The 1661 Inn — named for the year Europeans settled the island — has been run by the same families, the Abrams and Drapers, since 1970, and it shows in the best way: this is a property with opinions, traditions, and an exotic animal farm it sees no reason to explain. Yes, a farm. We’ll get there.
What it’s like
Rooms spread across a collection of buildings on the hillside above the water — from premium rooms with ocean views, fireplaces, and spa tubs down to simpler, more affordable quarters. (The exact room count depends on which buildings you count in a given season; the spread is real either way.) What every guest shares: the lawn. Chairs face the Atlantic, the view runs unbroken to the horizon, and the inn’s famous outdoor breakfast up there is one of the island’s genuinely great mornings.
And then there’s the farm — the inn keeps gardens and a menagerie of animals that has delighted decades of children and a comparable number of adults pretending they’re just along for the kids. It’s the kind of eccentric, only-here detail that chain hospitality spent fifty years sanding off.
The honest trade-offs
This is historic-inn living: character over uniformity, and rooms that differ genuinely from one another — read your specific room’s description, not the property’s. Peak-season rates reflect the view.
Who it fits
Couples on the romantic end of the trip, families whose kids will lose it over the animals, and anyone who thinks breakfast with an ocean horizon is worth planning around. See how it compares in the hotel rundown, or make it a September trip when the lawn is at its best.