The old “Surf Hotel” sign still stands atop this weathered Victorian mansion, the only beachfront hotel on Block Island, but what’s inside has been given a thorough redesign, resulting in interiors that are one part modern-casual surf shack to one part classic coastal New England. Bold wallpaper and textile prints liven the whitewashed shiplap background, as do old wooden surfboards and other eclectic, atmospheric touches.

In Newport’s historic district, tradition isn’t exactly in short supply. But with the Cliffside Inn, the New England–based Lark Hotels has transformed a beautiful Victorian house into a lovely 16-room boutique hotel. And not just any Newport Victorian — this one happens to have been the home of the painter Beatrice Turner, whose artwork adorns its interiors. The astonishing sea views of Newport’s Cliff Walk lie just at the end of the street.

Perhaps no destination in the Northeast feels quite so quintessentially New England as the island of Martha’s Vineyard. And on the Vineyard, there’s no place more stately and upright than Edgartown. So it’s no small matter when a 15-room Victorian inn undergoes a makeover, trading its traditional interiors for a bright and lively look that adds mid-century modern and French Caribbean influences to the mix.

Once home to the American whaling industry, Edgartown is now one of the leisure capitals of the Northeast, and many old sea captains’ stately homes have been transformed into guest houses and hotels. Faraway Martha’s Vineyard comprises six of them; and while, with nearly two centuries in business under one name or another, it’s one of the oldest hotels in the country, its new owners have updated it for the 21st century.

Names like Nobnocket are the surest sign you’re in New England. Located on Martha’s Vineyard, a short walk uphill from the dock on a on a bluff above Vineyard Haven, this 1908 Arts & Crafts-style house was once the home of the island’s doctor. The new owners overhauled the place, knocking down walls to create open living areas, polishing the hardwood floors, installing large picture windows to maximize the sweeping garden views.

We’ll follow hotel designers Roman & Williams anywhere, but it’s a surprise to see them in Nantucket, where the Greydon House, a renovation and expansion of a 19th-century sea captain’s house, delivers its own version of New England maritime-chic, while studiously avoiding the local clichés. The town-center location is perfectly convenient, and the rooms, as usual, are beautifully stylish, and full of carefully considered detail.

Discreetly hidden within a trio of 17th-century-style houses in Nantucket’s Brant Point is one of the island’s finest hotels: The Brant. It’s a member of the Provincetown-based Salt Hotels family, and under their guidance it’s been given a chic contemporary-classic look, foregoing the typical whaling-captain inspiration in favor of something more agriculturally inspired.

One part boutique hotel, one part classic B&B, the Salt House Inn is set just close enough to Provincetown’s main drag to feel lively, and just far enough for a bit of privacy. It’s a study in balance: stylish enough for design-savvy travelers, without losing touch with its circa-1850 heritage. The rooms are simple, white-on-white, decorated with vintage maritime objets and memorabilia, with comforts that belie their visual minimalism.

Traditional antique-style bed-and-breakfasts may be a dime a dozen in New England; The Inn Downtown, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, distinguishes itself with its contemporary décor and its thoughtful, but never excessively reverent, approach to renovating a two-hundred-year-old house. Each of its ten rooms is a fully furnished studio apartment, and the hospitality is low-touch — check-in is contactless, and breakfast is self-catered.

Kennebunkport, Maine might be known as the summer home of an American political dynasty, but it’s a lovely seaside town for the rest of us as well; by local standards, a six-room bed and breakfast in a spectacularly well-maintained 1753 house is the populist choice. The Waldo Emerson Inn is tastefully bedecked with quotations from namesake Ralph, who is said to have spent ten summers here.