By Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent

Ocean Edge Resort & Beach Club in Brewster on Cape Cod, has relaunched its mansion side of the property, part of a $40-million ongoing renovation of the resort that is now complete. The Mansion at Ocean Edge now has 31 two- and three-bedroom Presidential Bay Collection villas (formerly the Bay Pines Villas) on or close to the beach, and 90 Mansion guest rooms that were done last spring.

The resort is offering an intro “Relaunching Luxury” rate for the Presidential Bay Collection. Book by April 30 and get 20 percent off regular rates. Guests booking five or more nights have a choice of a free added amenity, which include a round of golf at the resort’s Nicklaus Design course when accompanied by one paying round; two kids’ day passes to EdgeVenture; or use of two bikes for a day. 

Spring isn’t a bad time to save some money at Ocean Edge: Rates at the Mansion wing start at $139 a night in spring, with Presidential Bay Collection villas starting at $600, and jump in summer to $425 and $1,250 a night, respectively. 

For information and to book, visit www.oceanedge.com or call 800-343-6074.

By Kari Bodnarchuk, Globe Correspondent

Want to discover Nantucket’s best family beaches and bike routes, track down good kid-friendly restaurants or rainy-day activities, or find out how to rent baby equipment or hire a local babysitter? A new website, Nantucket-Bucket.com, offers up-to-date info on family-oriented events, activities, and resources island-wide. Look up activities and programs by topic or date. The site, started by Nantucket resident Logan Gomes, also has a blog with do-it-yourself craft projects and entries by guest bloggers from the Nantucket community. Register on the website and receive a weekly e-mail with information on activities, discounts, and special promotions. www.nantucket-bucket.com

By Necee Regis, Globe Correspondent

Here’s a good reason to hope the weather remains cool: The Harbor Hotel is offering a Pay the Temperature promotion. Daily room rates will be based on the Provincetown temperature at 2 p.m., as reported by the National Weather Service on the day of check-in. With an average temperature in April of 55 degrees, this deal could save you a bundle off the Harbor’s posted spring rates (from $99). This promotion cannot be booked online, is based on availability, and stay must be completed by May 20. Guests will be charged a $50 non-refundable deposit.  855-447-8696, www.harborhotelptown.com

Gray seals littered the beach on Cape Cod's Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge on Thursday, one of the most popular spots in New England for the mammals to enjoy the spring sun. The most recent count showed more than 15,000 seals off the coast of the region.

Can you guess how many seals are in the above photo? You can also check out more of Globe photographer David Ryan's photos from the refuge here.

Answer: 153

By Kari Bodnarchuk, Globe Correspondent

See some of the most remarkable “dream” cars ever made, from a 1927 LaSalle to the futuristic Terrafugia flying car, during the Heritage Museums and Gardens exhibit “Driving Our Dreams: Imagination in Motion” in Sandwich. Fifteen concept cars, drawn from museums and private collections nationwide, will be on display April 13 through Oct. 27. Get up close to an Infinium solar-powered car, a 1956 Firebird II, and the 1963 personal Corvette of Harley Earl, a pioneer in auto design and the father of the Corvette. Design and test your own concept car in the Family Discovery Room, and attend talks by leaders in the automobile industry. Adults $15, children ages 3-12 $7, 2 and under free. 508-888-3300, www.heritagemuseumsandgardens.org

By Necee Regis, Globe correspondent

Take advantage of preseason rates and start dreaming about the beach. Nantucket’s retro-chic hotels, The Veranda House and Chapman House, are offering Countdown to Summer 3-2-1 packages (May 19-June 27). Includes two complimentary round-trip passes on the Steamship Authority’s Fast Ferry service from Hyannis (valued at $138) for a three-night stay, and one complimentary pass for a two-night stay. Rates start at $199 midweek and $249 on the weekends at The Veranda House, and $169 midweek and $209 weekends at Chapman House. Both offer a complimentary morning meal, free Wi-Fi, and afternoon chocolate chip cookies.  877-228-0695, www.theverandahouse.com

By Necee Regis, Globe Correspondent

The Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival hosts its 13th annual event (March 15-17) at the Chilmark Community Center with films from the festival circuit as well as shorts and features with local appeal. Watch movies on comfy couches in the “community living room” outfitted with state-of-the-art projection and sound. Stay for post-screening discussions with filmmakers and others. Events include live music hosted by the Hay Cafe and a daily feast prepared by chef Chris Fischer. Tickets $15, members $7. Couch seating add $5. Weekend pass $150. 508-645-9599, www.tmvff.org. The Harbor View Hotel & Resort in Edgartown is offering a Martha’s Vineyard Movie Escape package, including two-night stay (March15-16) and two all-access festival passes, $479, with reserved couch seating $679.  800-225-6005, www.harbor-view.com

Harmless or careless?

