Westerly, RI

Downtown Westerly's most talked-about all-day spot, turning out sourdough doughnuts made to order, a rotating cast of artisan pizzas (the birria pie is worth the trip), and standout pasta like cacio e pepe. The menu evolves constantly with whatever is in season, and the iced lattes are taken seriously. Lines form on weekends — arrive early or join the wait list.

A downtown scratch kitchen in a barn-style room with sliding garage doors that open onto a riverside patio. The short menu is built around house-smoked meats and handmade naan tacos — burnt-end and smash-burger tacos, brisket, and smoked chicken — with sides like cornbread and naan chips and a strong lineup of gluten-free and vegetarian options. Craft cocktails, wine, and cold beer round it out.

A longtime anchor of downtown Westerly's dining scene at 84 High Street, serving generous plates of housemade pasta, wood-fired and thin-crust pizza, and chicken and veal parm in a candlelit room that feels like a proper Italian-American Sunday dinner. The meatballs are the signature dish, regularly singled out as the best around, and portions run large enough to guarantee leftovers.

Westerly's top-rated breakfast and lunch spot, on Watch Hill Road in the Avondale area on the way to the beaches. The draw is housemade baked goods, hearty egg plates, and sandwiches like the Breakfast Goose built on fresh ingredients, plus a serious coffee program and generous lobster rolls in season. Indoor and outdoor seating fills fast after beach drop-off, but the cheerful staff keeps the line moving.

A sprawling oceanfront beach club at 159 Atlantic Avenue in Misquamicut, with a big deck, raw bar, private cabanas, and a menu of lobster rolls, fish tacos, smoked wings, and beach-day handhelds. It's as much a summer scene as a restaurant — live music most afternoons, drinks flowing, and the Atlantic a few steps away. The food and drinks draw mixed reviews, but the setting is the point.

The reimagined restaurant at the 19th-century Shelter Harbor Inn, off Wagner Road toward Weekapaug, relaunched under chef Albert Cannito as the Farmhouse Kitchen + Bar. The kitchen leans on local farms and Block Island Sound seafood for a contemporary comfort-food menu, served in a fireplace-warmed room and on a garden patio. It remains the area's pick for an unhurried, occasion-worthy dinner.

A downtown hybrid of espresso bar, wine shop, and cocktail lounge at 48 High Street that pulls a good shot and pours an interesting, affordable wine list. The kitchen is known for oversized specialty martinis and gourmet grilled-cheese sandwiches, and the couch-filled room hosts live music midweek and on weekends. It shifts easily from coffee by day to cocktails by night.

The full-service oceanfront restaurant inside Atlantic Beach Park, serving burgers, seafood, chowder, and famous clam fritters with unobstructed views of the Atlantic. As much a landmark as a restaurant — the park has been on this stretch since 1921 and the Windjammer keeps the tradition of easygoing, family-friendly beach dining alive. Live entertainment daily in summer from 1-5 pm.

A roughly 3.1-mile loop around the Napatree Point sandspit — one of the most rewarding coastal walks in southern Rhode Island, rated 4.6 on AllTrails across nearly a thousand reviews. The trail hugs the shoreline in both directions, giving you Atlantic surf on one side and the calm of Little Narragansett Bay on the other. Shorebirds nest here in large numbers and harbor seals are frequently spotted off the point in spring and fall.

A 2.3-mile loop through a 134-acre glacially sculpted park near Winnapaug Pond, with interpretive signs explaining the Ice Age kettle-and-kame terrain underfoot. The landscape is unusually varied for this coast — ponds, sand barrens, kettle holes, and a ridge with clear-day views over Winnapaug Pond to Block Island. It draws a steady following on AllTrails with more than 700 reviews.

A peaceful 2.2-mile loop through Westerly's municipal forest reserve, winding through mixed hardwoods and past seasonal wetlands. The most locally used trail in town — not dramatic, but reliably quiet and a good option for early morning runs or after-dinner walks. AllTrails rates it 3.8 stars, and 252 reviews confirm it's best when the canopy is full from late spring through fall.

