Moon Rhode Island

DISCOVER Rhode Island

Planning Your Trip

The Best of Rhode Island

BEST BEACHES

The Creative Capital and Beyond

FOOD IN THE OCEAN STATE

A Getaway Weekend on the Coast

KID STUFF

SAILING, FISHING, AND KAYAKING

Contrary to what Rhode Island locals might tell you, nothing within the state’s boundaries is actually “far away” from anything else. Rhode Island comprises only about 1,500 square miles (over 500 of which are in territorial waters), and one can easily drive from one end of the state to the other in about an hour. But despite the relative ease with which one might cross a state line, there is something about Rhode Island that makes it difficult to leave. In fact, this tendency of Rhode Islanders to stay put has become something of a joke over the years; local gift shops have taken to selling bumper stickers and T-shirts depicting an anchor chained to the phrase “I never leave Rhode Island.”

The anchor, of course, is part of the state’s official insignia, a symbol representing steadfastness and hope. And like so much of Rhode Island’s history, culture, people, and landscape, it also represents an inextricable link to the sea.

The ocean permeates everything in Rhode Island, from the sandy beaches and inland farms to city streets where seagulls can still be heard crying overhead and salty breezes blow in from the bay. In Rhode Island, the ocean creates jobs, supplies food, and provides recreation and respite from the daily grind. It’s where the state gets its official name (after all, an island can’t exist without the sea), and it’s where it gets its nickname as well—the Ocean State.

Perhaps this is why Rhode Islanders live for summer, when rising temperatures and sunny skies make the coast that much more appealing. But as with all New England states, Rhode Island has appeal in every season. Autumn means brilliant bright-orange and red foliage, and apple picking and hayrides at family-run orchards. Spring is an excuse to seek out the diaphanous pink blooms of the cherry blossom trees at one of over two dozen state parks. Even in the coldest winter months, visitors can enjoy the ineffable beauty of the Atlantic from behind the windowpanes of cozy seaside B&Bs or simply find warmth in the diversity and vibrancy of Providence or Newport, two of the nation’s most historic cities.

And the best thing about Rhode Island? Everything is a day trip—which sort of makes it difficult to leave.

Planning Your Trip

Where to Go

In terms of tourism, little Rhode Island is a land of separate communities. You don’t so much vacation in Rhode Island as you do in Providence, Newport, South County, or Block Island. That being said, if you spend time in any one part of Rhode Island, you’ll find it quite simple to venture over to any other town in the state, which are all just a short drive away.

Providence and Vicinity

Providence somehow manages to feel like the cool college town it is while maintaining a very genuine blue-collar vibe at the same time. It also offers a culinary experience you might expect of a city several times its size, some beautifully preserved colonial and 19th-century architecture, and a youthful, unconventional, and thriving music, art, and club scene, largely due to the presence of Brown University, the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and Johnson and Wales.

Greater Providence encapsulates a diversity of environments that reward day trips, drive-throughs, and even longer stays. The Blackstone River Valley features recreational opportunities, thanks to the historically notable Blackstone River.

Newport

Newport, known for its posh luxury hotels and elite seaside estates, offers the lodging and dining variety you might expect of much larger East Coast cities, and yet it’s a fairly small place that’s easy to navigate. It’s a well-preserved colonial seaport community and a living-history museum of the Gilded Age, with stunning mansions situated on rocky cliffs. But you needn’t be rich to enjoy the natural beauty of Newport’s scenic coastline and sandy beaches.

Block Island

Block Island is both beautiful and accessible, thanks to a conservancy that preserves more than a quarter of the island’s open spaces. You’ll find historic bed-and-breakfasts and inns here, including several mammoth Victorian hotels, as well as some of the most breathtaking stretches of coastline in the state.

The East Bay and Sakonnet

East Bay is a great weekend destination: Warren is an antiques hub with a few excellent restaurants, while Bristol offers charming inns and museums. Sakonnet makes a great day trip as it’s laced with country roads and contains a handful of fun shops, cafés, roadside farm stands, and a bit of beach access. Alas, there are hardly any accommodations in Sakonnet’s two towns, Little Compton and Tiverton, but it’s a short drive from either Aquidneck Island or Bristol.

South County

This part of Rhode Island offers a mix of colorful beach towns studded with condos, motels, and guesthouses along with quieter interior communities known for lush forests, rippling ponds and rivers, and great hiking. The coastal area tends to be seasonal and is best visited from spring through summer. This is a very family-friendly part of Rhode Island, owing to its busy beaches with kid-oriented diversions, from water sports and whale watches to carousels and miniature golf.

When to Go

Rhode Island is a year-round destination, but if you’re planning to take advantage of the Ocean State’s vast access to the water, focus your visit around the warmest months, generally from mid-May through mid-October and especially from mid-June through Labor Day. Keep in mind, however, that in Newport, Block Island, and South County, you’ll be competing with throngs of other sea lovers for space and parking at the beach, in restaurants, and at hotels.

