Whether you celebrate Valentine’s Day or absolutely loathe it, the holiday is the perfect opportunity (or excuse!) to get away. This year, we’re doing something special, with steep discounts on all the rooms and too-good-to-pass-up add ons. Join us for two nights and you’ll have a bottle of chilled Prosecco waiting when you arrive, 12 Washburn Island Oysters to enjoy during our “Happy Hour,” a hearty breakfast to start the day in our sunny reading room, and a box of our favorite local chocolates. Plus, we’ll let you decide which weekend is better for you — the one before or the one after — Valentine’s Day.
So, pack your bags, bring your loved one, and enjoy the peace and quiet of Cape Cod in the winter! Woods Hole Inn is across the street from the Martha’s Vineyard ferry terminal, so adventurous souls need not feel restless. Other options: the best pastries on Cape Cod at Maison Villatte (we recommend the chocolate chip cookies, chocolate almond croissants and olive cheese bread), a picturesque sunset walk on the Knob, or a day trip to the National Seashore.
For those of you inclined to stay inside, we’ve got you covered with 600 thread count sheets and all the rom coms you could ever want. 🙂
See pricing details here, and call (508) 495-0248 to book today!
With the years flying by faster than ever, it gets harder and harder to find the time for a pause, no matter how brief. At the Woods Hole Inn, we want you to be able to treasure your stay as much as possible, so we’ve created our “Same Time Next Year” special with that in mind; just ask for a piece of our beautiful custom paper, find a quiet reading spot at the Inn (or settle into one of our Adirondack chairs on the deck) and write a letter to your future self. We’ll keep it tucked away for safe keeping until you return. And by booking your next year’s stay now, we’ll honor the current rate, plus take 10% off. Consider it the best gift you could give your future self, and a well-earned moment of reflection.
We love being your letter’s safe haven, but the the best part by far is seeing all your smiles as you pass them over!
Planning a honeymoon on Cape Cod? With its sandy beaches, fresh squeezed summer cocktails, and picturesque bike paths, the Cape has always been high on the list for newly-weds looking for a romantic and restorative honeymoon. Below, we’ve rounded up our five favorite lodging options for the Upper Cape, your honeymoon Cape Cod dream locale. Starting with…
Conveniently located just steps from Falmouth’s Main Street, this upscale Bed & Breakfast has a classic, 1950’s elegance — with rooms that will make you feel both comfortable and special. Breakfast can be enjoyed on the expansive veranda overlooking the grounds and gorgeous greenery. We recommend their made daily and in-house blueberry scones, perfect destination for your honeymoon Cape Cod style.
Want something a little more modern? The Nobnocket Inn, newly restored with a contemporary, British flare, is Vineyard Haven’s best new Bed & Breakfast, and the perfect excuse for the forty-five minute ferry ride over. You won’t want to leave once you arrive, and owners Simon and Annabelle will instantly make you feel at home. Spend your honeymoon window shopping the adorable (Obama approved!) shops in Vineyard Haven, or take a day trip down island for a chance to enjoy the many picture-perfect beaches. See our complete tour of the Inn here.
At the Belfry Inn & Bistro in Sandwich, every room is different. Once a Catholic church with high, vaulted ceilings, you’ll have a chance to sleep in a king bed below a magnificent stained glass window! Gold Winner of Cape Cod Life’s best Bed & Breakfast — the Inn also houses one of the Cape’s finest restaurants, where an evolving menu offers a fresh and seasonal take on American cuisine. Try the local burrata with eggplant Caponata, or the Belfry burger with tomato jam and crispy Prosciutto.
Sticking to a budget, or more of the outdoors-y types? Rent a tipi at Sippewissett Campgrounds, which offers 100 sites equipped with picnic tables and fire pits — and even a laundromat. Take advantage of the campground’s free daily shuttle to the beach and ferry, or rent bikes for a scenic trip into Woods Hole for hot coffee and Popovers at Pie in the Sky. A honeymoon Cape Cod complete with s’mores and catching fireflies in a jar could be yours!
And last but not least — the Woods Hole Inn. We could go on and on about the romantic charm of this bustling port town — from the waterfront restaurants to the sweet seals at the aquarium to the best lobster tacos on Cape Cod — all just walking distance from the Inn. Take a trip to the Vineyard (the Inn is just steps from the Steamship Authority ferry terminal), or keep it local with lots of beaches, a bike path that hugs the shore, and evenings sipping champagne on our private water-facing deck. We can guarantee you’ll fall in love with this place we call home.
