Most descriptions of Cisco put the beach first, as if everything else along Hummock Pond Road is just a detour on the way to the water. Anyone who actually rides the loop knows it works the other way. The beach is the part that might not happen. The farm stand and the brewery are the parts that almost always do, and the order you hit them in, and when, has less to do with preference than with what's actually open, running, or breaking on any given day.
The Path Decides the Order, Not You
The paved stretch of bike path starts at the corner of Hummock Pond Road and Milk Street Extension and runs alongside the road in its own lane for about 2.5 miles before ending at Cisco Beach Access Drive. Cisco Brewers sits at the half-way point, about 1.2 miles in, which means the brewery isn't a reward for finishing the ride. It's a checkpoint you pass through no matter which direction you're headed. The path itself runs through mostly rural, wooded landscape, punctuated by a few impressive homes and several of Bartlett's Farm's fields.
Ask how long the full ride from town actually takes and you'll get two different answers depending on who's measuring. The town's own bike-route guide puts it at just over a 3 mile bike ride from downtown to the Cisco beach area, while a local bike shop's route guide calls it a moderate ride from town (4 miles). Neither is wrong. They're measuring from different corners of town, which is a very Nantucket way of disagreeing about distance. The shape of the trip doesn't change either way: fields, then brewery, then dunes.
If you'd rather not pedal, the WAVE bus Miacomet route travels between downtown and Hummock Pond Road, and the Somerset Road stop connects to the bike path with about a 15 minute walk to the brewery. Cisco Brewers also runs its own complimentary shuttle seven days a week during business hours, looping from the corner of East Chestnut and Federal Street to the brewery entrance.
The Farm Stand Runs on Nobody's Clock
Roughly a mile past the brewery, at 168 Hummock Pond Road, sits a farm stand that never closes and has no one behind the counter. Since opening in October 2020, the Sustainable Nantucket farm stand has become a trusted hub for fresh, island-grown produce, available 24/7 under the honor system. The organization farms 7 acres under lease from the Nantucket Island Land Bank, and the produce on the shelves comes from a rotating cast of growers: Fog Town Farm, Washashore Farm, Eat Fire Farm, Sea Legs Farm, and In Situ Native Plant Nursery each bring their harvests to the stand.
Sea Legs Farm is the newest name on that list, and its timing is worth noting for anyone tracking what's actually changed this year. Amanda joined the Mentor Farmer Program in 2025, officially starting Sea Legs Farm, with the first crop production set for the 2026 season. That means this is the first summer her produce has actually been on the shelves.
There's a second, entirely different rhythm running in parallel. If you subscribed to the farm stand's Summer CSA, the 2026 season's final pickup was August 5. Sustainable Nantucket's Summer CSA runs mid-June through early August. The honor-system shelves stay stocked past that date, but the weekly box is done for the season.
A few hundred yards down the road, Bartlett's Farm operates on the opposite model entirely: staffed, priced, and open on a schedule. Situated on 200 acres of pristine agricultural land, Bartlett's is only a short distance of two miles away from the downtown area and less than a half mile from Nantucket's southern shore. The farm's own account puts it at seventh generation, farming the same land since William Bartlett arrived on Nantucket in the early 1800s. Back in 2025, the family took that experience off-island, opening a sister operation in West Barnstable run by sixth generation John Bartlett and his wife Sarah Gardner Bartlett, on land tracing to Bartlett's Ocean View Farm, incorporated on Nantucket in 1843, with farm operations dating back to 1816. The Cape Cod branch is new. The Hummock Pond Road fields you ride past are the original.
Even the farm's parking lot has hosted island-wide events. In late May, the 28th annual Nantucket Wine & Food Festival held its Grand Tastings at Bartlett's Farm on Saturday and Sunday, featuring an endless array of wines from around the globe and gourmet bites.
The Brewery Has a Calendar, the Beach Doesn't
Cisco Brewers isn't named for its location by accident. Cisco Brewers is named after Cisco Beach, located down the road from the Nantucket brewery. The property also houses Nantucket Vineyard, established in 1981 by Dean and Melissa Long, and Triple Eight Distillery, which grew out of the same group of employees a couple decades later. This year brought the kind of small, specific press that only matters if you already live here: Cisco IPA was featured in the Boston Globe at the end of April.
What actually determines whether a weeknight ride out to the brewery is worth the detour is the concert calendar, which resets every few weeks. The Nantucket Summer Concert Series came back in 2026 with a stacked lineup of touring and homegrown acts taking the stage all season long. Earlier this summer that lineup ran through Rae the Band, Munk Duane, and a reggae set from Landon McNamara, with more dates booked into midsummer. Check before you ride if music is the point of the trip. Some weeks the courtyard is packed and loud. Others it's just a bar with a good view of the fields.
Food is where the schedule gets tighter still. The 167 Raw food truck, when it's open, serves fish tacos that are hard to beat, but it isn't a guaranteed daily stop. Plan around it rather than counting on it.
What the Surf Actually Decides
The last mile and a half of the ride is where the plan can fall apart entirely, because Cisco Beach doesn't run on anyone's calendar. Cisco beach is located along the south shore several miles out of town, and is characterized by a wide white beach and heavy surf popular with surfers. There's a steep dropoff from the parking area to the beach, with a seasonal aluminum ramp providing access, and no restrooms available. Seasonal lifeguards are stationed at Cisco, where the bustle of sports activities shapes the beach experience.
The surf itself is the actual decision point for anyone who's ridden out here more than a couple times. On a shallow-sandbar day it's a swim. On a heavy-swell day it's a watch-and-turn-around day, and the difference isn't always obvious until you're standing on the dune.
That surf identity comes with a real community history attached, not just a marketing label. The Ozone Surf Classic began in 2001 as a one day surf competition and beach BBQ, held in memory of David Ozias. Since 2013, advisors for the event's fund have donated $52,000 to local charities, including $47,000 through the Community Foundation for Nantucket, with beneficiaries that include Nantucket Community Sailing, the Nantucket Boys and Girls Club, and Meals on Wheels Nantucket. It's a fundraiser first, held on a beach that happens to have good waves.
The Loop Doesn't Need a Destination
Put it together and the pattern that emerges is less "beach town with amenities" and more a string of independent schedules that happen to sit on the same two and a half miles of pavement. The farm stand runs all day every day. Bartlett's runs on posted hours. The brewery runs on a concert calendar and a food truck that shows up when it shows up. The beach runs on the ocean, full stop. Riding the loop means checking four different clocks before you leave the house, and the version of the trip that actually happens depends on which of those clocks lines up that afternoon.
That's the part the postcard version of Cisco leaves out. It isn't one destination with three stops along the way. It's four independent rhythms that happen to share a road, and knowing which one is running is most of what it means to actually live out here.
If you're weighing what a property along this stretch of the island is really worth, beyond the postcard version, that's the kind of read Carl Lindvall has spent 18 years building on the ground in Cisco and across Nantucket. Let's Start a Conversation.
