Oak Bluffs

Oak Bluffs is the social heart of the Vineyard — the ferry comes in, the bars open, and the brightly painted Gingerbread cottages of the Methodist Camp Ground still look like nothing else in New England. The Flying Horses carousel (1876, the oldest operating platform carousel in the country) runs year-round. Inkwell Beach in town and the long State Beach toward Edgartown handle the village’s swimming.