Summer has just begun, but fall is around the corner and we are partnering with the Cape Cod Chamber to create a fabulous “Beer Bed & Breakfast” weekend on Cape Cod in November (4th – 6th, 2016). As the season comes to a close, true Cape Cod lovers will gather for a fall weekend filled with romance, respite, delicious breakfasts and a killer craft beer dinner at Quicks Hole (Saturday Nov 5th at 7 pm).
You can read all about the menu here. This craft beer noshfest will feature local draft beers, lobster taco bites, chicken tacos and a kale, corn & beans salad with cumin corriander lime dressing. Finish the evening off with a taste of our famous “bag of donuts” all while looking over the ferry terminal from our year-round restaurant Quicks Hole Tavern, located next door to the Woods Hole Inn.
Fall in Woods Hole is all cozy & romantic, with low light, fireplaces lit and long walks on empty Cape Cod beaches. Or hop the ferry across the street and visit Martha’s Vineyard after the crowds have moved on and sales are in full swing. Cape Cod is fall’s best kept secret, but now you are onto it, so book today as this fab Woods Hole Beer Bed & Breakfast weekend will sell out for sure.
Details and pricing here. The value of this craft beer dinner is $40 pp, but pricing is included in your two night stay. A limited number of seats will be sold to locals as supplies last. Please call the restaurant 508-495-0048 to reserve. Please note that service is not included, and we encourage you to tip your servers.
When Rachel Ray calls, you answer, right? Last week, we heard she was looking for special romantic breakfast recipes, and what’s more romantic than breakfast for two at the Woods Hole Inn?
So, close your eyes and imagine a perfect parfait of fresh cut berries, layered with thick greek yogurt, and house-made granola, the fragrance of savory bread pudding wafting from miniature cast iron pans, and a warm muffin dusted lightly with powdered sugar. How about the steam off a hot cup of coffee, served in a thick pottery mug that rests softly in the heart of your hand? Plus the smell of salt air fresh off the harbor? Hmm, now that sounds nice.
Open your eyes and look out over Woods Hole Harbor with ferryboats bustling and cumulous clouds floating over distant islands. Spend a moment dreaming about your perfect Cape Cod vacation day — sleeping late in your comfortable bed, walk to the beach, take a long swim, stroll along the harbor, savor a lobster dinner, sip a nightcap with your feet in the Atlantic. Cape Cod vacation perfected.
But how should we relate all this back to Rachel Ray? Enter Charlene, our world class breakfast chef. Her vegan “Tomato Soup” muffins are notorious up and down the East Coast, and we felt confident that Rachel Ray would be suitably impressed by her perfect breakfast spread.
Breakfast at the Woods Hole Inn – always a work of art.
Summer Dreams — I am officially dreaming of summer, long days where the light lasts, and I luxuriate in the cool breeze on my skin after a nice long swim, or sit at the edge of the sand with a tattered New Yorker, a fine sun hat, and strong dark glasses watching puffy clouds pass over Vineyard Sound. Add a chilly drink nestled in the sand at my side, and this is a dream of summer perfection.
With spring officially here, I was hopeful to see witch hazel, snow drops and crocuses popping in my neighbor’s yards here in Woods Hole. But March came roaring through, her most lion-ish self, with a something the weather service was calling a “bomb.” Sounds a lot scarier than it turned out. Nevertheless, Tuesday dawned with snow coming down sideways and wind blowing 50 knots. Nantucket got it the worst, with over a foot of snow. We had high winds and a couple of inches, but it blew around so much you wouldn’t know it. Best of all, no shoveling required. Most people slept in, stayed indoors for the morning — by mid afternoon most everything was back open for business.
Here is a glimpse at the look and feel of the storm at the height — Tuesday morning March 25th, 2014.
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Author Maile Meloy was in Falmouth last week talking with fans about her novels Apothocary (a New York Times bestseller which also won the E.B White Award in 2012) and it’s sequel Apprentices. Eight Cousins Bookshop on Main Street hosted her visit and invited their middle school book club to read the book and come ask her questions.
