HI Nantucket

Top choice in Nantucket


Known locally as Star of the Sea, this cool hostel has a million-dollar setting just minutes from Surfside Beach. It's housed in a former lifesaving station that dates from 1873 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As Nantucket's sole budget option, its 49 beds are in high demand, so book as far in advance as possible.

Prices include breakfast and linen; non-HI members pay an additional $3.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Nantucket attractions

1. Surfside Beach

0.19 MILES

Surfside Beach, 3 miles from Nantucket Town at the end of Surfside Rd, is a top draw with the college and 20-something set. It has full facilities,…

2. Nobadeer Beach

2.15 MILES

About 1 mile east of Surfside Beach is Nobadeer Beach, below the flight path of the airport. It attracts surfers and a beach-party crowd.

3. Museum of African American History

2.31 MILES

The Nantucket campus of this museum stands as testimony to the influential African American community that thrived on the island in the 19th century. It…

4. Old Mill

2.33 MILES

The Old Mill is America’s oldest working windmill (c 1746), as game young docents will demonstrate by grinding corn (weather conditions permitting). It's…

5. Nantucket Lightship Basket Museum

2.43 MILES

What the lighthouse is to the New England coast, the lightship was to the sea – essentially a floating lighthouse to warn of dangerous shoals or sandbars…

6. Old Gaol

2.58 MILES

To see where drunken sailors used to spend the night, visit the Old Gaol, the c 1806 jail that served Nantucket for 125 years. It was constructed using…

7. Hadwen House

2.6 MILES

A walk through the Nantucket Historical Association’s Hadwen House, a Greek Revival home built in 1845 by a whaling merchant, provides testimony to just…

8. Nantucket Atheneum

2.78 MILES

More than just the public library, this stately Greek Revival edifice is a sight in itself. The 2nd-floor Great Hall has hosted such notables as Ralph…