2025 Rhode Island Travel Guide | Hotels, Dining & Attractions

From sun-soaked beaches and historic inns to jazz clubs and artisan doughnut shops, the best places to visit in Rhode Island are packed with charm, flavor, and unforgettable experiences. Whether you’re craving a seaside lobster roll, sipping wine on a vineyard terrace, or soaking up live music with an ocean breeze in your hair, this handpicked collection—curated by Yankee editors—celebrates the Ocean State’s must-visit destinations for 2025. Dive into the local scene and discover the food, stays, and adventures that make Rhode Island a small state with big appeal.

Best Places to Visit in Rhode Island | 2025 Editors’ Picks

2025 Best Rhode Island Hotels

Best Coastal B&B: Sea Breeze Block Island, Block Island

You can visit Block Island, or you can be immersed. If the latter is what you’re after, Sea Breeze is the place to stay. A quick veer off a main road, and you’ve arrived at the compound of small cottages, artfully decorated and nestled among gardens with an Atlantic Ocean backdrop. A chef-cooked breakfast is delivered each morning by picnic basket.

Best Luxury B&B: Margin Street Inn, Westerly

The simplicity-loving Quakers who built the 19th-century Greek Revival and Colonial Revival mansions that make up this luxurious inn might raise an eyebrow if they could see what their former homes have become. But modern guests revel in the beautifully styled common spaces, the spacious suites outfitted with Matouk and Ralph Lauren linens, the morning reveal of artist and innkeeper Sarah Cooper’s ever-changing frittatas, and the landscape adorned with heritage trees and historic outbuildings. Downtown is a pleasant 0.8-mile walk along the Pawcatuck River.

2025 Best Rhode Island Dining

Best Beach Bar: Ocean Mist, Wakefield

You can’t get much closer to the water than this local institution perched directly above the shoreline, where waves roll under the wooden deck. And in such an intimate venue, you can’t get much closer to the entertainment, which is part of why many consider Ocean Mist to be the best live-music spot in Rhode Island. Utterly unpretentious, full of sun-browned characters, and boasting an impressive weekly lineup of rock, reggae, and blues bands, the Mist is also the rare beach bar where breakfast is more than a hangover cure—the food is excellent.

Best Coffee Shop: Rise ‘N Shine Coffee Bar, Providence

Rise ‘N Shine is a sweet side-street surprise. Housed in a historic carriage house, this IYKYK gathering place serves locally roasted coffee, pretty lattes, and fresh pastries with a side of Wi-Fi. Owner Neal Kaplan has outfitted the picture-perfect space with comfy seating, newspapers at the ready, and a footwear-centric theme that pays soulful homage to his cobbler great-grandfather and the building’s former life as a shoe shop.

Best Comfort Food: Ye Olde English Fish & Chips, Woonsocket

Woonsocket may be famed as Rhode Island’s center of French Canadian culture—Acadian immigrants once worked the city’s textile mills—but this bastion of British comfort food is perhaps Woony’s best-known eatery. Founded by émigrés from Yorkshire in 1922, the no-frills restaurant remains true to the recipe carried across the pond more than a century ago, other than replacing lard with vegetable oil for frying. The fish is local, the golden chips sliced in-house, the food savory and delicious—just like in ye good olde days. 401-762-3637

Best Doughnuts: Knead Doughnuts, Providence and Westerly

There are doughnuts that are cheaper by the dozen, doughnuts that are mixed-media works of art, and then there are Knead Doughnuts: classics worth their weight in gold. Look for the varieties made of brioche dough, a recipe of fresh yeast, butter, and real vanilla bean, fermented for 24 hours for maximum flavor. The Jelly is a masterpiece of hand-rolled brioche filled with seasonal jam and tossed in granulated sugar. “Knead” we say more?

Best Game-Time Grub: Boon Street Market, Narragansett

A cavernous former train depot situated along the Narragansett Pier has quickly become this seaside town’s hottest social stop since opening last summer. Part food hall, part indoor-outdoor bar, Boon Street Market readily switches from an affable summer hangout to a lively sports bar when games are on. What remains constant is the quartet of fast-casual dining options: Mexican, Italian, a burger and barbecue joint, and a noodle bar.

Best Ice Cream: Brickley’s Homemade Ice Cream, Wakefield

When an eatery can be spotted by its long line of customers, it’s a safe bet that folks know its offerings are worth the wait. Such is the case at Brickley’s, a family-owned ice cream shop serving up more than 45 flavors of homemade ice cream, frozen yogurt, sherbets, and sorbets from a window on Main Street. Adding to the allure is the intoxicating aroma of waffle cones baked on-site.

Best Inland Outdoor Dining: The Tree House Tavern & Bistro, Warwick

A bit off the radar (yet a 10-minute drive from T.F. Green Airport), this hidden gem features a perennially scrumptious seasonal menu with a dedicated tea menu and Instagram-worthy desserts presented in tantalizing fashion. The interior is lovely, but plan ahead to dine in the gardens—a magical spot aglow with lanterns hanging from trees—the kind of setting that could only be dreamed up by a mother-son florist team turned restaurateurs.