Of Meloy’s debut novel Liars and Saints, the New York Times Book Review wrote, ” “Every once in a while a book comes along that upends popular notions of American fiction. There is the literature of family dysfunction . . . There is regional literature . . . There is the social novel about current events . . . And there is the historical novel . . . Liars and Saints, Maile Meloy’s spectacular first novel, is at once all of these literatures and none of them.”
Meloy — a long-time fan of the Woods Hole Inn — visited for this chilly February weekend from her home in Los Angeles. Meloy talked to her readers about growing up in Montana, her daily rituals as a writer, and her creative collaboration with the illustrator Ian Schoenherr. She shared a wonderful slide show, took questions from the audience, and signed a bunch of books.
One of my favorite parts of running the Woods Hole Inn is building a team of people who come together to deliver a fantastic guest experience. I am particularly blessed this summer with a great group who have worked seamlessly together all summer. As we approach the dog days of August, I reflect on how lucky I am to work with such a talented, committed, knowledgeable and thoughtful crew.
Thank you to each and every one of you who made and is making summer 2013 memorable for all our guests. You make it look easy!
One of the greatest pleasures of inn-keeping is the chance to meet people from all over the world. One of my passions is photography, and I enjoy sharing the beauty of Woods Hole on guest “photo-walks” the best of which turn into fascinating conversations about life.
We generally depart from the front door of the inn, and I like to get out when the light is still good, and we explore the village for about an hour, scouring the back alleys for lobster traps, peering down pathways and scampering across Cape Cod beaches. I love sharing my favorite spots, and seeing them anew as guests always point out things I have never noticed. There is always new light, new flora, new angles to explore.
This spring I went out a few times, and one guest Janice Murray (who keeps a great Etsy shop of her work here) even sent me some of her favorites to publish here (see below mixed with mine). Then there was the guy on his honeymoon from the UK, wandering the East Coast for a few weeks with a large camera and an insatiable thirst to understand the American psyche. Here are a few pictures from these great walks/talks. I look forward to many more…
CUT! OK, now that I have your mind buzzing as mine is with the soundtrack of Christmas… let me pause for a moment and wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas, and happy holidays too!
From all of us here in Woods Hole, to you and yours.
Did you know that Falmouth — with all it’s open space, forests, beaches, marshland and cranberry bogs — is known as one of the best places for Atlantic coastline birding?
Yes, you will find the Merlin, the Sanderling, the Cooper’s Hawk and the Warbler all hiding in the rushes here in Falmouth in various seasons. And if you love spotting the dramatic Osprey, the huge hawk that likely gave “Buzzards Bay” its’ name, you will find them nesting in summer here, and delight in watching their enormous wing span, wild twig-ridden nests, and incredible fishing prowess. Osprey migrate from here to the Amazon in winter, but return to this area for nesting and hatching their young.
Craig Gibson is a Falmouth resident and passionate bird photographer. Up at dawn with his long lenses and a sea kayak, Craig hunts the bird life deep in the marshes, and on the small barrier islands and sand dunes where they nest and breed. His collection of photos “A Year of Falmouth Birds” will take your breath away. Copies are available for sale in local book shops, and benefit the 300 Committee Land Trust, our local conservation group. You can also see his great action shots weekly in our local newspaper, the Falmouth Enterprise.
Of course birders will be familiar with the Great Blue Heron, or the Snowy Egret, but for first time visitors to our area, these extraordinary birds will impress and awe you. Come to Woods Hole to learn more!
Today the red chair left the Woods Hole Inn, departing on its latest journey across New England. Friend of the Woods Hole Inn, Kate Kavanagh, volunteered to help the Red Chair reach its destination. There were lots of photographs and a small goodbye as the chair made it’s way out of the inn.
The red chair will be traveling for the next six months to 40-plus inns in the most beautiful corner of America. For it’s first stop, the Red Chair will be visiting the Cliff Side Inn in Newport, Rhode Island. Surrounded by the mansions of the Gilded Age, a scenic cliff walk and ocean-side views, the Cliff Side Inn was the perfect choice for the start of an epic journey.
They say it takes a village. And in the lovely town of Falmouth, Mass (where there are eight villages that make up the municipality), I would say it takes NINE.
