Rhode Island, including Block Island & Newport

By:  Jennifer Milano, written October 2015

The U.S.'s smallest state, Rhode Island, has some of the east coast's most beautiful beaches.  And those living in southern New England can easily access a summer New England island experience by taking the ferry to Block Island.  Rhode Island's capital, Providence, boasts outstanding Italian restaurants, and Newport is the jewel of the state if you are partial to yachts, shops and mansions!

Rhode Island's Beaches:

From the minute you cross the state line between Connecticut and Rhode Island, you can sense you are by the ocean.  The real ocean - with real waves - not Long Island Sound.  Here are some of Rhode Island's best beaches:

• Watch Hill:  While parking is expensive ($25-$30) and often full on the weekends, Watch Hill boasts two great beaches.  East Beach, by Taylor Swift's house, is pretty and has fun waves.  To get to East Beach, park in one of the lots in town, and walk.  If you have a lot of gear, drop it (and everyone else in your car) off at the path to the beach, which is right next to Taylor Swift's house, while you park the car and walk back.  If you want to stay overnight, down the beach you will find Ocean House, an upscale resort with its own private beach area.  We also like Napatree Point, a peaceful sandy cove where the kids can search for crabs among the rocks.  To find Napatree, stand at the end of the main street in town facing the water and the town beach, with the carousel to your right.  Walk past the carousel by the parking lots and over the dunes - it is a bit of a walk, and you may want to ask at the carousel for directions.  For convenience, you can just go to Watch Hill Beach at the end of the main street by the carousel.  After your beach time, you can get fried clams or ice cream in town, and poke around the souvenir shops.  The town is cute, but not sophisticated, and you can see the main street in about 20 minutes. 
• Misquamicut:  Near Watch Hill, in Westerly, is Misquamicut State Beach.  The pros are that you can park in a lot right next to the beach, there are bathrooms and food for sale, the beach is long and there are good waves.  The cons are that it gets crowded and parking is expensive ($20-$28 per car for nonresidents).  We love to follow up our time at the beach with the old-fashioned water slides at Water Wizz, just down the road.  For $13, you can slide for 40 minutes, which is just about the perfect amount of time for the park's six slides.  Lines are rare, and the slides are really fun.  Plus, the bonus for a Type A mom is that all of the sand from the beach is washed away before the kids climb into the car.  My Type A advice? Pack a second set of towels to save for drying off after the waterslides, and a change of clothes.  Beware, the bathrooms are very rustic. 
• Narragansett:  Galilee Beach is where the ferry to Block Island operates.  The water is calm and clear, so it is good for little ones.  Roger Wheeler State Beach also has calm water for the kids.  If it is waves you seek, try Scarborough State Beach or Salty Brine State Beach.  For all Rhode Island state beaches, parking is expensive, especially for out-of-state vehicles ($28), and no trash receptacles are provided so you need to carry out your own garbage.
• Block Island:  Block has gorgeous beaches.  See below for more details!

Block Island:

From the moment you step off the ferry onto Block Island, you sense that if there was a photo next to "summer" in the dictionary, this would be it.  The ferry docks in the center of town, and as you walk from the harbor you immediately reach the main street lined with t-shirt shops, ice-cream stores and a big, old hotel with rockers sitting on the front porch.  Sailboats dot the harbor.  People on mopeds pass by, flip flops on sandy feet.  Everyone is smiling.  It's summertime!

How to get to Block Island:  High speed passenger ferries depart from New London, Connecticut reaching Block in an hour and fifteen minutes.  From Point Judith, Rhode Island, you can take a fast ferry to Block in just 30 minutes.  If you are bringing your car, your only option is to leave from Point Judith, taking a 55-minute ferry ride to the island. Reservations fill early for vehicles, so book your car ferry at six months or more in advance.  From Fall River, Massachusetts, the high speed passenger ferry to Block takes two hours and fifteen minutes.  If you want to fly, New England Airlines offers flights between Westerly, Rhode Island and Block Island.

Where to stay:  Most people vacationing on Block rent houses for a week or two.  If you follow suit, bring your car so you can explore the island's beaches and beauty.  If you have only a few days to spend on the island, there are many inns and hotels.  The Spring House Hotel is highly rated on TripAdvisor, and the National Hotel in the center of town also generally has good reviews.  There is no "it" hotel on Block Island, and none has a swimming pool.  You visit Block to spend your days at the beach.