Best Seaside Outdoor Dining: The Lobster Bar, Newport

Heading to Bowen’s Wharf is a must-do when visiting the City by the Sea, but be sure to venture all the way to the end or you’ll miss The Lobster Bar. At this expansive, indoor-outdoor restaurant, you’ll discover a jovial atmosphere, friendly staff, and 180-degree views of the harbor. The menu offers something for everyone (even landlubbers) and earns bonus points for its flights of mini lobster rolls: traditional, naked, and fried.

Best Vineyard: Sakonnet Vineyard, Little Compton

New England’s oldest vineyard makes its home in Little Compton, but it’s hardly a stodgy institution. New stewards James Davids and Marissa Stashenko have made mindful updates to the property, along with launching new wines and a new menu. Beyond light bites such as flatbreads and charcuterie, recent offerings include lobster rolls, roasted chicken, and cookies. Situated on 169 acres, it’s a beautiful place for a taste of the Farm Coast.

2025 Best Rhode Island Attractions

Best Body & Bath Boutique: Beauty and the Bath, Wickford

Part of North Kingstown (which just celebrated its 350th), the village of Wickford is as picturesque as can be. Built around a natural harbor, it boasts one of the largest collections of 18th-century architecture and a thriving shop-small community. Among its merchant-boosters is Lori Lyons, longtime owner of Beauty and the Bath. Her cheerful shop is replete with sleepwear, gifts, and bath and body products in scents that range from luxe to local (e.g., Rhody fave Del’s Lemonade).

Best Community Arts Venue: The United Theatre, Westerly

This 1926 theater hasn’t just been renovated—it’s been transformed. Three screening rooms, a black-box theater, and other performance and display spaces occupy the restored vaudeville venue as well as the long-shuttered Montgomery Ward department store next door. Visitors can catch a movie, hear a band, attend a lecture, browse an art gallery, or pose in a yoga class.

Best Guided Adventure: Rhode Island Lighthouse and Newport Harbor Tour, North Kingstown

It doesn’t get more Ocean State than this 90-minute cruise. Listening to narration by a historian who delivers information with the panache of a TV journalist, you’ll pass by 10 historic beacons and lesser-known small islands. Journey under the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge, see the house built on a rock known as Clingstone, and take in views of rolling lawns behind grand mansions.

Best Jazz Venue: Courtland Club, Providence

On Sunday nights, jazz heats up a former bakery on Federal Hill. Circa-1920 ovens still occupy the wall behind the stage, but the club’s “New England tropical” food is 21st-century hip. The unmarked entrance at 51 Courtland Street conveys a speakeasy vibe: Be brave, walk in, and you’ll be welcomed with a knowing wink from the eclectic crowd of regulars bent over craft cocktails and nodding to the groove.

Best New Family Attraction: Harmony Railway & Gift Shop, Chepachet

It’s no accident this gift shop on Putnam Pike resembles an old railroad station: The front porch doubles as the depot for a diesel-powered miniature train that runs around a half-mile track for the amusement of visitors as well as the satisfaction of retired-firefighter-turned-conductor Russ Gross. The ride ends back at a well-curated shop full of local crafts, farm-raised honey, soaps and lotions, and plenty of train-related swag.

Best Public Art: The Avenue Concept, Providence

Providence’s reputation as Rhode Island’s cultural capital is written all over the city’s walls: Nearly 50 monumental murals enliven old red-brick buildings, with themes ranging from simple (fish, flowers, pets) to whimsical (an angel-wing selfie wall) to meaningful (Gaia’s “Still Here,” which depicts Narragansett artist Lynsea Montanari and nods to the state’s extant Native American population). The nonprofit Avenue Concept facilitates self-guided tours of the city’s public art with a free mobile app.

Best Summer Apparel: Three Islands, Watch Hill

The Westerly neighborhood of Watch Hill is like a mini Chatham. Within a brief stretch, there’s a candy store, an ice cream parlor, restaurants, and boutiques including Three Islands. Founded by cousins Justin Goff and Phil Barney, who became smitten with all things Bali while on a surfing trip, the clothing brand’s seasonal flagship is where you can find “a little sunshine for your closet,” made from hand-screened batik.

Best Summer Theater: Theatre by the Sea, Wakefield

In Wakefield, summers at the shore have meant show tunes as well as sno-cones since 1933, when Theatre by the Sea opened in an old barn on Cards Pond Road. The footlights of this rustic summer-stock stage once drew such luminaries as Mae West and Marlon Brando. Saved from extinction more than once, the theater now offers a four-show run of summer musical staples like Hairspray; arrive early for cocktails in the shady courtyard before the curtain goes up.

Best Urban Green Space: Providence River Parks, Providence

Begun in 1994 with the opening of Waterplace Park and the Providence Riverwalk, then greatly enhanced by the river-spanning Michael S. Van Leesten Memorial Bridge in 2019, the necklace of parks girding Providence’s downtown rivers is finally complete. The opening of 195 District Park on the Providence River’s west side six years ago and the addition of Point Street Park in 2023 allow unfettered strolls from the heart of downtown to the mouth of Narragansett Bay.

Honorees were selected by Yankee editors with contributions from Elyse Major, a Rhode Island–based journalist and editor in chief at Hey Rhody Media Co.; and Bob Curley, prolific freelancer and author of books on Rhode Island and Caribbean travel.

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