Block Island Runs on the Ferry

Block Island has been receiving summer people since the eighteen seventies, and it still receives them the same way, off the ferry at Old Harbor with the Victorian hotels lined up along Water Street as the welcoming committee. The boat ride from Point Judith takes about an hour on the traditional ferry, less on the fast one, and the crossing does the work a long drive does elsewhere, separating the trip from the mainland completely. Everything below assumes two nights and no car, which is the correct arrival.

The year-round ferry runs from Point Judith on the Rhode Island shore, and in season there are seasonal boats from other ports, but Point Judith is the dependable line and the one the regulars use. Bringing a car requires a reservation booked far earlier than feels reasonable and is unnecessary for a stay in town, since the island is seven miles long and built for bicycles. Walk on, and rent wheels at the top of the dock.

The hotels along Water Street and the inns on the lanes behind it put you in the middle of everything, and the middle of everything on Block Island is still a small place. September rooms cost noticeably less than August rooms and come with the same ocean, warmer than it was in June. Weekends hold their prices into early fall, so a midweek pair is the value play.

The classic loop runs south from town past the Southeast Lighthouse to Mohegan Bluffs, where a long wooden staircase drops to the beach below the clay cliffs, and then around the southern farm roads back to town. It is a morning if you ride it straight and a full day if you do it properly, with stops. The roads are narrow and the hills are honest, so take the bicycle the rental shop recommends rather than the one that flatters you.

The long beach north of Old Harbor runs for miles and sorts itself naturally, crowded near town and empty within a fifteen minute walk. The water off the island holds its warmth well past Labor Day, and the September regulars swim daily and consider it the finest bathing of the year. The bluffs beach below the stairs is the dramatic option, better for a look than a long swim when the surf is up.

Check the last boat time before you plan the last day, since the schedule contracts after the season and the ferry does not wait. Book the room before the bicycle and the dinner before the sunset, as the good tables in town are few and known. If the forecast shows a clear evening, be on the west side of the island for it.

On the morning you leave, skip the scramble and walk to the dock early with a coffee. Watching the boat come in is how every Block Island trip has ended for a hundred and fifty years, and there is no reason to change it.