Nine Bed & Breakfast’s that is. All members of the Falmouth B&B Association. Together we offer over 70 rooms with many styles and locations. Want the beach? Try Baileys, Inn on the Sound, or the Beach Rose. Love being in the middle of town? Well there are four great spots clustered around the Falmouth Green, walking distance to the shops, restaurants AND the beach. Want a convenient way to take the Martha’s Vineyard ferry? Try your options in Woods Hole… and the list goes on.
This august group came together last winter and decided to re-do our association’s website (check it out here!) AND add some video as part of the “Better Way to Stay” campaign. Since I have some film experience, I was elected to usher the filmmakers around town. And be the craft services team, and the first AD, and the production coordinator, and the still photographer… See unlike my former days in Hollywood, where a crew might be about 200 people, this was a lean, mean operation.
Our “guests” were wonderful local actors and all-around great people like Davidson Calfee, Maura Aldrich, Jenn Perault, and Jared and Jennifer. We were so grateful they donated their time to make this shoot a success.
Here are a few “behind the scenes” shots of the “making of” the Falmouth Better Way to Stay video! And if you want to see more of the “Better Way to Stay” campaign, look here. Stay tuned as we wait for the final edited version that we hope you will help us share with the world.
Falmouth, and it’s nine bed and breakfasts, are FOR SURE, the smarter way to visit Cape Cod.
Luke Stafford of Mondo Media is behind the camera, while Jared and Jennifer (owner of the “Pink Polka Dot” a Falmouth gift and wedding boutique) serve as our breakfast models at the newly renovated Captain’s Manor Inn.
Maura Aldrich and Davidson Calfee playing guests at the Palmer House, an original Queen Anne property with 17 rooms on the Falmouth Green.
Luke works deftly to get this romantic silhouette shot on the porch of Bailey’s by the Sea, a wonderful B&B right on the beach in Falmouth Heights. Davidson Calfee and Jenn Perrault oblige with faux martini’s and a toast to the sunset.
Thanks to all who made this day happen. Stay posted for the results.
While we renovated the inn this winter, we did not renovate our website, SO for the time being, this post will serve as an introduction to the look, feel, vibe of the “New Rooms” at the Woods Hole Inn.
Some general comments: these rooms are all on the second floor of the inn. They all have vintage restored wood floors, the same wood floors that were always here just polished up. All have rain showers and bath tubs. All have views either of the village of Woods Hole, or over the harbor of Woods Hole. All have king beds, luxury linens, ipod docking stations, cable TV with DVD players. air conditioning AND free wireless internet access. Two have private water view decks, and all share a large deck with a great view of the Martha’s Vineyard ferry coming and going.
We continued with numbers on some, and others received names, like the birthing of infants which is not unlike how making them felt at certain moments. So without further ado…here they are:
ROOM 10: private entryway, private bath, king room with peekaboo view of the Eel Pond
ROOM 11: private entryway, private bath, king corner room with views out over the village green
Nobska Room: Delux private bath with vintage bathtub and glass rain shower, king room with killer views of the harbor and Martha’s Vineyard ferries
Penzance Room: Private water view deck, large private bath with twin pedestal sinks, vintage bath and glass rain shower in a large king room with water views
Nonamessett Room: Private water view deck, large private bath with distinctive wall mount sink, vintage bath and glass rain shower in a large king room with water views
So there you have it, pictures and information about the five new rooms! Please use our secure online booking agent at www.woodsholeinn.com OR call 508-495-0248 to book these rooms. We look forward to welcoming you to Woods Hole.
Le Tout Woods Hole was there munching on fresh salsas, lobster taco bites and crabcakes made fresh that very day. Yum! The building was packed with people, circling around and oohing and aahing over the new spaces and decor. Very gratifying after six months of sawdust and construction debris.
Falmouth Town Manager, Julian Suso, presented the Woods Hole Inn with a proclamation from the town, in gratitude for our saving the old grey lady. We were touched by the outpouring of compliments and appreciation from visitors, who seemed glad to see that this historic structure will live to see many more years in it’s prominent corner in the middle of town.
It was fun to re-visit with the contractors and sub-contractors as well, enjoying the space they all worked so hard to make beautiful. People lingered over the wallpaper designed from 1946-era check-in cards, gathered on the water view decks, and wondered when they could justify checking in despite living a three minute walk away!
