A long curving strip of sand a couple of miles south of the town centre, Scarborough is the favoured beach of college-age Rhode Islanders — busier, louder and more social than Narragansett Town Beach, and reached from a vast state-run parking lot. The two halves (North and South Scarborough) sit on either side of the same pavilion complex and share a long boardwalk above the dunes.
The water tends to be a touch calmer here than at the town beach, with smaller, more even swells; surfers and bodyboarders sometimes drift south on flat days. Bring quarters for the seasonal parking fee, get there before 10am on a hot Saturday or accept that you may be turned away when the lot fills.