Misquamicut State Beach

Misquamicut State Beach is Rhode Island's western, wilder ocean beach — a long Atlantic sand strand stretching southwest from the Watch Hill peninsula near Connecticut, administered by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors each summer to one of New England's most spirited and social beach scenes. The beach's name comes from the Niantic/Pequot word for the area, referencing the region's Native American heritage predating European settlement.

The beach community of Misquamicut centers on Atlantic Avenue, a strip of family motels, seafood stands, miniature golf, go-kart tracks, and amusement rides that gives the area a retro, unpretentious summer resort character very different from the quieter, upscale atmosphere of nearby Watch Hill or Narragansett. The Atlantic Beach Club, operating continuously since 1917, is the social hub of Misquamicut — a classic beach club with an outdoor deck, music, and dancing on summer evenings that has been part of the Rhode Island shore experience for generations of New England families.

The surf at Misquamicut is gentler than at Narragansett (facing southwest rather than southeast), making it particularly well suited for families with children. Watch Hill, just 3 km to the east, provides an elegant contrast — an exclusive Victorian resort village with the famous Flying Horse Carousel (listed as the oldest carousel in America, operating since 1876) and beautiful rocky beaches overlooking the entrance to Little Narragansett Bay. Taylor Swift's estate at Watch Hill has made the area famous nationally, though the beaches there remain accessible to the public.