Rhode Island

3 low-cost ways of having fun in Newport, R.I.

Published

9 months ago

July 17, 2025

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3 low-cost ways of having fun in Newport, R.I.

Travel

Enjoy a park, museum, and gorgeous coastal walk.

Newport Harbor. Ellen Albanese for The Boston Globe

The coastal city of Newport, Rhode Island, known as the sailing capital of the world, offers sailing, restaurants, shopping, museums, Gilded Age mansions, and plenty of history.

3 low-cost ways of having fun in Ogunquit, Maine

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Earlier this year, Newport was named among the most welcoming places in the U.S. by Booking.com and among the 10 best small coastal towns in America by USA Today.

Visiting Newport on a budget? Ahead, discover three low-cost ways of having fun in the seaside city.

Visit the Museum of Newport History

The Newport Historical Society’s Museum of Newport History is where visitors can learn about the city’s rich maritime history and architecture.

While visiting the museum, guests can see photographs, paintings, furniture, colonial silver, and more from the collections of the Newport Historical Society. It is open daily and there is a $5 suggested donation for admission. Check out the museum’s current exhibitions.

The society also hosts various walking tours of the city, which meet outside of the museum. Tours include a Colonial Newport Lantern Tour, George Washington’s Footsteps Tour, Point Neighborhood Tour, and more. The latter features the largest collection of colonial homes in the U.S.

Tickets for tours must be purchased online in advance and cost $20 for adults ($15 for society members and active duty and retired military members) and $10 for kids age 5 to 12.

Walk the iconic Cliff Walk

Enjoy sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean and gorgeous century-old Gilded Age mansions while strolling the iconic and historic Cliff Walk, a 3.5-mile free scenic walk along the coast.

The path was designated as a National Recreation Trail in 1975, the first in New England. It is open from sunrise to sunset and visitors can scan 16 QR code trail markers that provide information about the mansions as well as geographic and geological features of the path. There are benches for resting and seasonal public restrooms are available.

Visitors should note that detours are in place on the Cliff Walk between Narragansett Avenue and Webster Street “for the foreseeable future” due to structural damage to a section of the path, according to the city. Parking costs $2 per hour and more information is available here.

A visitor peers inside the walls at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, R.I.

Explore Fort Adams State Park

Fort Adams, named after President John Adams, was active in five major wars — the Mexican American War, American Civil War, Spanish American War, World War I, and World War II — but never saw combat.

The site became Fort Adams State Park in 1965 and was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1976. There is free parking and visitors can enjoy the grounds, Fort Adams Beach, and Fort Adams Bay Walk, a 2.25-mile walk around the park. Guests can bring their own food for a picnic or purchase sandwiches, drinks, and snacks from the on-site 1824 Coffee Post.

The park offers live music during the summer. The 2025 Music at the Fort concert series is a family-friendly community event hosted by the Fort Adams Trust, and this year’s concerts are on Aug. 20 & 27 and Sept. 3. Attendance is free and a $25 suggested donation is encouraged.

Visitors can go on self-guided or guided tours of the fort.

For the self-guided tours, guests can download the app and experience the fort’s scenic overlook with spectacular views of Newport Harbor and Narragansett Bay, restored casemates, and the 6.5-acre parade field. The cost is $16 for adults ($12 for seniors, college students, and military) and $8 for kids age 5-16. Children age 4 and under are free. A special family rate of $50 includes two adults and up to four kids. The guided tours are more expensive and include the quarters where officers and their families lived as well as the underground tunnels.

Kristi Palma

Culture writer

Kristi Palma is a culture writer for Boston.com, focusing on New England travel. She covers airlines, hotels, and things to do across Boston and New England. She is the author of Scenic Six, a weekly travel newsletter.

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Rhode Island

Rhode Island Drivers Most Attentive In Nation: Study

Published

11 hours ago

April 7, 2026

Press Room

Rhode Island Drivers Most Attentive In Nation: Study

Rhode Island drivers are the most attentive in America, a recent study revealed.

