Product Description

Rhode Island offers much diversity in a small space, from the fine museums and restaurants of Providence, to the quiet pastures and woods of South County and the tranquil beauty of Block Island. With 36 islands and a mainland sliced in two by Narragansett Bay, the Ocean State has more than 400 miles of sandy beaches and rocky headlands along its varied coastline. Travel writers Phyllis Meras and Tom Gannon capture it all in this revised and expanded guidebook.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3580115 in Books
• Published on: 1998-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 311 pages

Review
Meras and Gannon have discovered the best of Rhode Island and put it together in manageable, readable form . . . excellent for both out-of-state tourists and Rhode Island residents who have yet to discover their beautiful state. -- Warwick, Rhode Island Beacon

About the Author
Phyllis Meras, travel editor of the Providence Journal, has been exploring and writing about Rhode Island for many years. She is the author of several books, including First Spring: A Martha's Vineyard Journal. She lives in West Tisbury, Massachusetts. Tom Gannon is a freelance travel writer, journalist, and editor for Practical Sailor magazine. A Newport resident virtually all his life, he is the author of two other guides to the area: Newport, Rhode Island: A Guide to the City by the Sea, and Newport Mansions: The Gilded Age.

Customer Reviews

Not Just for Tourists
This is a great book! Every time I am stumped on a local history question I can turn to this book and find the answer painlessly. As a guide to restaurants and attractions it just can't be beat. I recommend this book to locals and visitors as a great reference source.

Reference for the resident and visitor alike
This guidebook is divided into eight sections by geographic region, with a top-level map up front and detailed maps of each location by section. The entire book is black and white, but the maps and pictures are still crystal clear. The opening chapter is an index referencing any subject one could want to find in Rhode Island, from ballooning to antiques to quahogs to yachting. I was most impressed with the "Green Spaces" section for each region, listing dozens of outdoor parks and activities available in the Ocean State. While there are certainly other more detailed outdoor guidebooks to Rhode Island, they haven't been updated recently, and this is a great overview guide to the riches of "green space" available in Little Rhody. Also included are beaches with recommendations about what outdoor activities are appropriate at each. Plus, if you want to visit historic houses, historic churches, historic mansions, or general historic sites, this is the state and the guidebook for you.

For Activities, price information is noticeably missing. Perhaps detailed prices date a guidebook too much, but as a traveler, I'd like to get an idea whether this boat excursion or that historic house is within my general budget. Restaurants, on the other hand, are broken into price categories, and include terse yet informative descriptive information about the cuisine, location, and atmosphere. As a native, I'm well aware that hotels in Rhode Island are just plain more expensive than they are in other parts of the country. If you want to sleep in luxury, you can find some great direction from this guide. For a deal, I'd recommend utilizing Internet search engines. The low single-dollar-sign category in this book refers to hotels under a "mere" $95 (as of 2000).

There is something to be said for compact guidebooks, and this is not one. It is a generously oversized paperback with thick pages and both large fonts and margins. This isn't a book to tuck into your extra backpack pocket when trekking around. Then again, all that extra text left the authors room to inform me that Goddard Park was man-made by two generations of owners and is cited as one of the best man-made forestry projects of all time. Now, that's a new fact to try out on my parents!

Great book with tremendous detail
This is one of the best travel books I have ever purchased (and I've purchased a lot). It goes into great detail and makes you feel like you're there. I like the way it is divided by area and the interesting comments not necessarily related to travel.