Rhode Island, United States

Block Island Beach House

Price per night from$296.06

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD296.06), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Block Island Beach House Photos

Style

Transformed turreted timepiece

Setting

Block rockin' beach

Explore

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Block Island Beach House is set to turn you into a beach bum with shoreline co-ords that prompt all-day lingering, punctuated by spells on your surfboard or sipping on a daiquiri. Dip your toes in the ocean, chill in the outdoor pool, and kick back over barbecue fish tacos at the oceanfront restaurant. Then, counter the loafing with low-key forays to quiet beaches, historic lighthouses, or  that most quintessential of New England attractions – oyster bars. 

Please note Don’t let our enticing gallery deceive you, these images for Block Island Beach House are in fact computer generated. Apologies, real-life photographs will be with us soon…

 

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

Custom-made trail mix from Block Island Nuts

Facilities

Photos Block Island Beach House facilities

Need to know

Rooms

59, of which 12 are suites. Rooms are distributed across three buildings: the main Surf hotel, plus Gables and Gothic annexes.

Check–Out

11am. Check-in, 4pm. Both are flexible with advance notice, and when availability permits.

More details

Rates are room-only, but you can buy breakfast at Coffee & Cocktails, open 7am–11am daily.

Also

There are three fully ADA-compliant rooms: two in the main Surf building and one in the Gothic annex. Each has button-operated automatic doors and an adapted bathroom.

Hotel closed

The hotel opens seasonally from May to October.

At the hotel

Free WiFi throughout. In rooms: smart TV, air-conditioning, mini fridge, bathrobes, and Lather bath products.

Our favourite rooms

If you favor comfort over character, the more spacious rooms in the Gables and Gothic annexes are for you. But if, like us, you’re the other way inclined, opt for the Surf hotel’s nostalgia-laced seaside elegance: what these rooms lack in size they make up for with whitewashed wood paneling, blown-up Polaroid photo art, bold botanical prints, and decorative vintage surfboards. We’re eyeing the Oceanview King with Balcony for its sweet spot of space, panache and swoonsome sea views.

Poolside

There’s a small outdoor pool beside the Gables annex, open 9am–8pm daily.

Packing tips

There’s something about Block Island Beach House that just cries out for analog pursuits. Crack out the travel-sized board games and tattered paperbacks – this is your cue to get around to desert-island essentials like Robinson Crusoe, Lord of the Flies, or John Fowles’ hallucinatory 1965 classic The Magus.

Also

There has been an inn or hotel operating on and off on this spot since 1876; many of the main building’s exterior features date from this era.

Pet‐friendly

Up to two dogs can stay from $50 a night for each pooch. The hotel has four pet-friendly rooms. See more pet-friendly hotels in Rhode Island.

Children

Sea, sand and stand-up paddleboarding should be entertainment enough for most kids, but it’s likely the free WiFi will be put through its paces too. There are a couple of connecting rooms available in the Gothic and Gables annexes.

Food and Drink

Photos Block Island Beach House food and drink

Top Table

There’s no such thing as a bad table at the Surf, but the closer you can get to the edge of the terrace, the less interrupted your sunset views will be.

Dress Code

Beach casual is encouraged, so lean into tropical prints, nautical stripes, open-toed sandals, and your loudest Bermuda shorts.

Hotel restaurant

The Surf is the kind of beachfront barbecue joint for which the terms 'laidback’ and ‘casual’ were coined. Feast on New England favorites including grilled cheese sandwiches, surf burgers and fresh fish tacos. Loosen up that belt: barbecue sharers for four include smokey beef brisket and chicken thighs served with bread, pickles and barbecue surf sauce. For breakfast, head to Coffee & Cocktails, where an à la carte choice of fresh smoothies, breakfast bowls, temptingly topped toasts and reviving morning cocktails awaits.

Hotel bar

Kitted out with timeworn turquoise wood paneling, polished floors and decorative wooden surfboards, the Beach Bar is pure shabby seaside chic. Order inside then retreat to a quiet spot on the sand with your treasure: a decadent signature BIBH Surfslide with Irish cream, vanilla vodka, coffee liqueur and ice cream, or the refreshingly fruity hit of a classic strawberry daiquiri. If you’re dining at the Surf, a solid cocktail list – rum punch, vodka-laced strawberry basil lemonade, and piña coladas – accompanies its barbecue plates.

Last orders

Breakfast is served until 11am at Coffee & Cocktails, and the Surf is open until 10pm.

