Jetties Beach

Nantucket's most accessible beach — a 15-minute walk from town with calm harbor water, a playground, snack bar, and tennis courts. Host of the annual Film Festival's beach screening.

Jetties Beach is downtown Nantucket's family blockbuster — a wide, calm, sheltered Nantucket Sound beach reached by a fifteen-minute walk or five-minute bike from Main Street. Everything's here: a large free lot, a long bathhouse with restrooms and outdoor showers, tennis courts, a playground, a sailing center that runs lessons all summer, a busy snack bar, and lifeguards on the main swim zone. The water is shallow well out and the chop rarely tops a foot. The Nantucket Film Festival's outdoor screening night turns the sand into a movie theater every June. Get there mid-morning if you want a spot near the bathhouse; the far ends stay quieter all day.