So, without further adieu…drumroll please….here are a few views of the new rooms:
Room Eleven, a spacious room with king bed and private bath offers a wonderful view of the village green from it’s corner spot overlooking the WCAI building and Pie in the Sky bakery.
Modern decor with vintage restored details define the bath of room 10. This sink was found in the attic and restored at the Tub Doctor.
The Nonamesset Room has distinctive red coral lamps and a private deck with water views over Woods Hole harbor.
Hardwood floors, vintage restored bathtub and an unusual shape cast iron sink define the bath in the Nonamesset Room.
The Nobska Room is on the same side of the building as Nobska lighthouse, and looks out over the ferry terminal, Woods Hole harbor and Martha’s Vineyard in the distance. Love those soothing blue/greens.
So, pack your vintage bags and come on over for a fabulous romantic weekend at the best new inn on the Upper Cape. Book NOW; if it goes like last year we will sell out early.
Escher would appreciate the view from the top of the three story staircase looking down on the famous red chair in our lobby.
We look forward to showing you the place in person. Some of you have been following along all winter — What do you think??
Remember the story of the red chair? You know, the image I put on Facebook that inspired a visit from a Californian photographer who then sent me the most amazing photograph she had taken of the chair? I wrote all about this last spring, and told everyone I ever met all about it, and you can catch up with the story here.
Well, now the red chair is headed on a very unique trip. I have reached out to innkeepers all over Cape Cod. This chair is going to have the most amazing spring visiting the very best places to stay on the Cape and Islands.
Having checked in on the phone with these fabulous hoteliers, I can genuinely say I am jealous of the chair’s journey. I too want to spend five weeks crisscrossing the Cape, exploring every nook and cranny from the dunes of Race Point to the shops of Nantucket, from the farms of Martha’s Vineyard to the sand flats of Barnstable Harbor. I too want to try a growler of Cape Cod beer in Hyannis, or see the whales and dolphins off Provincetown, or chow on steamers in Truro, or skip the boardwalk in Sandwich.
Why send a chair on a journey like this? Because, like the surrealists used to say, this chair is not just a chair. It is a metaphor, an invitation to come explore yourself in a quiet and beautiful place. It is an open seat at the table of relaxation. It is the beckoning hand of civilization, marking the edge of the wildness of nature where you can lose and find yourself at the same time. It is the dialogue between artists and innkeepers, dreamers and shop-girls, lost travelers and those that welcome them into warm beds.
And that, my friends, is why the chair needs to travel!
Today I prepared my heart, then drove the chair to thirty minutes up the road to the lovely village of Sandwich where the chair will be hosted by the Belfry Inn and Bistro for a few days. This is a really cool place — a converted church with all the stained glass still intact. I must admit, I felt a bit like a mother taking their child to overnight camp for the first time! I mean, all the preparation I have put into this trip, and when it came down to it I really did not want to let that chair out of my hot little hands. I was feeling anxious and worried, wrote a long note to my fellow innkeepers about it’s care and safekeeping, even fretted a little about leaving it on side deck rather than handing it directly to the next innkeeper.
But I have to remember, the soul of this chair was meant to be shared. I found it at the swap shop, and so much joy has come already from sharing it. I have to believe more joy, laughs, curiosity will come as others are touched by it too.
Some nostalgic images of the chair at the Woods Hole Inn before it headed out:
Oooh, that Cape light.
On a foggy day:
Then getting ready to head out today, with a little note that says “Read Me!” filled with instructions and well-wishes.
Here we are all loaded up in the car:
Arriving at the Belfry Inn in Sandwich MA, a lovely 30 minute drive on a windy bright day:
And finally the hiding spot:
Isn’t everything better when shared?
More to come on this story, plus read about it directly in a new blog called RedChairTravels.com.
Last week was unseasonably warm, daffodils sprouting overnight everywhere you looked. Last year at this time, I took a picture of the witch hazel blooming with snow all around it. As I drove around on errands yesterday, the car thermometer said 80 degrees. What a difference a year makes.
All week, an Atlantic fog hovered just off shore, drifting in to fill the village streets and float over the Eel Pond each evening as the sun set. In the mornings, I returned from my walks feeling as if I had marched through a cloud, eyebrows dripping with the thick humidity.