There’s a furor brewing in Truro, where some Cape Cod residents aren’t pleased with the town’s depiction of a smiling shark on this year’s beach sticker, arguing that the image downplays the recent fears of sharks swimming along the shore during the summer months.

According to the Cape Cod Times, the sticker won unanimous approval from the town beach commission.

Kelly Clark, director of the town's recreation and beach department, told the Times that she was concerned about the repercussions of taking the Cape’s shark issues too lightly, but was essentially told to “lighten up.”

Truro boasts four beaches, all which require a parking sticker, which can be purchased $15 a season for residents.

More at the Cape Cod Times web site.

By Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent

Sure, Boston has the largest St. Patrick’s Day in New England, but they do it right down the Cape as well: The 8th Annual Cape Cod St. Patrick’s Parade is March 9, starting at 11 a.m. at the intersection of Route 28 and School Street, and ending in Yarmouth, at Forest Road.

The parade features more than a dozen marching bands from all over New England, floats, antique cars and family entertainment, as well as a grand marshal this year who is still a big hit in Boston and all over New England: Derek Sanderson, Boston Bruins bad boy in the 1970s, playing on Stanley Cup teams in 1970 and 1972, before his life spiraled downward due to drugs and alcohol. He later rebounded, with the help of good friend Bobby Orr, and became a TV color analyst for Bruins games, and is now managing director of The Sports Group at Baystate Wealth Management in Boston, counseling young athletes about money management and helping them avoid the disastrous financial mistakes he’d once made.

A movie, “Turk,” about Sanderson’s life is reportedly on tap to be made this year, based on his recent book, “Crossing the Line: The Outrageous Story of a Hockey Original.”

The parade’s grand marshal’s dinner-dance will be held the night before the parade at the Irish Village in Yarmouth. For information, visit www.capecodstpatsparade.com or www.facebook.com/capestpatsparade

By Kari Bodnarchuk, Globe correspondent

Spend the school break on a bluff overlooking Cape Cod Bay. The Ocean Edge Resort & Golf Club in Brewster (above and below) hosts special activities Feb. 15-23 with indoor pool programs, a pizza party, and Ping-Pong for kids, and cooking demonstrations, wine and chocolate tastings, and daily fitness classes for parents. The resort also features family movie and karaoke nights, and a Project Runway program during which children can design and showcase their own fashions. Stay in the Britterage Villas, which have living rooms and kitchenettes, or the newly renovated Mansion Wing guest rooms, which offer hotel-style service. One-room villas from $129 per night; guest rooms from $195. Mention “February Vacay” when booking.  800-343-6074, www.oceanedge.com

By Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent

Usually  when you say a food is smokin’ good, it’s a figure of speech. But at the Chatham Bars Inn Resort and Spa down the Cape, it’s quite literal, when it comes to one dessert.

We stayed there last summer, had dinner at the new STARS steakhouse restaurant there that had just opened, and after a whopping dinner of Midwestern beef (you choose your own cuts from a beef cart they wheel to your table, offering by-the-ounce pricing from $2.40 an ounce), were whisked away to a dessert room to partake of dessert wines and decadent desserts, which the night we were there included the "Tobac-Cocoa Ice Cream."

The unique dessert consisted of the bizarre combination of aged tobacco leaf and pure cocoa ice cream, cognac gel, locust bean nougat and, I’m not kidding, actual cigar smoke swirling over all, contained in a glass dome. It was the most interesting dessert we’d ever seen, and most definitely delicious. Cigar smoke isn’t a guy thing, either, we saw several female diners taking part.

It’s all part of the new look of the Chatham Bars Inn, which a few years ago underwent a $4 million renovation, overhauling nearly every aspect of the resort, including gutting and rebuilding its two oldest cottages and opening a new boutique  in the main inn.

