A hook-shaped spit of sand 26 miles off Cape Cod, Nantucket is not exactly a hidden gem, now that the private-jet set has taken a shine to what was once a stodgy old-money redoubt. The rich and resolutely unflashy have seen their 3 1/2-by-14-mile hideout slowly succumb to McMansionization and attendant ills. Still, about a third of the land is forever safe from development, and the cobbled streets of Nantucket Town (a National Landmark Historic District) remain intact, even if the pre-1840s shops along "Petticoat Row" – so named for the whalers’ wives who kept town commerce afloat while their mates prowled the sea in search of "greasy luck" – have turned to hawking designer baubles. Also unspoiled – and miraculously open to all hoi polloi, not just abutters – are the encircling beaches: the bay, with its wavelets gentle enough for toddlers, and the thrashing open ocean, with breakers tall enough to surf. The rolling moors seem custom-made for leisurely bike rides (paths fan out in all directions), and though nightlife is limited, restaurants on "The Rock" rival the finest back in "America."
- Sandy MacDonald for Triporati
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