Jaunted

The boat leaves several times a day during the summer season, and all in all the crossing takes just about an hour. You’ll need to get yourself to Hyannis on Cape Cod—we drove—but Megabus will take you to the terminal for the Hy-Line Cruises. Our high speed ship, M/V IYANOUGH, departed at 11am, but there’s also options at 8am, 1:55pm, 4:30pm, and 7:15pm. On the way home the boats depart Nantucket about 90 minutes after the times we just mentioned.

Round-trip tickets are $67 per adult—you save about $3 booking in advance—and if you’re looking to depart and return the same day (a quickie day-trip), there are some $50 options during the week. We brought along bikes—add another $14 per pedal power—so it’s certainly not cheap. However, it’s a pretty darn slick way to get there when you consider the ferry’s fast speeds, smooth sailing, free WiFi, and plenty of comfortable (and clean) seats.

We went with the offerings from the Steamship Authority because it was a few bucks cheaper than the competition, and didn’t feel like driving a little bit extra to depart with Freedom Cruise Line—they sail from Harwich Port, but do offer free parking for day trippers. Obviously we didn’t take the traditional car ferry with its 2 hours-plus crossing time, but after heading over in high speed style we couldn’t imagine doing so. Unless of course we just needed to have our car.

Read all our Nantucket Field Trip stories here!

[Photos: kjb/Jaunted]