We stayed in one of the spa suites in one of the 29 cottages a short walk away from the main inn, where the bulk of the resort’s 217 rooms area, a beautifully renovated open space that had two king beds, a gas fireplace separating the bed area from the bath, which had a huge Jacuzzi tub, frosted-glass shower that doubles as a steam bath, and full-out sauna, a great place to sweat out all that food. We also had treatments at the spa, which opened in 2010, a quick massage and then relaxing at the adults-only small swimming pool. Spa suites are pretty pricy in summer, at around $1,100 a night, but in winter can be had from $465.
 
Granted, the resort is one of the Cape’s prime summer getaways, located on a gorgeous stretch of beach,  but it’s also a place of year-round activities. Next up on the winter agenda is a "Girlfriend’s Seaside Escape" weekend, Jan. 18-20, packages starting at $459 per person and included two nights lodging, welcome amenity gift with merchandise, shopping discounts and certificates, Friday night martinis and massage reception and dinner, followed by a ladies-only psychic party with Jon Stetson. Also included are Saturday night dinner and entertainment, breakfast each morning, fitness classes (as many as you can take, yoga, Pilates, Zumba among them). It wraps up Sunday with a nature walk or yoga on the beach. All info is at www.chathambarsinn.com/files/2013%20girls%20getaway.pdf

The resort also runs Thursday night prix fixe at STARS, three courses for $38 per person every Thursday night, and Wednesday and Thursday nights in the Sacred Cod Tavern, with a two-course lunch for $12 or three-course dinner for $33.

And if it’s on the dessert menu, do give the cigar-smoke special a try. Even non-smokers may find it interesting. For information on everything at Chatham Bars Inn, visit www.chathambarsinn.com

By Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent

The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce and dozens of the Cape's establishments and attractions are offering a variety of events this holiday season. The chamber also offers a "Christmas on Cape Cod Passport," which encourages local shopping and gives the chance to win cash prizes, up to $9,000 in all. A new feature in this year's Cape holiday party is the Polar Express train ride aboard the Cape Cod Central Railroad, chugging through the Cape's countryside, with hot cocoa and treats, a cast of characters from "The Polar Express" book and movie, and visits from Santa. Check it out at www.capecodpolarexpressride.com

Inns and resorts throughout the Cape are also offering value-added stay packages, including dinner gift certificates, passes to holiday events and seasonal amenities. The passport the chamber offers alows visitors to get theirs stamped at each business they visit, giving them entry into a contest to win gift cards of $500, $250 or $100. With the accumulation of five stamps, the holder is eligible for a grand prize, Christmas in July, a two-night stay at the Cape Codder Resort and Spa in Hyannis.

For information on all of what the Cape is offering this season, visit www.ChristmasonCapeCod.com or call 888-332-2732.

For the first time in 25 years, Boston to Cape Cod rail service is being restored, with weekend trains from South Station to Hyannis beginning in May.

According to the Barnstable Patriot, “the plan is to attach a couple of air-conditioned rail cars and a bike car at South Station to Boston-Middleborough/Lakeville trains, which will continue without switching to Hyannis. Beyond that South Shore station, the Cape-bound train would stop at Wareham, Buzzards Bay, and either West Barnstable or Sandwich before arriving in Hyannis.”

The introduction of rail service to the Cape should hopefully help alleviate summer Cape traffic, but it will come at a cost. Weekend round-trip service is slated to be priced at around $30. Service would include departures on Friday evenings, and Saturday, and Sunday mornings with return trips Saturday and Sunday evenings. The Patriot reports there is also the possibility of an early-morning Monday return train as well.

“I think we’ll have a modest start,” Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce CEO Wendy Northcross told the Patriot. “It’s going to be weekends only, so there will be some restrictions there.”

Further details are still being worked out, but Tom Cahir, administrator of the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority, said service can hit a break-even point with a mere 650 passengers per weekend.

By Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent

If pork is your thing, you must consider taking in the fourth annual "Hogtoberfest" Oct. 13 and 14 on Nantucket. Chefs Michael LaScola of American Seasons on the island, and Matt Jennings of Farmstead in Providence (James Beard nominee for Best Chef-Northeast and three-time Cochon 555 winner), pair up for a back-of-the-house carving demo on Berkshire-Tamworth hogs, hand raised on Nantucket's The Faraway Farm. They then use each cut throughout the weekend for beer/charcuterie tastings and a multi-course meal of inventive pork dishes paired with American Seasons' small-production American wines.