The study, conducted by personal injury law firm Easton & Easton, examined National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Reporting System data and Federal Highway Administration licensed driver statistics from 2019 to 2023 and determined Rhode Islanders died in distracted driving crashes less than the residents of any other state, according to a media release accompanying the results.

See also: As Iran Conflict Continues, Here’s What Gas Could Cost In Rhode Island

“That gamble has cost thousands of American families a loved one in the past five years,” according to the release. “Now, with Google rolling out its voice-interactive ‘Ask Maps’ feature, the question is which parts of the country can least afford one more distraction.”

See also: Rhode Island’s Truck Traffic Densest In Nation: Study

A mere 2.6 Rhode Islanders were killed in distracted driving crashes per year from 2019 to 2023, compared to 639.8 Texans.

But the rate per 100,000 drivers was also impressively the lowest in the nation at 0.34. The state with the highest number per 100,000 drivers was New Mexico with 16.95

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Rhode Island

Hate self-checkout at the grocery store? A RI bill to limit it is back.

Published

23 hours ago

April 7, 2026

Press Room

Hate self-checkout at the grocery store? A RI bill to limit it is back.

Rhode Island lawmakers are considering a bill to limit grocery stores to eight self-checkout kiosks.
The proposed legislation would also require one employee for every two self-checkout stations.
The bill specifically targets grocery stores, which has drawn criticism from business associations.

PROVIDENCE – As lawmakers debate raising Rhode Island’s minimum wage, which would impact many grocery store workers, a bill to limit the number of self-checkout lanes at grocery stores is again stirring conversation.

Rep. Megan Cotter, D-Exeter, Hopkinton, Richmond, introduced a version of her initial bill, proposed in 2023, to reduce the number of self-checkout kiosks a grocery store can have open, and mandate the amount of labor required to operate them. Her bill, H 7290, has eight co-sponsors in the House, while Senate President Valarie Lawson, D-East Providence, introduced a companion bill in the Senate, S 2342.

When Cotter’s bill was first introduced, it included a mandate that grocers give a 10% discount to customers who used self-checkout for more than 10 items. The newest iteration scraps that language in favor of a more streamlined approach:

Grocery stores can have no more than eight self-checkout kiosks operating at one time.
One checkout line must be manned for every two self-checkout kiosks.
One worker must be assigned to every two self-checkout stations.

Here’s how the math on the self-checkout proposal works:

For a store operating the maximum number of self-checkout kiosks, eight, this means the store would be running four lines with cashiers at a time. That same store would also need four people monitoring the self-checkout stations, for a total of eight workers across 12 cash registers, both manned and unmanned.

Limiting the number of self-checkout aisles a store can have is all about preserving jobs and hours worked, she previously said.

Why stores are using self-checkout

In 2023, Cotter said her original bill was partially a function of her frustration with using the Walmart self-checkout kiosks.

Problems with self-checkout kiosks abound as each industry, from groceries to pharmacies to hardware to big box stores like Walmart, sets different parameters and triggers on self-checkout machines.

Clements’ Marketplace Operations Director Charles Anthony IV wrote in testimony against Cotter’s bill that the grocery, with locations in Bristol and Portsmouth, installed the self-checkout kiosks to be their “fast lanes.”

“With smaller orders often causing backups across the Front End, the Fast Lanes have helped to maintain a steady pace and take care of our customers more efficiently,” Anthony wrote.

At Target, self-checkout was meant to be limited to people with 10 items or fewer.

Why limit self-checkout?

Cotter’s bill only targets grocery stores. That caught the attention of Rhode Island Food Dealers Association President Scott Bromberg, who submitted testimony against the proposal.

“This proposal is especially egregious because it specifically targets only grocery stores,” Bromberg wrote. “Big box retailers, along with hardware stores, pharmacies, dollar stores, fast food chains and more utilize self-checkout to allow them to deploy their staff where needed most.”

The bill mostly targets traditional grocery stores, but also hits pharmacies, like CVS and Walgreens, but might not include big box retailers like Walmart and Target.

It defines groceries as:

Raw or processed food or drink
Prescription and over-the-counter drugs
Hygiene items when a store also sells food, drink and “miscellaneous household items” like laundry detergent and dishwasher soap.

