One of the easiest, and most overlooked, great day trips to take out of the Greater Boston area is to Martha’s Vineyard (of course, the fall is also an ideal time to spend a night or two on the island now that availability can be found at the inns and hotels). But if you have a free Saturday and it’s crisp and clear, the experience of barely an hour’s drive south, getting on a ferry in Falmouth or Woods Hole, enjoying the ocean breeze for 40 minutes, and stepping off onto an island, can feel like a week-long vacation all packed into just eight or 10 hours.

Trust me. We did this on a warm July day and jammed so much in I can’t believe it was only one day.

First, just have some coffee and plan to catch an early ferry. Take the 8:15 a.m. out of Woods Hole or 9 a.m. out of Falmouth. That gets you to the island in time for breakfast.

Make sure you take your bikes, or rent bikes there (as you step off the ferries, you can’t miss the bike rental spots), but just plan on biking on the island. The Vineyard has more than 40 miles of trails, and they are beautiful and safe and they let you see the island in a leisurely, scenic way that a car does not or even one of the buses can’t.

On our trip, we took a ferry into Oak Bluffs, and after letting the kids take a brief spin on the great old Flying Horses Carousel we biked about 6 miles over to Edgartown, almost all of it on trails.

Once in Edgartown, the restaurant options are wide and varied. We settled on the water views at The Seafood Shanty, which overlooks the harbor and sits right next to the famous Chappaquiddick Ferry. Some chilled shrimp, a lobster roll and quesadillas for the kids did the trick, as did the view. You can sit indoors or outdoors here, and the ocean breeze is hard to beat.

Afterward, a friendly fellow on the dock offered our kids a fishing rod and they cast a few right there into the water for some surprise fun. Naturally we needed something sweet and it’s hard to look past the fudge shops, but we did when we spotted Mad Martha’s ice cream.

A bike ride back was possible, but the kids were pooped, so the convenient Vineyard Transit buses were perfect and we could put our bikes on the front rack (just be aware, only 3 bikes per bus, as we discovered the hard way).

We got back to Oak Bluffs and wandered down to the beach before walking back to Ocean Park, the huge town green with a gazebo. The kids stumbled into a Whiffle Ball game while we chilled on a bench, where we could have fallen asleep. Instead, we took a stroll through the gingerbread cottages neighborhood. The small historic homes are dollhouse-cute and meticulously maintained.

Then it was back on the bikes for a 4-mile ride along the shore to Vineyard Haven. Of course we hit the popular Black Dog Cafe, and before we knew it, it was dark and the last ferry of the evening was departing. Time to go and we hadn’t even explored the most pictureseque side of the island, the cliffs of Gayhead.

Next time.

Doug Most

A Perfect Day In . . .