First, Matinicus is a true lobstering, working island - take a moment to observe the flow of the day and how the locals live a life that seems out of a novel. A beautiful place that time has left intact... thankfully.
The cottage is wonderful. The hosts are very generous in providing everything you may need, a home-form-home experience.
The location, as many locals described it, is 'a Great Spot!'.
It is placed in a cove above a rocky shore where seagulls and wildlife make their home, and where you will observe the tide timelessly breathing life in and out of the cove. The garden adds to the ambiance and the way the cottage is located, you feel that you are the only ones on the cove. The large windows brings the outside in, and the very clever slats under the window brings in the sea breeze, a very clever and practical feature. The beds are comfortable, the rooms are a good size and the cottage has a homely, cozy feel. The gray/white building you see on the photos to the left of the main cottage is in fact a barn, where our hosts keeps all sorts of helpful things including the bicycles that our kids used during our stay.
Lobsters can be delivered to you directly, we ordered them for every night we were there - and they were the best we had ever had. The air-delivery-service is great, we got a few items delivered from the mainland and it was not expensive; a fun experience seeing your beer fly in.
Matinicus is a walking island, you will get in your steps - we averaged ~20K steps daily, and the two beaches are very nice. The walking paths near the south beach has some exceptional views. Markey's beach is smaller but perfect. You can fish for pollock from the rocks.
John, our host, checked in with us at the start of our stay to give us some helpful topics and to ask if we needed anything. On our last day he left us his truck so we could transport our things to the dock as we took the state ferry back to Rockland.
Lastly, our 5 month French Spaniel, Beau had the time of his life, the dogs on the Island are very well socialized, we got a dog visitor every morning, called Maverick, that played with Beau and we were also able to let Beau off the leash for most of out time there.
A great and unique experience that we will remember and talk about often. We hope to return another time.