What to do:  While lots of people bike around Block Island, there are no traffic-free bike paths.  The town is worth poking around for a few hours, buying an ice-cream cone and the obligatory t-shirt.  But the main activity on Block Island is to play at the beach.  The waves are great for boogie-boarding, and there are so many beautiful beaches that you can always find an empty spot to set up for the day.  We like Fred Benson Town Beach for its convenience and facilities.  Just north of the Town beach is Scotch Beach, which lacks facilities but has the same perfect sand, clear water and fewer crowds.  Block Island also has two lighthouses, and countless pretty spots where you can sit, have a picnic, and gaze at the water.  Block Island North Light is particularly pretty at sunset.

Where to eat:  When the ferry arrives, we often walk along Water Street, rounding the corner of The National Hotel to the porch in the back, to Froozie's.  Froozie's has take-away smoothies, sandwiches, and vegetarian creations.  We pick up lunch, and take a taxi to the Fred Benson Town Beach, where we can rent chairs, umbrellas and boogie boards for the day.  The beach is beautiful, and the water is a clear blue.  Generally, though, Block Island is not known for its restaurants.  Craving lobster, we try new restaurants, usually coming away disappointed.  Your best bet is to rent a house and cook at home.  Not the ideal vacation, but a meal out on Block Island tends to be overpriced and mediocre.  A friend who spends four weeks each summer on Block tells me that he buys fresh lobster and fish from the market by the ferry in Galilee to bring to his island kitchen.  When he wants a dinner out, Eli's is his top choice.

Newport:

Filled with adorable bed-and-breakfasts, fun shops and ocean side scenery, Newport is a great place to spend the weekend.  The wealthy New York families of the mid-late 1800's agreed, and built summer "cottages" along Newport's coastline. 

How to get to Newport:  Drive.  Newport is located about 45 minutes south of Providence (T.F. Green is the Providence airport), and about 90 minutes south of Boston.

Where to stay:  The lovely bed-and-breakfast where my husband I stayed years ago is no longer in business, so sadly I cannot recommend a place to stay based on personal experience.  Newport is filled with quaint inns and bed-and-breakfasts, and to find the right one for you, run a quick TripAdvisor search, focusing on places that are in the heart of town and offer free parking.  For hotels, Chanler at Cliff Walk and Castle Hill Inn & Resort have appeared on Condé Nast Traveler's Gold List, both overlooking the ocean but not right in the center of town. 

What to do:  The two most popular Newport attractions are touring the mansions and strolling the Cliff Walk.  Taking your car along Ocean Drive is a close third.  For mansions, my kids loved the children's audio tour offered at The Breakers.  We visited the mansions in December, and the houses were beautifully decorated.  Santa Claus rotates visits on December Saturdays among The Breakers, The Elms and Marble House, and your child can sit on his lap and tell Santa how he or she wants a mansion just like this one for Christmas.  A schedule can be found by clicking here. 

The famous Cliff Walk is a 3.5 mile long footpath between the ocean and the seaside mansions.  The views are spectacular.  Most of the walk is easy, although portions of it have steep drop-offs.  More details can be found by clicking here. 

If you are tired of touring mansions, hiking the Cliff Walk and ambling around town, but you are not tired of ocean views, hop in your car and take the 10-mile loop along Ocean Drive.  Click here for more information.

Where to eat:  For a 2014 Zagat's article on Newport's best dining experiences, click here.

Providence:

If you find yourself in Rhode Island's capital city, check out Atwells Avenue in Federal Hill, also called "Little Italy".  The street is lined with Italian restaurants, shops and delis.  An Italian friend of mine recommends Al Forno for a delicious lunch or dinner (no reservations are taken and the restaurant is popular).  With kids, explore the Roger Williams Park Zoo (http://www.rwpzoo.org/).  The zoo is well-done and relatively small, so is a good place to visit with small children.  My kids especially loved feeding grass to the giraffes.  Roger Williams Park also houses the Museum of Natural History and Planetarium, the Botanical Center, and the Carousel Village.  For just $2.00, your child can cap off his or her visit to the park with a ride on the Victorian-style carousel.