Thirty miles out to sea lies an 18th century, year-round resort on an idyllic island preserved in time — so much that it's inspired dozens of novels from the pen of one of the island's own residents.
For a few summers, New York Times-bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand wrote her novels at The Nantucket Hotel & Resort. Then one day, she wrote a book set there — or a fictionized version of the hotel.
Years later, The Nantucket Hotel & Resort remains a fixture of the island's community — as does Hilderbrand. The duo works together to show the world the unique New England experience Nantucket has to offer.
The Nantucket Hotel & Resort
Originally opened in 1891, The Pointe Breeze Hotel had about 40 rooms on its main floors, billiards in its tower and bowling in its basement. After trading owners in 1904, the hotel expanded with the addition of the east wing. Throughout the 1900s, the hotel exchanged hands a few times before ending up with a developer who gutted the interior of the hotel and planned to provide downtown Nantucket with new condos.
However, that vision would not come to be. Following the developer's bankruptcy, the hotel sat gutted and vacant until the Snider family purchased it in December 2011 with ambitious plans to open by the summer.
"Nobody thought we could do it — it was 184 days," said Gwenn Snider, who bought the hotel with her husband, Mark. "We had 200 people working in that hotel every single day — when I tell you those days were insane. But we did it."
The gutted hotel — one could stand on the fourth floor and see down to the basement — meant that the Sniders could build out a modern hotel with the historic facade looking almost exactly as it did more than a hundred years ago.
The property was renamed The Nantucket, a name inspired by another historic hotel on the island that doesn't exist anymore. Today, the hotel has 44 keys on four floors with two pools, a hot tub, a fitness center and two dining establishments — one named The Breeze, in homage to the hotel's original name. The hotel has a suite on its top floor called The Pointe for the same reason.
One unique aspect of The Nantucket is that it's open year round, not just during the summers. The Sniders ensure the hotel hosts parts of the island's many festivals and parades — from clambakes and wine tastings to the annual Nantucket Daffodil Festival, where everyone and their dogs dress up as the flower. Being a part of and resource for the community was always important, Snider said.
"We were very mindful that the island needed to have a place where the lights were always on," she said, adding that opening year round was a given from the start. The hotel does close in January to undergo any renovations it might need.
Another unique aspect of the hotel is its club membership for Nantucket residents to use the facilities — the pools, the gym and more — said General Manager Carlos Castrello, who has worked at the hotel since its opening.
"The club is a very intricate part of the hotel," he said. "It serves a purpose because Nantucket tends to become very isolated in the winter months, and it's a great opportunity people in the community have a place to go — maybe have dinner with us or lunch while the restaurant is open. It becomes kind of a community situation when when the club is open year round."
The hotel recently underwent a renovation to its basement level, which includes a new lounge that's named in honor of Nantucket whaling industry legend Captain Jeremiah Austin Easton. The captain is also the namesake for both the street where the hotel is located and the yellow lab that spends most of his days alongside Castrello as he makes his rounds at the hotel.
The Nantucket was the Sniders' second hotel. The couple's hotel company, Little Gem Resorts, got its start on neighboring Martha's Vineyard with the 54-room Winnetu Oceanside Resort. Snider said her husband was drawn to the island as a kid, and the couple became "accidental hoteliers" after years of traveling with their kids and becoming interested in creating a better vacation experience for families.
Now the family business has three properties after opening Lovango Resort & Beach Club in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2023. The resort's peak season is opposite its sister properties in New England but fits well into Little Gem's mission of delivering wholesome, elevated vacations to its guests.
"These islands are really family destinations — I think that's a very important part of the story," Snider said. "This is where people go when they're looking to recapture that sense of freedom and simplicity and nostalgia for a simpler time when your porch door slapped behind you, and there was lemonade on the porch and people were just free to let their kids run around. And what we found is that the intention to give people that magical summer moment has been woven through everything we've done since."
Nantucket's unique history
Critical to the island's charm is its history, which remains remarkably preserved, allowing visitors to feel transported in time.
“You get off the ferry, and it's as if you've been transported into a painting — in large part because Nantucket's history is quite amazing,” Snider said.
Originally inhabited by the Wampanoag people, the island was called "Natockete,” roughly translated to mean “faraway land.” English settlers arrived in the 1600s, and the island took off with the whaling industry in the 18th century, propelling the island economically.
“At one time, Nantucket was the wealthiest community in Massachusetts," Snider said, crediting the whaling industry as the energy producer of its day. "The whale oil that was rendered on Nantucket lit up the lamps around the world."
This period of success for Nantucket was documented — well before Hilderbrand's career — by Herman Melville in "Moby-Dick." The novel's characters, Ahab and Starbuck, are both from Nantucket.
But, as the whaling industry began its decline in the mid-1800s — paired with the "Great Fire" of July 13, 1846, that decimated 40 acres, and the Civil War's damage to remaining resources — Nantucket quickly fell from one of the richest to one of the poorest counties in the state.
For about 100 years, the isolated island sat mostly abandoned, and, because of this lull in population and development, now Nantucket is home to mostly preserved pre-Civil War architecture.
