Yay Rhode Island!

Even though it's been years since I was there, I definitely remember walking along the shore on Block Island in late March and thinking it was super-gorgeous; we were there on a weekday, so there was a definite lack of tourists. I'd also check out the Cape Cod National Seashore, which is pretty much the whole "ocean" side of the cape from the elbow to the, uh, fist.

I spent a few minutes on Google Maps and found some smallish-looking beach-y village-y bits between Narragansett Bay and New Bedford here, as well as a seemingly-unpopulated island southwest of Martha's Vineyard called No Man's Land! No idea if it's open to the public, but if you chartered a boat you could probably get out there and do some fishing at least, if not wade in and explore. The satellite photo seems to show some trails.

There's also Cuttyhunk Island, which may have been Shakespeare's inspiration for The Tempest! It seems (haven't been there) pretty quiet. More info here.

*pages CitrusFreak12*

Well, those pics scream "Cape Cod," to me. Even before you get to the elbow.

Try going in September, when the weather's not that bad, and the number of tourists is down.

This is a very interesting question, and one I will have to ask others about. I apparently take beaches for granted, and they all seem to run together to me; a beach is a beach is a beach, as I'm not familiar with other types of non-New England beaches. I'll see if any of my friends could recommend a good beach that fits your description.

However, my favorite beach to go to is Narragansett beach. Matunuck beach is also nice.

Also I've used the word "beach" so much that it seems very strange to me now. "Beach". Weird.

You asked my favorite question in life, loiseau. I am a New England coast connoisseur.

Connecticut: Limited opportunities. Most waterfront in CT is privately owned, and much of it is salt marsh. Some nice salt-watery spots are here and there, though: Kayaking around the Thimble Islands makes for a great day. Stonington Borough has a tiny beach, but it has a beautiful view and an exotic, tucked-away New England feel. Hoity-toity boutiques, but loaded with atmosphere, and it also has a couple excellent restaurants and the largest remaining commercial fishing fleet in CT. Day boat scallops, don't miss 'em.

Rhode Island: Just over the Connecticut Border is Westerly, Rhode Island. The little midcentury downtown is terrific - just recovering from a long stagnant period, with a mix of creative new businesses and some old standbys. The nearby beach is Misquamicot, a very long stretch of sandy beach with sometimes very rough surf. There are beach bars and rental houses all along Misquamicot - it's a bit of a party zone in summer, but really, a lot of fun. Nearby there is the much more staid and old-school Napatree Point at Watch Hill. Watch Hill is a small enclave of old Victorian hotels and wealthy houses. There is a small shopping street, but its real gem is a long sandy spit that reaches 2 miles into the Atlantic. It's wild, and you can hike around the grasses and dunes. There are two old WWI/II forts there that you can urban-explore. Plenty of nesting birds. A rocky point at the end. Because it's a spit, there is a west-facing and an east-facing beach, so it's one of a few points on the East Coast where you can watch the sunset over the water.

A little further into RI you can visit East Beach and Ninigret Pond. East Beach is one of the places really only locals know about -it's not developed. It's a long natural beach with limited parking. On the other side of the dunes is a large, beautiful shallow estuary which makes for great kayaking. More nature than town here.

Matunuck and Point Judith and Galilee, RI, will have lost of the atmosphere you're looking for. These are very big fishing ports and also have sandy beaches and beach-town downtowns. Galilee is the point of departure for Block Island, which you will absolutely love. The atmosphere you seek is there. It is a small, hilly, very natural gem of an island. You can stay two days and pretty much explore the whole place. There is a lot of hiking, biking, kayaking, and great birdwatching, but also lazy shore bars and a 19th century downtown area with fun browsing shops and ice cream places. In summer, there's a lot of music on BI and a young swim/surf/outdoor scene. IN the shoulder seasons, it's like you've been transported to a magical island appearing out of the mist. Highly, highly recommended. For my money, two days on Block Island is the single most relaxing, restorative weekend in New England.

Moving along the coast, there's not much else in RI that will interest you. Moving on to MA. New Bedford isn't really a great place for the seaside small-town vibe you're looking for - it's a large, gritty city which is extremely interesting for things like its Portuguese population, whaling history, and international cargo shipping, but it's not bucolic in any way.

Martha's Vineyard is also highly recommended. It's a lot bigger than Block Island, and you can spend quite a while there and still be exploring all of its nooks and crannies as the place slowly reveals itself to you. It's also full of natural beauty and preserve land, but also contains six different towns, each with their own character, from the brown-shingle tiny cottages of rural, farm-y Chilmark to the Victorian gingerbread and circusy feel of Oak Bluffs to the staid white Federal and Georgian manses of Edgartown. I've been spending time on MV for 15 years and would be happy to give you my tips via email if you plan to go. You would love it and you'd find that feel there in spades.

