Nantucket Whaling Museum Website

Nantucket has three lighthouses. You can walk to Brant Point and cycle or drive to Sankaty Head. Great Point requires a four-wheel drive vehicle and is not always accessible.

There are lots of local shops with clothes, art, jewelry, souvenirs, and great food options in and around Main Street!

Baxter Rd, Nantucket, MA 02554, USA