East Beach — Attraction in Charlestown

The less developed of all Rhode Island’s state beaches but no lesser beautiful than any other. This beach is amazing.

On the day (08.10.2025) that we were there the wave was nice but a little bit rough on the children, I think mostly due to the shore line having about a 15 to 20 degree slope towards the water.

There are plenty of rooms from the dunes to the water making us feel like we have plenty of spaces to roam.

This beach is very long in comparison to the rest of RI’s state beaches. Looking out towards the NE end of the beach as far as the eyes can see you get the Charlestown Breachway and Beach. Looking SW down the shore the Blue Shutters Town Beach is very close by and a point beyond that.

The protected swimming area is pretty small, about 1/4 of a mile. There are only two life guards stations and most people are congregated inside the protected swimming area. The wide open spaces outside of the protected area make us feel like an adventure is waiting to be explored so we went far away to lonelier spot.

The sand is white, soft and beautiful. The children really enjoyed playing on the sand.

On this day there are a lot of dead seaweed washed ashore which make the beach look trashy and dirty but they are contained close to the dunes leaving us with plenty of beautiful sand to enjoy.

Having recently visited East Matunuck beach we are very happy to report that there are no red seaweed to be found on this beach.

The facility is limited. The two parking lots are pretty small, I imagine that on weekends and holidays parking would be full. Best if you plan ahead before driving down to this beach.

In the parking lot there are 4 compose toilet/changing room. The compose toilet do close after hours but they do leave two portable toilet open.

Really nice addition at this beach is the 4x4 sand trail that you can used with proper permit from RI Coastal Resources Management Council.

A hidden gem right in the rear of the parking lot is the Ninigret Pond shoreline. The children were getting weary from the hard hitting waves so we move to Ninigret Pond where there is no waves and the water is very shallow but beach shoe is a must, there are a lot of sharp objects. We all got some sort of cut.

They love digging for clams which require no license for RI residents with limited size and quantity. They collect about a dozen of clams and catch one crab over 5 inches requirement. The children have so much fun they didn’t want to leave.

All around this is a great beach and we have a good time with beautiful sunset to close out the day. Don’t stay after sunset, the mosquito/gnats will...

Hello Rhode Island! Jersey girl here who is used to the Sound beaches of CT and Cape Cod. A lovely beach with beautiful bright beige, almost yellow, sand, zero shell.or rocks and beautiful pastel green, clear water. And waves that actually crash Not huge, but something I havent seen in a long time. Not sure if it was the weather or time of year, but the undertow was very strong. I'll swim almost anywhere but I knew it was too strong. Parking looks like it's about for 100 cars and there is no where else to go so dont think you can park on the street. It's barely on a street. It's a narrow, pothole filled sand path. There is also a section for on-beach driving but you need to get a permit for that. I arrived 15 min before opening and the gate was open but the parking area was chained off. There were 8 spots before the chain so I parked there. Other people unloaded and then waited by their car (on the road) until the chain was lowered. I left 45 min after they officially opened and the chain still wasnt down and there was still no one in the ticket booth. The lifeguard was there but was setting up, not guarding yet. There are 3 port-a-potties, and a few changing huts. No other beachy amenities so bring foods, drinks, etc. There were also no store nearby. But this is exactly how I like to enjoy the beach. If you want commercialism, go to...

Came here because it was close to our camp ground at Burlingame State Park. Can't say what the actual beach is like because we never saw it.

We paid the $14 parking/admission fee and didn't see a sign that said no pets allowed and apparently the girl who took our money didn't see our dog in the back of our car because she took our money and let us in. So we park and get out of our car and are immediately confronted by an employee who says we have to leave with the dog because they aren't allowed. We explain that we didn't see any signs about that, but if that's the rules, we understand and we'll leave. Since staying at this beach was our plan for the day, we take 30 seconds to discuss where we are going to go now before getting back in our car. Doing that irritated the employee who yelled at us saying that we needed to leave, now! We don't argue, just explained our situation and frustration and got in the car to leave. We stop at the guard shack and ask for our money back and the girl refuses saying there are absolutely no refunds. So we paid $14 to park for 1 minute and get yelled at.

A little empathy and understanding would have gone a long way here, we would have likely returned later without the dog, but...