Newport and parts of South County have made an effort to attract off-season visitors; museums have begun keeping longer winter hours, and many hotels offer special rates in the off-season. Block Island, however, has few hotel options and even fewer dining options in winter.

The best compromise might be visiting in the shoulder season—in May, before Memorial Day, when the days are often warm and sunny, or in September, after Labor Day, when the ocean is at its warmest.

Because the colleges in Providence infuse downtown and College Hill with energy when the schools are in session, some visitors prefer fall, spring, and even winter in the state capital, which can seem empty in summer when there aren’t as many students. While Providence can sometimes be uncomfortably hot and muggy in July and August, it’s only a 45-minute drive to most of the state’s beaches, making it a completely reasonable place to make your home base for a summer visit. Winters are not brutal, but the state does get socked by the occasional snow or ice storms, and the wind and frigidity can be uncomfortable from December through March.

The most bewitching and scenic seasons in Rhode Island are spring, when the entire state is abloom with greenery and flowers, and fall, when the foliage changes color, the woods lighting up with brilliant swamp maples.

The Best of Rhode Island

With a week to explore Rhode Island, you can easily see the state’s key towns and cities and enjoy a sampling of its major attractions. This approach begins in Providence and then steers you down through the state’s coastal hubs, ending in Bristol, just an hour’s drive from Providence. It’s not difficult to manage this tour in just five to six days by using Providence and Newport as your bases and spending one night instead of two on Block Island, but to fully soak up the region’s appeal, plan to take seven full days to get around.

Days 1-2: Providence

Providence’s renaissance has occurred largely around its downtown riverfront, so spend your first day getting acquainted with the area. Spend some time checking out the shops and cafés in Downcity, then walk over to Waterplace Park, where you can take a gondola ride during the warmer months. On many Saturday evenings from March through November you can also watch the dazzling Waterfire, a dramatic display of bonfires set in cauldrons along the river.

In the same day, you can cross the river to College Hill, home to Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design as well as several other attractions, some of them related to the neighborhood’s academic institutions. Must-sees include the RISD Museum of Art and the Providence Athenaeum. Be sure to stroll along Benefit Street, which is lined with gorgeous colonial and Victorian homes, and check out the excellent shopping, gallery-hopping, and inexpensive dining along both Thayer and Wickenden Streets.

On your second day, venture out to Roger Williams Park, which is an easy four-mile drive or bus ride south from downtown. This sprawling green park contains Roger Williams Park Zoo and the excellent Museum of Natural History, which includes a planetarium, making it an especially nice option if you have kids in tow. Alternatively, make a day trip north of the city to Slater Mill Historic Site, a linchpin of the American Industrial Revolution, located in downtown Pawtucket, a 15-minute drive north of Providence. Finish off the day with dinner and a stroll through Federal Hill, Providence’s Little Italy, or check out one of the many other eclectic and highly acclaimed restaurants in the West Side neighborhood.

Days 3-4: Newport

You should not visit Newport without taking a road trip along winding Ocean Drive, which meanders along the waterfront and affords close-up views of some of this small city’s prettiest homes. Spend the rest of your first day becoming acquainted with the compact and highly walkable downtown, checking out the shops and the well-preserved colonial and Victorian architecture of Historic Hill, or enjoying the exhibits at the excellent Newport Art Museum.

Save your second day in Newport for touring the massive summer homes of the Gilded Age along Bellevue Avenue, the most famous of which is The Breakers. After the imposing Breakers, if you have time to see only one other mansion, your best bet is The Elms. If you’re a tennis fan, you might consider a visit to the International Tennis Hall of Fame and its museum.

If mansions aren’t your thing, head north to visit the towns of Portsmouth and Middletown, where sightseeing highlights include the Norman Bird Sanctuary, Sachuest Point Nature Preserve, and Green Animals Topiary Garden, as well as some of the best sandy beaches in the state.

Day 5: South County

Laid-back South County contains some of Rhode Island’s best beaches as well as copious opportunities for hiking, boating, swimming, and sunbathing. It’s also where you catch the ferry to the next place on this tour, Block Island.

A great way to make the most of a day in South County is to drive along the shore, beginning in the quaint Victorian seaside town of Watch Hill and continuing along Route 1A and U.S. 1 (and some side roads) through such charming seaside communities as Weekapaug, Misquamicut, Charlestown, Galilee, and Point Judith. A bit north, Narragansett is home to the South County Museum, which preserves the legacy of a gentleman’s farm, and the Gilbert Stuart Museum, the home of George Washington’s foremost portraitist. Don’t feel like you have to spend the day sightseeing, however—when you find the beach that matches your personality, whether that’s kid-friendly Watch Hill, pristine Charlestown, or raucous Misquamicut, feel free to pull out that towel and sunbathe.