Room service

There’s no room service, but you can stash snacks from the nearby Block Island Grocery in your room’s mini fridge.

Location

Photos Block Island Beach House location
Address
Block Island Beach House
32 Dodge Street
Block Island
02807
United States

Cast adrift on beguiling Block Island, this classic Victorian New England mansion sits right on the beachfront, a mere five-minute stroll from the ferry port.

Planes

Most people fly in to Rhode Island International Airport or Newport State Airport, then connect to Block Island via the year-round ferry from Point Judith or the high-speed seasonal catamaran from Newport’s Perrotti Park. Scheduled flights also connect Westerly State Airport direct to Block Island, from where cab transfers can be arranged on request.

Automobiles

Block Island is the kind of place best explored on foot or on two wheels, so it’s unlikely you’ll need a car to get around. However, should you feel the need for wheels, there are a few rental companies dotted around the island. Block Island Beach House has five parking spots, available on a first come, first served basis.

Other

The year-round Block Island Ferry from Point Judith is the only way to get a car to the island from the mainland, and spaces must be reserved in advance. High-speed catamarans (for foot passengers only) connect Newport, Point Judith, Orient Point (New York) and New London (Connecticut) during the summer season.

Worth getting out of bed for

Surfing is Block Island’s superpower and you can hire boards from Diamondblue Surf Shop right by the hotel. Opportunities to wipe out in the shallows abound across the island, including right here at Crescent Beach, as well as more challenging surf spots like sandy Mansion Beach and dramatic Black Rock, named after the submerged boulder that has engineered the demise of many a ship down the centuries.

Rent kayaks and paddleboards along nearby Ocean Avenue for excursions onto the Great Salt Pond, a calm 900-acre inlet with an abundance of native wildlife. Spot oystercatchers and diving ducks out searching for their supper, and enjoy panoramic views back to the island’s coastline.

Landlubbers need not feel left out: Block Island has enough to keep even the most dedicated hydrophobe busy for days at a time. Hike nature trails at the National Wildlife Refuge, Rodman’s Hollow and birding hotspot Clayhead Preserve. Or give glutes and quads a serious workout at the magnificent Mohegan Bluffs. If the climb doesn’t take your breath away, the views from up top – the Gothic Revival Southeast Lighthouse, the wooden staircase zig-zagging down to the beach below and even, on clear days, the easternmost tip of Long Island – surely will.

Local restaurants

Visiting Block Island without trying the oysters is practically a criminal offense. Avoid detention via a trip to the Block Island Oyster Bar & Grill, home to some of the plumpest, sweetest and freshest in town. Order yours straight up on the half shell, or liven things up with a Japanese miso glaze or caviar topping. Meanwhile, Block Island stalwart Dead Eye Dick’s delivers sensational sunset harbor views, imaginative cocktails, and a sizable side of swordfish or steamed lobster.

Local cafés

It’s all in the delivery at the Old Post Office Bagel Shop, a first-class New Shoreham bakery that has really put its stamp on dough-based delicacies – including brownies and cinnamon rolls. Find further sweet treats to die for at Payne’s Killer Donuts trailer, just over the bridge at Fort Island.

Local bars

There are a couple of friendly drinking spots within a five-minute stumble of Block Island Beach House. The Poor People’s Pub is a low-key local favorite with large terraces upstairs and downstairs, and a menu longer than the Magna Carta. Established way back in 1876, nearby Yellow Kittens is the island’s oldest tavern, a lively joint with table games, dancing and the latest live Block Island sounds.

Reviews

Photos Block Island Beach House reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this grand Victorian mansion in offshore Rhode Island and shaken the sand from their smalls, a full account of their laidback beach break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Block Island Beach House…

Don’t be fooled by this coastal retreat’s weather-worn exterior: it’s all part of the storied charm at Block Island Beach House – a Victorian grande dame that’s still the island’s only beachfront hotel. A modern overhaul inside the main building marries playful surf-shack chic to classic New England coastal gentility, bringing together distressed wood cladding, bold botanical wallpapers and fabrics, rattan lampshades, and blown-up beachy Polaroid prints with aplomb. As you’d expect of a New England stay, seafood takes center stage: at the Surf restaurant, an abundance of locally available catch means that tuna ceviche, fried oysters, lobster and mussels are all on the menu. Spend evenings as they’ve done it here since time immemorial: supper, accompanied by sunset strawberry daiquiris, susurrating surf and silent starlit nights.

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