In the 1960s, Little Gem Resorts CEO Mark Snider grew up spending summers on Nantucket, Mass., but it was on Martha’s Vineyard, another island south of the Cape, where he and his wife, Gwenn Snider, opened the company’s first hotel: the Winnetu Oceanside Resort.
The Sniders have deep roots on both islands. In Martha’s Vineyard, the family’s real estate ambitions date back more than 50 years, when Mark’s father, Stanley Snider, developed condos in Katama, an area close to Edgartown, where the Winnetu is located.
Today, the Sniders tag team—Gwenn is the chief creative officer—on their portfolio of three properties, which also includes the Nantucket Hotel and their newest addition, Lovango, located in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The couple lives “on island” in Martha’s Vineyard for the summer season in their home overlooking South Beach, a five-minute drive from the Winnetu. The husband-wife hospitality duo and Martha’s Vineyard aficionados share some of their favorite spots with Penta.
Stay
We think that the Nobknocket in Vineyard Haven is a wonderful place to stay. It’s a chic and elevated bed and breakfast. Simon and Annabelle, a husband-and-wife team, are the innkeepers and you can see they love what they do. It sits on two to three acres, so staying there feels like a world away from Vineyard Haven and the harbor, yet walking to town takes minutes.
The other place we like is the HobKnob in Edgartown. The inn is romantic and brings a sense of sophistication and charm to the forefront in their approach to hospitality. The location is great—just outside of downtown, making it walkable to shops and restaurants.
Both these places are a nice counterpoint to the Winnetu, our resort, with all we include and being so close to the beach. We are one of the only truly family-friendly hotels on the Vineyard. As the parents of three (now adult) children, we know what you need when traveling with kids.
We also have a whole rental program of houses that can be used for multigeneration vacations if people want more space (the Winnetu is an all-suite property), but the renters still have full access to all the hotel amenities, like the pool, gym, and the kids’ club. The Winnetu is also located a five-minute drive from Edgartown. We also have a package where people can experience both properties—the Winnetu and the Nantucket Hotel—and we arrange all the transportation and transfers. This can be a day trip, overnight, or multiday. The ferry between Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket is great and very convenient on both islands.
Eat
The Katama Diner, which is located next to the Katama airstrip, is a fabulous place for breakfast or lunch, where you can watch the planes take off.
Our restaurant at the Winnetu, the Dunes, is one of our go-to dinner spots. President Obama, our neighbor down the road, ate here a few weeks ago. Some of our favorite dishes are the feta panzanella, the lobster tacos, and the day boat Halibut. In Edgartown we like Rose Water for their gourmet takeout and really good sandwiches.
The Pelican Club recently opened and is very hip and cool and has brought something new to Edgartown. The menu is mostly sushi. We also like the Atlantic, the Seafood Shanty, which is casual and good for kids, and of course the Ice Cream Bazaar, an Edgartown institution.
Shop
The women’s boutique Slate, which is owned by Liz Hynes, sells really great clothes.
In Edgartown, we also like the homeware store Salte, which sells candles, furniture, and interesting finds from the owner’s travels around the world.
Explore
One of our neighbors at the Winnetu is the Farm Institute, which is a real working farm, where they teach kids about nature and farming. They give tours and often our kids’ club takes field trips there to explore and feed the animals. The farm has been around since the 19th century.
We love to bike (Gwenn recently got an e-bike, and it has changed her life). One of our favorite rides is to Oak Bluffs, which is about 8 miles from our house.
There are also so many festivals and culture offerings on the Vineyard that you couldn’t possibly attend all of them. A few of our favorites are the book festival and the Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival, which takes place in August.
The Strand Theatre, a classic venue where you can see comedy, dance, and live music, in Oaks Bluff is near and dear to our hearts. When it shut down some years ago, we started a nonprofit and raised $1.5 million to save it. (The Strand reopened in 2015, just in time for the 40-year anniversary of Jaws.)
The Tabernacle is a big event space, also in Oak Bluffs, and harkens to the religious-revival movement that took place there in the 1850s. It’s where President Bill Clinton spoke when he came to the Vineyard and where we come to Rosh Hashanah services. The eclectic homes around it, which resemble gingerbread houses, are called “the Campgrounds,” are also an important part of the history of Oak Bluffs.
Finally, State Beach, which tends to be calmer than South Beach, the beach bordering our hotel. Checking out the famous “Jaws Bridge,” [from a heart-racing scene in the
Steven Spielberg
film] on the road connecting Edgartown and Oaks Bluff, is a must.
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