Day 6: Block Island

Beautiful and isolated Block Island, just 10 miles or so south of the mainland, feels a world away from the rest of the state. Far less developed than other New England island retreats, such as Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, Block Island is home to numerous nature preserves as well as some of the grandest Victorian seaside resorts in the country. While it’s possible to visit for an afternoon, you’ll want to spend a night and really get the feel of the island. Go for a bike ride, hike along the grounds of Southeast Light or through Rodman’s Hollow preserve, grab an ice-cream cone at Aldo’s, or simply laze away your time reading in a lounge chair at Crescent Beach.

Day 7: East Bay and Sakonnet

End your tour of Rhode Island with a visit to the quiet East Bay area, which you can reach from Newport more scenically by making a short detour through Sakonnet, a small patch of villages bordering Massachusetts and the ocean and home to the state’s best winery, Sakonnet Vineyards. If the vineyard doesn’t appeal to you, consider a trip to Goosewing Beach and Nature Preserve, a great place to watch the sunset or observe the enormous flocks of piping plover and other birds that congregate here.

Head north to reach the East Bay, whose main towns are Bristol and Warren. Bristol may be relatively small, but it’s home to some historic attractions, including Blithewold Mansion and Arboretum, as well as a charming downtown neighborhood. Head to Warren for dinner at one of the several hip and eclectic restaurants that have cropped up here in recent years.

The Creative Capital and Beyond

The continuum of creative juice that flows through Rhode Island’s various communities is due largely in part to the wellspring of talent attracted by institutions like the Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University. For generations, the city has attracted artists and creative types of every ilk, many of whom stayed on after graduation to found small businesses, participate in public art projects, or simply live and work in a state that prides itself on supporting the arts. This trend is particularly evident in Providence, where there seem to be artist studios on every block, but it also extends further out to nearly every community in the state. If you’re looking to take in some of the best visual and performing art Rhode Island has to offer, start in the capital and make your way south.

College Hill

No trip to Providence is complete without stopping in to see what’s on display at the RISD Museum (224 Benefit St., 401/454-6500, www.risdmuseum.org), which houses over 86,000 works of art, with galleries devoted to ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian artifacts, costumes and textiles, and Asian, decorative, and contemporary art. Don’t leave without seeing the nine-foot tall statue of Buddha, a 12th-century wooden sculpture that is the largest of its kind in the United States, or the many breathtaking woodblock prints by Hokusai and his contemporaries. While you’re on this side of town, consider also checking out the David Winton Bell Gallery (64 College St., 401/863-2932, www.brown.edu) at Brown University, whose collection includes works by artists from Rembrandt and Matisse to Robert Motherwell and Aaron Siskind.

Downcity

Things get especially interesting once you step outside the boundaries of Providence’s formal institutions of higher learning and head downtown, where a closely related yet slightly more unhinged art scene thrives. Pay a visit to AS220 (115 Empire St., 401/831-9327, www.as220.org) and check out the “unjuried, uncensored” art on exhibit at one of four galleries operated by this nonprofit arts organization and cornerstone of the local art scene. If you’re looking for a more participatory experience, check their website for weekly drop-in classes like figure drawing and printmaking. If you’re looking for art to take home, pop in to Craftland (212 Westminster St., 401/272-4285, www.craftlandshop.com), where an array of locally made crafts, gifts, prints, and jewelry can be found.

Wickford

One could easily spend days checking out the galleries in Providence alone, but the coastal art communities in Rhode Island tend to appeal to different sensibilities, with windswept watercolors, plein-air paintings, and whimsical sketchbook exhibits full of lighthouses and coastlines pervading the artistic landscape. The Wickford Art Association (36 Beach St., 401/294-6840, www.wickfordart.org) is a prime example of this, and also a great resource for those looking to drop in on classes like figure drawing, portraiture, and watercolor. The galleries here feature rotating exhibits by talented local artists, many of whom have been making art in the community since the association was established in 1962.

Newport

From Wickford, head over the bridge to Newport and stop in at the Newport Art Museum (76 Bellevue Ave., 401/848-8200, www.newportartmuseum.org), whose permanent collection focuses specifically on the role played by New England artists in the development of American art. Highlights here include works by Newport artist Howard Gardiner Cushing, whose sublime early-20th-century portraits of his wife Ethel hang alongside oils by 19th-century landscape artist William Trost Richards, George Bellows, and others. The museum also graciously hosts community events throughout the year, like film screenings, murder mystery parties, live music, artist talks, and classes. Newport is also home to the National Museum of American Illustration (492 Bellevue Ave., 401/851-8949, www.americanillustration.org), where you can view an impressive collection of art created for books, periodicals, advertisements, and new media. Works by artists like Norman Rockwell, Andrew Wyeth, and Winslow Homer are on display in the galleries, housed in Vernon Court, a Gilded Age French château that is a work of art in and of itself.

A Getaway Weekend on the Coast

Newport