The weekend lineup includes the carving demo which will show head-to-tail carving and showing diners how to harvest and use each part of the animal; a beer and charcuterie master class; an "All-Things Pork" dinner, featuring a range of pork specials at American Seasons.

For complete pig-out information and reservations, visit www.americanseasons.com/hogtoberfest.html or call 508-228-7111.

By Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent

Nantucket has always been a rather forward-thinking sort of place - abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave his first speech before an all-white audience there in 1841.

So the Nantucket Project seems a good fit, it running Oct. 5-8, a veritable think tank which brings together big-brained types from many disciplines, such as writer and businessman Jack Abramoff; CNN political analyst David Gergen; Eric Schmidt, Google chairman; Henry Louis Gates, Harvard professor of black culture; John Abele, founder of Boston Scientific; and Doug Melton, founder of the Harvard/MIT Broad Center for Stem Cell Research. For full information and ticket pricing, visit www.nantucketproject.com/#blank

The Nantucket Project is one of a few cool things happening on Nantucket in the off season, a time with still lots of sun but lower temperatures and prices. For cheaper fall stays, check out the "Hot Dates, Cool Rates" program. Nantucket Island Resorts is offering discounted fall nightly rates, including at places like Jared Coffin House, with rooms going for $125. Check it out at www.nantucketislandresorts.com/hotdates.php

There are a lot of great restaurants on the island, and many are showing their stuff during the Nantucket Restaurant Week Sept. 24-30, including Topper's at the Wauwinet, home of a notable butter-poached lobster, and Brant Point Grill at the White Elephant, known for its duck confit Bolognese. Visit www.nantucketrestaurantweek.com/ for complete information.

The 10th annual Cranberry Festival is scheduled for Oct. 6, when the Milestone Cranberry Bog and Nantucket Conservation Foundation host a festival celebrating the island's historic bogs. Events include cranberry foods of all stripe, bog tours, hay rides, and sheep-shearing workshops. Check www.nantucketconservation.org/page.php?section=3&page=cranberry_festival for more info.

And rounding out the season, the Brant Point Grill offers a New England Thanksgiving and on that morning, the island hosts the 11th Annual Turkey Plunge on Children's Beach. For information on all, visit www.nantucketislandresorts.com or call 800-475-2637.

By Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent

One of the special places for Jackie Kennedy, wife of President John F. Kennedy, was the Cape, and a special summer exhibit, "Jackie Kennedy - Life on Cape Cod," is running through Sept. 30 at the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum. The exhibit includes rare photos, handwritten letters and other artifacts from the First Lady's time spent in Hyannis Port, and a special display chronicling her visit to India in March 1962. The exhibit opens with a LIFE Magazine cover article from 1953, entitled "Senator Kennedy Goes A-Courting," featuring a four-page spread of images that shows JFK and his fiancée, then Jacqueline Bouvier, frolicking on the Cape.

Other images show her life on the Cape during her husband's presidency, photos taken by photographers such as Cecil Stoughton, Robert Knudsen, Jacques Lowe and Stanley Tretick. Other artifacts include hand-written notes from the First Lady, a painting she did, called "The White House Long Ago," and a leather-bound copy of "Profiles in Courage," written by her husband with an inscription by her.

Museum curator Rebecca Pierce-Merrick said while Jackie Kennedy was famous the world over, "it was here on the Cape she was able to simply enjoy carefree days with her family. This exhibit allows our visitors to see a glimpse of that Jackie."

The museum is located at 397 Main St., Hyannis, and admission is $8 for adults. For information, visit www.jfkhyannismuseum.org or call 508-790-3077. 

Photo from the estate of Stanley Tretick, taken summer 1964

By Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent

Century House on Nantucket, which began life as a lodging house in 1833 and is reportedly the oldest continually operating in on the island, won a 2012 Editors' Choice Award in Yankee Magazine's Travel Guide to New England. The inn, a short walk from downtown, is a veritable showcase for plein-air artists, who regularly stay at the inn, trading lodging for their art work. Hundreds of painting adorn the Century House walls, each with a story that innkeepers Gerry Connick and Jean Ellen Heron will gladly tell you about.

Rates at the inn start at $175 per night depending on the date, and they include a breakfast Connick creates daily, heavy on healthy fruits, that is dubbed "Gerry's Berry Buffet Breakfast." For information on the inn, visit www.centuryhouse.com, or call 508-228-0530.