Enterprising businessmen, including Walter Beinecke Jr., an heir to the S&H Green Stamp fortune, saw the promise of the island and contributed significantly to giving Nantucket the upgrade it needed — an expanded, more welcoming harbor, for instance — while preserving the history. Beinecke's mission was to attract a wealthier set of visitors to the island.
"I think that the brand of Nantucket has become one of people's imaginations. It is a very refined place in the sense that there's great hotels and incredible dining," Snider said, adding that anywhere New Yorkers go, good food follows.
Beinecke's mission was a success. The average home value is $3.4 million, according to Homes.com data.
Now, the island has two drastically different seasons. With a year-round population of about 14,255, according to the 2020 census, the island averages around 80,000 or more people in July and August.
"It is an explosion during the summer time — the second week of June into Labor Day is obviously our highest season," Castrello said.
The Nantucket Hotel & Resort also sees a bump in visitors around Christmas with the island's Annual Nantucket Christmas Stroll every year. Thanksgiving is another important holiday for the hotel, which hosts guests participating in the annual Cold Turkey Plunge into the Nantucket harbor — a tradition former President Joe Biden observed for several years.
The Elin effect
The secret sauce of a Nantucket summer might be mostly known to locals and visitors who come from neighboring New England locations, but readers have had the opportunity to experience the island through Elin Hilderbrand's eyes. She's set about 30 books on the island over the past 25 years, spanning genres — romance, historical fiction, drama and mystery — and selling millions of copies around the world.
“She paints the picture of Nantucket over and over again and very specifically, and I think it lives in people's mind as if they've been there even if they haven't been there,” Snider said.
Hilderbrand's love story with the island feels straight out of one of her books.
"I arrived in the summer of 1993 — I was living in New York City — and I came for the summer and fell so in love with the island," Hilderbrand said.
After that summer, she wrapped up her job as a teacher and moved to Nantucket with her boyfriend. The two got married and raised three children — never far from the beach.
"It was really an idyllic way for them to grow up, I think," she said. "And I've never wanted to live anywhere else."
Hilderbrand's first novel was also about a real Nantucket hotel. "The Beach Club" was inspired by Nantucket's Cliffside Beach Club, where Hilderbrand's now ex-husband has been the manager for years. It took more than two decades, but Hilderbrand returned to the idea of setting a book at a Nantucket hotel.
Published in 2022, "The Hotel Nantucket" follows a handful of characters related to a recently renovated historic hotel, including the Nantucket native general manager and the ghost of a teenage chambermaid who died in a fire in the hotel in 1922. Now, while the real hotel, The Pointe Breeze, did have a fire in the '20s, Snider is quick to clarify that the ghost is not real — nor are some of the book's more scandalous storylines.
"Twenty-two years later, I thought, 'OK, I want to write another novel about a hotel,' because the tourism industry is so prevalent here in Nantucket. And I wanted to do one that wasn't on the beach, that was in town, that was a little more historic," Hilderbrand said.
She didn't have to look very far for inspiration for the book. Hilderbrand first connected with the Sniders soon after the Nantucket opened. She joined the club and used the pool and gym facilities daily — even penning many pages of her novels from a lounge chair by the pool.
The Sniders approached Hilderbrand about hosting a fan weekend for the author in January 2015. Hilderbrand remembered thinking, "Nantucket in January? Who's going to want to do that?" But the weekend sold out in 72 hours after Hilderbrand posted it to her Facebook.
"Elin Hilderbrand's army is very strong. They're very passionate. They love the hotel, they love the history, they love her — and she's so gracious with her time," Castrello said. "I never seen anything like it. Her gravitational pull and the level of trust that her fans have towards her recommending the island and the hotel and other businesses — any of the places that she mentions [in her books] benefit because of that."
"The Hotel Nantucket" published with Hilderbrand's curated guide to Nantucket — favorite restaurants, shops, experiences and more. She republished the guide as "The Blue Book" this year to include extra information and illustrations.
In the summers, Hilderbrand does weekly signings at the island's local independent bookstore — for which fans line up around the building. She's also participated in the now annual Elin Hilderbrand Bucket List Weekend for several years now, even doubling up some years. Hilderbrand assumed her fans would want to participate in the weekend once — a one-and-done type of trip.
"No, people came back," she said. "They met friends ... and then they would come back every single year. When I come back this November, so many faces will be people I've known for over 10 years, because they've been coming to the weekend, and they make it like an annual event. It's crazy."
Last summer, Hilderbrand published what she says is her last Nantucket novel — for now. Her retirement is a step back from publishing one book a year set on the island. She's working on a two-book series with her daughter, Shelby Cunningham, called "The Academy," about a New England boarding school.
Hilderbrand is also focused on Hollywood. A handful of her novels — including "The Hotel Nantucket" — have been optioned already, with some already in production, she said. Her first adaptation, "The Perfect Couple," premiered on Netflix with a star-studded cast.
"Finally having her books be on TV is going to continue to impact the island in many ways," Snider said, adding that the release of "The Perfect Couple" exposed Hilderbrand and Nantucket to new audiences.
As for the future, Hilderbrand said she has not ruled out ever writing another Nantucket book, but it will be on her own terms down the road. And, of course, she still has no plans of moving away from the island.
“I owe Nantucket everything I have and basically everything I am," she said. "My entire career is in debt to this island.”