The Elizabeth Islands, like Cuttyhunk and Naushon, are variously private and protected. You can really only go there if you know somebody or are renting a place. You really might like to rent on Cuttyhunk, but there is pretty much nothing to do there other than go walking along the shore and drop in to the post office/restaurant/grocery/gift shop which is one of I think 2 shops on the island. It is as lo-fi as they come. Most of the other islands are either totally privately owned or are preserve land that no one is on, and there is no boat service. No Man's Land was owned by the military and used as an ammo testing ground - you can't go there and you can't even sail within a certain distance of it.

I have never been a fan of Nantucket. It's architecturally and historically really interesting, and the beaches are nice, but it has become a haven for the just impossibly rich, which leaves not much fun for anyone else unless you enjoy browsing Lilly Pulitzer capris and whale ties which cost more than your entire trip expenses. There are a couple beach bars and stuff but I found it dull and inhospitable to the non-trustafarian. My standing policy on Nantucket is that I will go there if there is something specific to do - usually some historical society function - and a free place to stay. The ferry journey is fun - 2+ hours (it's waaay offshore) and very bumpy.

Almost the entire Cape would suit you. My Cape knowledge is not so hot because I'm usually making a beeline for Provincetown or just skipping it and going to the Vineyard. But I've done a number of driving trips up and down it. Some towns that come to mind for checking out: Brewster, Sandwich, Hyannis (super touristy), Chatham, Wellfleet. The "upper Cape" is a little less touristed/more natural than the "lower Cape," just because it's a longer drive from the mainland. Provincetown, or P-town, is a lot of fun. It's touristy, arty, and a reknowned gay resort. There's a lot to do, great architecture, fantastic beaches, busy nightlife, history, plenty of creative/arty businesses. It's very easy to spend a week just meandering the Cape, driving from town to town, maybe concentrating on one area like upper or lower and exploring from a central point. The National Seashore is indeed amazingly lovely. If you go in summer, don't go without reservations, though. There is a lot of camping if you like that.

I'm not very good on the South Shore of MA, below Boston. On the North Shore, you may want to visit Gloucester and Rockport on Cape Ann. Gloucester is a medium-ish waterfront city, which you may have sen glimpses of in the movie "The Perfect Storm." It is, I think, the biggest US fishing port on the East Coast. The famous Fisherman's Memorial is there. There's fun walking-around there, lots to gawk at, very salty atmosphere. Nearby is Rockport, which was an old fishing village which turned into a mid-20th-century artist's community. Some amazing artists lived there in tiny, one- and two-room cottages on rocky shores. It's extreeemely picturesque and exotic. There are a lot of B&Bs there. Both places are windswept and stalwart in the way you describe.

Newburyport, a little farther north, is a great spot. An old brick downtown that shouts late-18th-century prosperity. Loads and loads of shopping and food and stuff to do, arts, concerts, plays. The beach there is called Plum Island, a long barrier beach that is just beautiful, really one of the prettiest on the East Coast. Natural, very sandy, and extensive. One half the island is beach house rentals, the other totally natural and wooded.

Skipping up the coast, we'll glide over NH because there's not much in the way of beachy, directly shoreside destinations. So you're into Southern Maine (which surprisingly is only about an hour and a half north of Boston). York, ME is a great New England coastal resort town. Scenic, rocky, one of the prettiest lighthouses anywhere, and a fun little seasonal beach town with ice cream and skee-ball. This town is my summer hangout. Ogunquit is a little north of there. It's a very lovely and genteel seaside town - quite beautiful, amazing beach with a nifty tidal canal that you can inner-tube on at high tide, long beachwalk with rosa rugosa lining it. Fine dining and fancy shmancy shopping. Lots of art (a great art museum and plenty of galleries) and theatre. This is also a popular gay resort. It is beautiful but somewhat staid.

The islands of the Casco Bay off of Portland may be of interest to you. Usually you'll have to do a B&B or rental to get any time on the islands, but they are beautiful and take you back in time. Great Diamond, Little Diamond, and Peaks Island are good places to stay. A little farther north is Monhegan Island, a really rugged, salty, old-wooden-structure island that's really pure old New England.

Boothbay Harbor might be fun for you. Very very touristy in summer, candle shops and garden stores, but super Maine-y. A fun footbridge crosses the inlet. Excellent kayaking and daysailing from there.

Finally, I'm going to recommend Bar Harbor, where everyone should go at least once in his or her life. Again, busy in summer (detecting a theme? All of New England is), but worth it. It's an old, beautiful town on an enormous rocky island with mountainous terrain and gorgeous rugged beaches. You'll have all the ice cream, pottery, blueberry-flavored stuff, music, movies, and festivals you can stand, but you can also escape into Acadia National Park and find yourself standing alone on a majestic rock above the pounding surf, in the shade of three-hundred-year old twisted pines. Ferries come and go from Nova Scotia a few times a day. It's beautiful and relaxing in an "I'm away-away" kind of way.