The construction is cruising along upstairs at the Woods Hole Inn. This week, the painters finished up on the first floor, and we followed behind them spring cleaning. Our guests return next weekend, so we are in the crazy push to get tidy — with the closets back in order, the breakfast recipes brushed up and the outdoor cushions on the porch.
Upstairs, the painters are done and the floors are finished. The rooms look really great, all spit-polished and shined. I am especially enamored of the floors. We saved the old hardwoods, and patched where the walls used to be so that the floor is a crazy quilt of old and new. It’s as if the bones of the old building are exposed, and along with the salvaged moldings, the vintage restored tubs and and the old-fashioned radiator system, I think it will make you feel that the heart of the place still beats with 1870’s joy.
Soon, exterior painting begins. I look forward as the pale shingles — looking a bit like band-aids randomly placed — turn to a rich saturated blue to match the rest. With that, the Woods Hole Inn will look much as it has since it was built over 130 years ago.
Here is the old grey lady on a foggy day last week, a bit lonely in the grey March streets.
A sander on the raw floors where we intentionally left some paint in the crevices to celebrate the marriage of the old with the new.
A view of the final flooring, in the Nonamesset Room — a great spot to spend a few days with corner light, harbor views and your private deck. These rooms will be furnished and open for guests by the end of April if all goes as planned.
The ferry waits in the morning fog, its distinctive horns dancing and reverberating across Vineyard Sound.
Finally, sunset this week over Eel Pond as the fog rolled in. I am grateful for spring, especially this particular warm, foggy spring.
The winter months pass faster than you might imagine, as you count the days for Cape Cod summer to return. The sunsets are glamorous and this winter has been unusually warm — a mixed blessing for those of us so close to sea level. If global warming is for real, then we are looking into the maw of the beast. The silver lining? The mild weather makes it easier to dash out at sunset and catch this kind of panorama.
Construction continues at the Woods Hole Inn. The second floor, where the new guest rooms are located, is almost done. This week they put the finish paint on, and next week will be consumed with refinishing the amazing original hardwood floors. Radiators went back in, the old school cast iron kind, and french doors were hung on the doors to the decks. Deck railing comes next week as well.
On the third floor, where the staff of the Inn will live soon enough, the drywall and plastering is complete and carpenters are putting the trim on the windows and molding along the floor boards. Sadly, the old wood floors up there were trashed, a cruel fate required for structural reasons by the Falmouth building department. In it’s place, the sustainable cork tiles will look modern and clean. The shapes of the rooms can finally be seen fully, and it’s odd to have such an intimate memory of the bones underneath the skin of the walls.
We are ordering a special wallpaper for the front hall, made from the piles of 1946-era check in cards we found stashed in the attic. I am confident that it will look graphic and interesting, and also delight those who want to reminisce about Mrs Josiah Smith of Vineyard Haven who stayed at the inn in 1946 for $3 per night. In addition, I found two incredible Russian ship lanterns, galvanized metal with red paint and old marine glass. I am having them made into lights for the front porch. You will tell me if you think they make the right “vintage restored” statement when they are finally hung in place.
I took my copy of building plans and wrote a love note to the person who will unearth all our work 50 years from now. I tried to express the joy I found in the doing, but I secretly hope they will know my passions from the lines of the house before they ever find my rushed scribbles.
A few images for you:
View from the top of the stairs looking down. The splattered wood you see in the middle will be removed so that you can experience three stories in the entrance. These are the walls that will be wall-papered with the check in cards from 1946.
Top floor, a lovely living room with private balcony and views to Martha’s Vineyard. Grey from the fresh plaster, this will be painted white and all trimmed out.
Another view of the same room, the light streaming in from the side of the building that faces the Martha’s Vineyard ferry.
New bathrooms with combo shower-tubs and the vintage floors brought back to their pre-paint glory.
Cast iron tubs came from the tub doctor in New Bedford. They look happy to be out of the showroom and back in the action.
Finally, the perfect image of the summer coming, from my friend Denise at the Sippewissett Campgrounds. This is what we are all waiting for. Thank you for sharing this, Denise — Nobska Lighthouse on an incredible summer day.
I can’t wait to be out on my boat looking up at that lighthouse, waiting for the fireflies to come out, basking in the last light of the day as the sun sets over Vineyard Sound. See you all this summer.
