Nantucket

Nantucket grew rich on whaling, and the grey-shingled and clapboard town, with its cobbled Main Street and the captains' houses on upper Main, was built on it. The industry declined from the 1840s: the Great Fire of 1846 burned some forty acres of the town, the harbour silted up, New Bedford overtook it, the Gold Rush drew its men west, and the last ships were lost in the 1860s. Nothing replaced the money for decades, which is precisely why so little was demolished. The Whaling Museum in an old candle factory holds a 14-metre sperm whale skeleton and the story of the Essex, the ship rammed and sunk by a whale in 1820 that Melville used for Moby-Dick.

What's there

• A town preserved by economic collapse - nothing replaced whaling.
• Cobbled Main Street and captains' houses - built on whale oil.
• The Whaling Museum - a sperm whale skeleton and the Essex story.
• Grey shingle everywhere - the island's building convention.

When to go

June to October. A full day, better with a night.

Things to know

It is expensive - among the priciest places in the country in season. Ferries and flights book out and cancel in fog. Cars need reservations far ahead and are unnecessary. Off season much of the island shuts.

Nearby

Martha's Vineyard is west; Cape Cod is north.

Key facts