Those are all my top picks. I do think for the atmosphere you want, Block Island or Martha's Vineyard are the best choices. Monhegan Island as well, maybe. There's definitely something about staying on an island that lends itself to that outside-of-time feeling. The journey over water takes the responsibility out of your hands and lends a sense of voyaging.

Feel free to email me for more detail, hotel/restaurant/activity recommendations, etc.

Oh, Block Island pro tip: Don't drink on the ferry (even though they have a bar) or before getting on the ferry. You are crossing the inlet to Long Island Sound and there is a wicked crosscurrent that rolls the ferry pretty good when you get out there. Somebody yaks every time, and the risk of yakking increases with the drinking. Don't be That Person!

This is awesome because I'm taking a friend of mine on a New England mini-tour this year and am having a hard time deciding how to fill out the "ocean" parts of the trip. Choice can be a bad thing...hehe, I lived in New England too long to be able to say decidedly what the quintessential NE beach experience is. Heh I'm tempted to just copy and paste Miko's comment above and email it to my friend saying, 'this is from the expert. What do you like the sound of?'

Here's Boston magazine's take on this question.

I enthusiastically second Plum Island in Newburyport, MA, and also Boothbay Harbor, ME. Mr. Init and I spent many happy weekends on Nantucket when we were first married, but now it has degenerated into superrich territory, as Miko says (well, she didn't say "degenerated," but that's my opinion).

York and Ogunquit are wonderful beaches too. But if you're willing to head past southern Maine and up into the hinters a bit, the Popham Beaches in Phippsburg are not to be missed (biased: I grew up going to Popham and now that I don't live in Maine anymore, I still take a week off every September/October to visit my family and spend a day or two there).

You can take your pick of the Popham Beach State Park, or two miles up the road, the Fort Popham State Historic Site. The beaches are connected, and the walk from one to the other and back is a lovely stretch of windswept beach peppered with driftwood and graced by views of stands of trees on several offshore islands. When the tide is out, you can walk over to Fox Island and inspect tide pools while you hop from rock to rock.

Near the fort, there is a small village with a chapel and a public library. There is a seafood restaurant right on the beach (not sure if the restaurant is open off-season). There are several B and Bs nearby, including Stonehouse Manor, where scenes from the Kevin Costner/Robin Wright Penn movie Message in a Bottle were filmed, and Popham Beach B&B, a converted Coast Guard lifesaving station right on the beach. Driving back out of the village and taking the first right, a narrow lane leads to Fort Baldwin, a short walk through the woods.

*sigh* Is it October yet? ;-)

Ooh, those are good tips, init. I have been meaning to visit that area for a long time. I camped on Hermit Island once and visited Bath - that was in that general area and it was fantastic.

Sass, there are still more places -- I was trying to pick out the really rustic-y ones that loiseau was looking for. If you are traveling with friends and are looking for drinks and activities and rides and such, there are also the random boardwalk-y towns like Old Orchard and Hampton Beach, and other spots here and there. And of course the cities, like Portland (ME), Boston, Portsmouth, Providence.

Everything Miko says is totally correct, to my experience. Also, I'd like to put in a plug for the beach that I know the best, Westport MA. My parents live down there and it's a weird little place with one big popular beach -- Horseneck Beach -- and it's practically abandones in wintertime and anytime basically before Memorial Day and After maybe September. It's got dunes with th egrass, scrubby pines, a few clam shacks to eat at, some rizzled fishermen and a few different beach places. Tourist beach [as mentioned], local beach, kayaking estuary area and the place where all the fishing boats go. You can see some photos of the place here (mine, old pix) and here (stepmom's).

Jesus christ, Miko. Anything else about my state I should know about? Seriously. I'm bookmarking this page.

Well, if you haven't been to the Umbrella Factory, get stoned sometime and head out there.

(I lived in Eastern CT for many years so I got to know RI pretty well. I'd still like to explore a bit more though.)

Can you be homesick for a place you've never been?

I swear I'm going to visit New England before I kick the bucket.

puts in yet another plug for NE Bunnystock

NE Bunnystock is coming

Holy crap, I can't believe I completely forgot I posted this. (This is what I get for posting at 3 am.) I wonder if anyone will still read at this point?

In any case, these answers are unbelievably helpful. As much as I love New England in autumn I'm totally wanting to head down soonish.

Though this winter has been brutal so I have considered heading south until I can get out of the car without a coat on. I'm not even sure where that would be at this point in the year but it's safe to say it won't be New England...

Of course, I'm broke, so all of this will be an act of desperation if it happens, like, close your eyes as you hand over the credit card kind of thing.

Anyway, thanks so much for the help -- I have a lot of research to do!