WBZ Photo

There may be an abundance of lobsters in New England this summer, but nothing like this.

WBZ first reported this week that a 21-pound lobster was caught off the shore of Nauset Beach in Orleans. The lobster is currently on display at Capt'n Elmers in Orleans, where manager Elise Costa told WBZ that the lobster's claws are measured at about a foot long.

"Usually, for every four and a half pounds of live lobster, once you cook it and clean it, you get one pound of meat. So 21 divided by four and a half, that would give you about five pounds of meat," Costa said.

Don't go rushing to the Cape just yet though for any weekend bake plans. Costa plans to display the lobster for a period of time before selling it or raffling it off for charity.

Outdoor Life Magazine posted the photo of the lobster on its Facebook page Wednesday night and got people wondering just how old a 21-pound lobster might be, with a few commenters opining that it might be some 147 years old.

The largest lobster on record was a 44-pounder caught in Nova Scotia. 

By Patricia Borns

Don't worry. I'm not suggesting you download Edmund Wilson, Mary McCarthy or Bernard Malamud for your Wellfleet getaway. even if they and other luminaries did and do hang out there. Instead I'm proposing the new e-book by the town's "accidental innkeeper" Alexandra Grabbe, whose fairytale B&B Chez Sven lies hidden in leafy woods behind Route 6 (Wellfleet, An Insider's Guide To Cape Cod's Trendiest Town). The irony of Grabbe authoring an "insider's" guide is that she and her husband Sven Rudstrom opened the inn as recently as 2005. But as often happens with special places, the Grabbes took Wellfleet to heart as passionately as local families who date themselves to the Mayflower. Grabbe has an eye for what's defining about the place, starting with the fact that the official poem of Barnstable County is posted in the town hall. She gives a history the way good innkeeps do: pouring on anecdotes and curious details to explain that mudflat you grounded on used to be an island, and by the way, the historical society offers a history of Billingsgate if you want to know more. Which, the way Grabbe lays it out, you might. Interwoven with the attractions found in most guidebooks are favorite local activities like yoga at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. Even the photos have an untouristy quality, nice but not slick, taken from vantage points where locals are likely to stand. Passages from the Wellfleet comprehensive plan (designed to discourage McMansion builders) might not be the stuff of Fodor's or Lonely Planet, but that's what makes this an insider's guide. When you finish, you feel like a local has shown you around. Because she has.

Patricia Borns photo. All rights reserved.

By Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent

The Inn at the White Elephant Village on Nantucket opened on July 4, with 20 units, including 14 suites and six deluxe rooms, and is offering introductory prices throughout the summer. Stay two nights, get the third free, and summer rates start at $750 from July 15-31, and fall rates start at $475 from Sept. 3 to Oct. 27.

As part of the newly created White Elephant Village, the new inn, along with the existing White Elephant Residences, offer guests use of the heated outdoor pool, workout room and free bicycles. Also includes is access to the White Elephant Spa and a 15-percent discount at the Brant Point Grill.<

When booking at www.whiteelephantvillage.com, use promotional code INN, or call 800-475-2637. Caveats include the deal being subject to availability, not being applicable to the Residences or the hotel, or on Columbus Day and other event weekends.

The inn, with the Residences and hotel, is part of the newly created White Elephant Village, and as part of the expansion, the village will have its own lobby, concierge, fireplace, gift shop and business center. Nantucket interior designer Kathleen Hay did the work creating the décor, which features oversized windows, Nantucket wainscoting and linens by Pratesi.

Nantucket Island Resorts owns the village, as well as other island properties including The Wauwinet, Jared Coffin House, the Nantucket Boat Basin marina, and The Cottages & Lofts at the Boat Basin.

By Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent

Lark Hotels, which earlier this year opened Captain Fairfield Inn in Kennebunkport, recently opened two more inns, the Chapman House in Nantucket, and the Attwater in Newport, both boutique hotels.