A 1.8-mile walk pairing the lanes of Watch Hill village with a stretch of beach and a close-up look at the granite 1856 lighthouse on the rocky point (a light has guided ships from this spot since 1808). The route passes the Victorian oceanfront cottages, the 1876 Flying Horse Carousel, and ends at the lighthouse keeper's Victorian cottage — a compact tour of one of southern New England's best-preserved resort villages.

Westerly's year-round community theater, housed in an 1849 Greek Revival former church at 1 Granite Street on the highest point downtown. Reopened as the Granite Theatre in 2000, the company stages Broadway plays, musicals, children's productions, cabaret acts, and lecture programs across its season. With fewer than 150 seats, the house is intimate enough that every seat has a clear view of the stage.

A beloved summer tradition on the lawns of Wilcox Park: the Chorus of Westerly and the Pops Festival Orchestra perform a free evening concert of classical and pop favorites, capped by a Grucci fireworks finale. Now past its 45th year, it draws thousands of picnicking locals and is treated as the social event of the season.

Beyond the food, Paddy's Beach Club at 159 Atlantic Avenue is one of Misquamicut's most dependable summer live-music spots. Local bands and regional acts play the oceanside deck most summer afternoons, drawing a loose, festive mix of beachgoers and locals; after dark it shifts to a full bar scene with DJs and concerts.

Westerly's juried outdoor art festival, held each spring in Wilcox Park and now in its fourth decade. More than 125 artists from across the country show and sell painting, hand-blown glass, sculpture, ceramics, jewelry, and photography across the park grounds over a single weekend, alongside live music and a free kids' creation station. The Victorian park setting and the quality of the work make it one of southern New England's better art fairs.

The oldest operating carousel in the United States, and by some counts the country's oldest amusement ride of any kind — built around 1876 and running at the foot of Bay Street in Watch Hill since 1883. Its two dozen horses hang from a center frame rather than the floor, so they swing outward, or 'fly,' as the ride spins. A National Historic Landmark, it runs summers only and is reserved for children.

An 1894 yellow-brick library built as a Civil War memorial, its foundation and trim cut from local Westerly granite, paired with the adjoining 15-acre Wilcox Park. The park is a Victorian strolling arboretum with more than 150 labeled tree species, a bronze sculpture walk, and a reflecting pool, and it remains the civic heart of downtown by hosting the Virtu Art Festival each spring and the Chorus of Westerly's Summer Pops each summer.

Rhode Island's most popular state beach — a half-mile arc of powdery white sand facing the open Atlantic with lifeguards, restrooms, and concessions in summer. The surf is consistent enough for boogie boarding and the water temperature becomes genuinely swimmable by July. The beach corridor along Atlantic Avenue backs directly onto the sand with beach bars and rental shacks.

Westerly's finest historic house — a 1734 Georgian mansion built for Dr. Joshua Babcock, Rhode Island's first postmaster and a Chief Justice, and later home to Orlando Smith, who discovered the town's famous pink granite in 1846. The house tells two overlapping stories: colonial-era politics and the industrial granite trade that made Westerly prosperous. It is open seasonally from late spring through October.

A 1.5-mile sandspit extending west from Watch Hill into Little Narragansett Bay, managed as a wildlife refuge by the Watch Hill Conservancy. The out-and-back walk around the point is the most scenic coastal route in the area — shorebirds, harbor seals, and sweeping Atlantic views come standard. The far end of the point, Fort Road Beach, is entirely undeveloped.

A Misquamicut beachfront fixture run by the Trefes family since 1921, anchored today by the oceanfront Windjammer Surf Bar and its beach-facing patio. For nearly a century the park's centerpiece was an antique carousel built on a 1915 Herschell-Spillman frame with hand-carved Illions horses, but that ride was retired after the pandemic and its horses now sit in storage. Arcade games, concessions, and direct beach access keep it an easygoing seaside stop.