Sharing my Block Island Travel Guide today!
oh block island, where do I begin?? It’s magical. Being out on an island is special, and you feel it instantly as you walk off the ferry. Everyone is happy and lighthearted as they forget about everything back on the mainland. We wanted a week to be together, to unplug and have fun as a family. And this little island provided us with everything we needed to do just that. There are no big attractions, no fancy restaurants, it’s simple and casual. The people are there to enjoy the ocean and the natural beauty of the island.
RECAP
First, where we stayed. We rented a three bedroom house on the west side of the island which is less crowded and very quiet. It was up on a hill and you couldn’t see anything but green and the ocean out in the distance. This house had these big blackberry bushes in our yard that we picked every day. It also came with an outdoor shower, no internet, a tiny TV that we didn’t even turn on, two Adirondack beach chairs where we would sit to watch the sunset, and a cozy interior full of opened windows.
What Our Day Looked Like
We woke up every day and had breakfast at the house. Then we packed up our beach coolers and a car full of things we needed for the beach (umbrella, chairs, toys, boogie board, goggles, etc…) We got to the beach in the morning and stayed all day when the weather was good. Grace does usually nap in the middle of the day but on these nice days we couldn’t justify leaving, and just skipped her nap. I laid with her in the shade for a while in the hopes she’d conk out, or let her watch a show on a blanket in the shade for about an hour. And with that she was good to go for the rest of the afternoon.
Beach Time
Everyone at the beach was SO friendly, Brian made a friend Liam and they were inseparable. We met up with them on the beach for the rest of the trip and funny enough they live in Fairfield. All the young girls on the beach adored Grace so she was occupied with them most of the time. I actually had a few moments to myself to read on the beach! That hasn’t happened in four years.
Rainy Day Adventures
We had a couple of cloudy/rainy days so we explored the island on these days. So we hiked along the bluffs and the kids loved that, climbing up the hill and finding pretty rocks on the beach. Brian’s favorite activity was crabbing. One afternoon we must have spent three solid hours crabbing. It was nice that we met a sweet family who was also crabbing and the kids were SO cute about it. The crabs are really easy to catch and they’d just pull them up on the line and throw them back in.
Brian and Brian went kayaking one morning while I took Grace to the playground. There was time for lots of ice cream, trying out lots of local restaurants and walking around the town. One night we event went to happy hour with friends, went to bed early, it was all I could ever want in a beach vacation with my family. Each of us really loved our time here so much and can’t wait to go back next year!
Our Special Spot
I’ve always wanted to have a special place for our family to go to in the summer, and I’m pretty sure BI is it. Our dream is to own a house on the island one day and spend the whole summer there. We met a lot of families who do this. I could see Brian working at The Oar as a teenager and Gracie at an ice cream shop or babysitting for the families who come to visit.
Oh yeah! We got babysitters through blockislandbaby.com and they were great! Brian and I got out twice for dinner 🙂
Okay so here’s a Block Island Travel Guide for your next trip based off of what we did and enjoyed.
Stay
We rented a house through Sullivan Realty. They were great to work with and we loved our house.
Things to Do
Everyone comes to Block Island for the beach. There are a bunch different beaches you can go to but Crescent Beach was our favorite.
Go Fishing
Kayaking/SUP
Go on a hike to Mohegan Bluffs, see all the pretty rocks around the North Light. There are also more advanced hikes you can take but we weren’t prepared for Grace.
Rent bikes/mopeds and ride around the island
There are lots of cute little shops in town
There is a farm for kids that we didn’t make it to, called Abrams. It’s at the Atlantic Inn.
Eat
Payne’s Killer Donuts (the best!)
Dead Eye Dicks (we went here for our date night)
The Oar (this place is amazing!! Pretty sunsets, docks where the kids can go crabbing, corn hole and picnic tables, a must)
Spring House for the gorgeous views, it’s perfect at happy hour and they have these big rolling hills that all the kids run down while the parents sit on Adirondack chairs and drink cocktails.
The Airport Diner (literally at the airport but you can watch the planes take off and land, the kids love this)
The Ice Cream Place << such good ice cream. There is also Aldo’s which has ice cream right across the street, the people of the island are torn on which is better, I can’t have anything but the “Monster Mash” at The Ice Cream Place so it has my vote.
Three Sister’s Place (we didn’t actually get here but a lot of people told us to)
I’m sure I’m forgetting a ton, but you can always email me if you’re heading to Block and I’ll do my best to help you out! Here are a couple pics from the trip 🙂
shop the post
I hope you enjoyed this Block Island Travel Guide. For more posts like this you can click here!