Welcome to Vinalhaven Island, Maine

Vinalhaven Island Rentals welcomes you to the community of Vinalhaven, 15 miles off the coast of Rockland, Maine. There were once hundreds of year-round island communities off the coast of Maine, now, Vinalhaven is one of only 14 year-round island towns and virtually the only one which retains commercial fishing as a principle industry. Vinalhaven offers visitors a memorable visit.

Our town of 1,200 year-round residents takes great pride in our multi-generation families, our lobster boat fleet, our new school and our commercial and retail businesses. A vacation or visit to Vinalhaven gives you the opportunity to see Mainers at work in their traditional industries. The waterfront in Carver’s Harbor wakes up long before dawn as the men and women who work aboard hundreds of lobster boats head out to sea. Throughout the day, visitors to the waterfront wharves and docks can gain new appreciation for the time and energy required to succeed as a lobsterman.

At the turn of the last century, the granite industry was the heartbeat of this community. Buildings in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston are built with the granite quarried off this island and shipped down the coast on schooners and steam vessels. With the development of concrete, the granite industry fell away, and now it is the lobster industry that is the heartbeat of the island economy and the lives of many of the families living here.

Vinalhaven is not Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket. It is rough around some of its edges; it is a working community. The working waterfront occasionally smells of the bait used to catch lobster, there is noise in the harbor from the lobster boats and you can occasionally hear the equipment used to quarry the granite. It is not necessarily as described on the billboard that welcomes you to Maine….The way life should be, it is rather…The way life is. Although the paint may be peeling on the exterior of some of the homes, we have encouraged the owners to make their homes as appealing and inviting to their guests as if their home or camp were now a comfy and charming Bed and Breakfast. Other properties have been in the family for generations and upon walking in the house, you feel the history of the family in the memorabilia, pictures and children’s artwork that grace the walls. Some of Vinalhaven’s other “edges” offer breathtaking panoramic vistas and places so quiet and with such pristine beauty, you feel as if you should whisper. How many places on the east coast of The United States can you watch the sun set over the ocean. (ns)