The Chapman, located at 20 North Water St. in a circa 1717 structure, has 11 guest rooms redesigned by Rachel Reider Interiors of Boston. The hotel is the sister property of Lark Hotel's 18-room Veranda House around the corner, which dates to 1684 and opened in 2006. Rates at the Chapman, which opened June 16, start at $129 a night. For more information, visit www.chapmanhousehotel.com

The Attwater, built in 1910, has 12 guestrooms, also redesigned by Rachel Reider Interiors, and is located at 22 Liberty St., within walking distance of Newport?s hot shopping and dining centers, Cliff Walk and the mansion district. It opened June 1, and rates start at $159 a night. For information, visit www.theattwater.com

Lark Hotels is run by Robert and Leigh Blood, who bought the Attwater for $1.05 million and Chapman for $1.45 million, according to Hotel Business magazine.

Chapman House photo credit: Rare Brick

By Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent

Cape Cod's culinary scene has always had a big seafood flavor, but one major tourism player, the upscale Chatham Bars Inn, is trying something different. It has reopened its traditional eatery, The Main Dining Room, as STARS, with a steakhouse-style menu offering midwestern grain-fed and dry-aged beef. Topping the steak menu is a 22-ounce prime dry age porterhouse for $78. And you know how some places let you pick out your own lobster for dinner? A new very cool thing for beef lovers at STARS is a steak cart that travels the restaurant offering custom sizing, for which you are charged per ounce. Rib eye runs $2.40 an ounce, New York strip $3.20 an ounce and tenderloin $4.70.

If you don't care for beef, other options include things like Fire and Ice, which combines a selection of chilled shellfish with grilled lobster, and "Bacon and Eggs,'' a appetizer that marries grilled pork belly with a poached egg and bearnaise aioli, and lots of other seafood options, all of which you can wash down with a choice of more than 30 local craft beers. Check it all out at www.chathambarsinn.com

By Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent

The fifth annual Birdhouse Project and Auction takes place May 27 at Wellfleet Preservation Hall, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., a project that started with the idea of recycling some of the old materials from the hall itself as part of a green-building project, said Anne Suggs, WPH founding board member. Building habitat for their nearest neighbors -- the birds -- inspired "a lot of creativity in the community, the birdhouses become little pieces of history from the hall," she said.

The event happens in the garden behind the hall, at 335 Main St., Wellfleet. Birdhouses will be on display at the hall starting May 15, and a preview and silent auction will happen prior to the live auction. Tickets are $15, which includes brunch. For info, visit www.wellfleetpreservationhall.org, or call 508-349-1800.

By Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent

They were the literal beacons of hope in the dead of night or fury of storm. Lighthouse keepers and their loved ones, are the theme of this year's exhibit, "Guiding Lights: Nantucket's Lighthouses, Keepers & their Families," at the Nantucket Shipwreck & Lifesaving Museum from May 24-Oct. 8. The exhibit celebrates those who helped guide mariners through Nantucket's dangerous shoals for centuries before modern technology, a time when families manned the lighthouses, through stories and photographs of their daily lives. The museum houses a collection of more than 5,000 objects in all, including surfboats, beach carts, vintage photos and unique items such as a silver medal awarded to Marcus W. Dunham for his role in several rescues during the Great Gale of 1879; the incorporation of oral histories into the "Madeket Millie" retrospective; an interactive shipwreck map; and a whimsical Newfoundland dog chair created by island artist Clara Urbahn.

The Nantucket Shipwreck & Lifesaving Museum is located at 158 Polpis Road, about four miles from Nantucket Town. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for children ages five through 12, and includes admission to the museum and the historic Coffin School at 4 Winter St. For information, visit www.nantucketshipwreck.org or call 508-228-1885.

What does National Geographic consider the best island in the world? Tahiti? Capri, Italy? Lord Howe Island, Australia?

Nope. According to its recent book, "The 10 Best of Everything," it's actually Nantucket, which takes the coveted spot in the ten best islands category. 

Nantucket?

No disrespect to the Massachusetts hotspot, but it seems a bit of an odd choice on a list that doesn't even include Hawaii, the Virgin Islands, or the Bahamas. Travel writer Leslie Thomas came up with the list for National Geographic and had the following to say about Nantucket:

Nantucket was once one of the richest places in America, built on the profits of the whale oil industry. Even today in the delectable old town there are fine brick houses with silver mailboxes. Old-time sailors used to call Nantucket "The Little Grey Lady of the Sea." On the misty morning I first arrived there, I could understand why. A woman was riding a horse along the beach to the utter delight of her family aboard my ferry, and she bore a banner that said "Crazy Aunt Rides Again." It is a unique place."

You can see more of the excerpts here, as well as other categories which include golf course, wines, and steak houses.