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There are so many beaches to explore in RI, many secret beaches 95% of RI doesn't know about. They are not in Barrington though. The beaches in the northern part of the Bay are very different than those along the coast. Does Barrington even have a town beach? People don't really swim in the Upper Bay, like in Warwick or Barrington probably, where the water is not as clean as the coast since many rivers flow into the Upper Bay. But lots of RI'er don't swim anyway; if they go to the beach generally it's in Middletown or Newport, or along the south coast, Scarborough, Matunuck, Narragansett, Misquamicut. WH has no parking. I understand the erosion along that coast is narrowing the beach, so imagine they are even more crowded in the summer. In terms of swimming and beach I like Sachuest or 2nd best in Middletown, for its warm water and natural setting. There are seaweed issues at times on Aquidneck Island beaches though, which people love to complain about. RI's very best beaches are on Block Island. Most people don't start swimming till late June, the water stays warm through September, but many people stop going to the beaches around mid-August. May 26-Oct 9 is my record.
If you want clean beaches, you gotta get to the ocean, not the bay. My favorite mainland beach is East Matunuck State Beach. It's clean, has waves, and is less crowded than the nearby, but more popular, Scarborough Beach in Narragansett, which is just inside the bay.
Misquamicut is nice, but gets crowded on the weekends. Watch Hill is beautiful and rarely crowded, but you gotta find a place to park and there are no facilities at the beach.
All state beaches are carry in, carry out (as are all RI state parks).
My absolute favorite beach is on Block Island, which is about 45 min to an hour on the ferry. The water is colder than the mainland beaches, but the water is clean and the beach is never crowded.
All beaches get crowded on weekends, especially when the weather is nice and it's warm out. If you want to get on the beach you may have to show up early in the morning (we've shown up to several beaches at 10-11am and there was no parking).
If you plan on going to the state beaches a lot, you can get a season pass for parking. It's worth it if you go more than 7 times. We bought one one summer when we went a lot (haven't gone much since that summer).
You can swim at Barrington town beach- also at Warren and Bristol beaches. Everybody and his brother goes down to South County- I never go there but can't tell you where I do go because then it won't be nice .... sorry.
You can easily google up a list of RI public beaches on the internet.
As someone else said, you have to go to the ocean for clean water ... not the upper Bay, and not Barrington even though they've tried to clean it up.
Let's not forget the gorgeous beaches around Little Compton and on the other side in Westport MA. Goosewing in Little Compton RI, Horseneck Beach in MA, Elephant Rock (private tho), Round Hill in Dartmouth MA, and several others you will get from word of mouth. Then if you want to drive a little over an hour, the entirety of Cape Cod will be calling your name.
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