The understated yet luxe Cliffside Beach Club boasts a privileged perch: its rooms are closer to Nantucket's fine strands than anywhere else. In fact, it's literally one step from your front-door porch to pristine sands. And it's about 10 or 20 steps (not more) to dunes, undulating grasses, a mellow sea, and an artistic array of blue, green, and yellow umbrellas. In today's crazy-busy world, this hauntingly simple but rarefied inn is worth every cent.

Located on a world-renowned

The understated yet luxe Cliffside Beach Club boasts a privileged perch: its rooms are closer to Nantucket's fine strands than anywhere else. In fact, it's literally one step from your front-door porch to pristine sands. And it's about 10 or 20 steps (not more) to dunes, undulating grasses, a mellow sea, and an artistic array of blue, green, and yellow umbrellas. In today's crazy-busy world, this hauntingly simple but rarefied inn is worth every cent.

Located on a world-renowned windswept island, just a 15-minute stroll from the center of 18th-century Nantucket, the inn sits at the end of a road surrounded by an exclusive residential neighborhood. The Cliffside Beach Club historically held sway as a private club in the 1950s, where well-to-do upper crusters headed during the social summer season. Owner Robert Currie's father worked at the club in his teens before purchasing the property (which was by then an exclusive beach club) in 1959. Preserving the old wooden lockers and low-key allure from the original bathhouse, the family then went about adding guestrooms. In the last few years another massive renovation (tasteful and understated but decidedly no-expense-spared) has ushered in one of New England's most impressive beach properties.

Since it's only open from late May to late September, you're guaranteed to enjoy wild beach roses, magnificent hydrangeas, and ubiquitous climbing roses that cover the low-slung, silvery-gray, weather-shingled structures. A cozy lobby sets the scene—filled with white wicker chairs, quilts hanging from rafters, and a sweet breakfast nook (check out the electric candle chandelier, which might fool someone working in a spermaceti, or whale oil, factory).

The 22 contemporary guestrooms (most with direct ocean views) integrate a classic New England style (with handcrafted hemlock woodwork) with modernity (think granite-tiled bathrooms and colorful artwork). Sloped ceilings, plenty of windows, private decks, kitchenettes, and soundproofed walls make even the smallest rooms feel spacious. The newer suites, with unobstructed views of dunes and sunsets, offer the most privacy; each has a separate bedroom and kitchen. The luxuriously simple three-bedroom "cottage" boasts a magnificent kitchen and one-of-a-kind furnishings that compete for your attention with seagulls fishing for crabs.

Indeed, the property's exclusivity and access to beachfront bumming is unsurpassed on the East Coast. After you secure a sought-after Adirondack chair under the coveted Pavilion or an oceanfront lounge chair under an umbrella, stroll the beach, take a dip in the Zen-like pool, or rent a bike and explore the island. When you return to your classy but quiet digs, it becomes immensely clear why a devoted cadre of guests return year after year.

Kim Grant has been writing about the best places to stay in North America since the day after graduating college in 1984. Since then she has written over 35 guidebooks and for countless websites and print publications. She is also the editorial director of a forthcoming website on the best places to stay and the travel acquisitions editor for Countryman Press.