A grocery store is defined as a business that gets most of its revenue from selling “groceries.”

Shaw’s and Star Market’s Jim O’Leary wrote that 60% to 65% of its transactions are done via self-checkout systems and 10% are done through its drive-up platform.

“Only approximately 25% of customers utilize traditional staffed registers. This distribution highlights the importance of maintaining adaptive service models to accommodate a broad spectrum of consumer preferences, thereby enhancing the overall shopping experience and most importantly convenience,” O’Leary wrote.

Which RI stores use self-checkout?

Stores in the state offer a wide variety of takes on self-checkout.

At many Five Below stores, self-checkout is the only option. Home Depot has replaced most checkout lanes at the front of many its stores with self-checkout lanes.

At the discount grocer Aldi, many stores have open self-checkout kiosks. Depending on how slow business is, it can sometimes take a few minutes for a cashier to return to a regular checkout lane, as employees do double duty as cashiers and stockers. Customers are also expected to do their own bagging.

Stop & Shops usually have a variety of self-checkout kiosks and cashiers, but the kiosks practically shout at customers and the scales, meant to prevent theft, often wrongly register item weights, forcing a worker to override the machine after an item is bagged too quickly, or not quickly enough.

Many CVS stores also have the self-checkout kiosks.

Self-checkouts have also moved into the world of fast food, for example at Taco Bell and McDonald’s, shifting workers away from being cashiers.

Is low-skill labor worth keeping?

The two-self checkout restriction bills are aimed at preserving jobs often classified as entry level or low skill.

The worth and value of those jobs is increasingly under fire by legislators and the business community, especially as the debate over minimum wage increases rages.

Rep. Stephen Casey, D-Woonsocket, made the case during a hearing on March 18 that it would be unfair for the minimum wage to be increased because public sector workers don’t make enough, making an argument that low-skilled labor deserves to be paid less.

“So the average fireman in Rhode Island makes $28.06 an hour, so you’re saying that the guy that’s flipping burgers should make $20 an hour?” Casey asked during the hearing.

That argument also appeared during the debate over a bill to give health care workers time-and-a-half on Sundays, as Woonsocket resident Jason Romblad said he was “amazed that people selling us a pack of gum will get time-and-a-half on these days, but a health care worker who takes care of us when we are sick and hurt do not get it.”

A separate bill to strip caterers and commissary workers of time-and-a-half on Sundays and holidays was lauded by businesses groups that called for ending the practice entirely. National Federation of Independent Businesses State Director Christopher Carlozzi wrote in support of ending the benefit, claiming that paying minimum wage workers $24 an hour on Sundays instead of the mandated $16 (a $64 pre-tax difference for an eight-hour shift) means the difference between opening a shop on Sundays or leaving it closed.

According to the state’s latest Occupational Employment And Wage Statistics, published in May 2025, cashiers, an estimated 9,710 of them in the state, make a mean average of $15.90 an hour. That climbs to $16.67 an hour for “experienced wage.” The entry wage was $14 an hour, the minimum wage in 2024.

In January, the minimum wage increased to $16 an hour and it increases to $17 an hour on Jan. 1, 2027.

Other large groups of similarly paid professions are fast food and counter workers, 12,650 of them; dining room and cafeteria attendants, 2,720 of them; and dishwashers, 2,830 of them.

The statistics count an estimated 493,800 employed, making cashiers 2% of the total employment in the state.

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Rhode Island

Mashed Names Rhode Island’s Best Buffet Restaurant

Published

1 day ago

April 6, 2026

Press Room

Mashed Names Rhode Island’s Best Buffet Restaurant

CHARLESTOWN, RI — The food website Mashed named Rhode Island’s best buffet restaurant.

Mashed went with The Nordic in Charlestown, despite its prices.

“The Nordic is one of the most expensive buffets in the country, so don’t expect a cheap meal when you sit down at the popular waterside eatery,” the Mashed story said. “The price for adults is $145 per person, $60 for children aged 8 to 12, and $35 for children aged 3 to 7. That sounds pretty steep, but considering that you can fill up on prime rib, a high-quality and costly cut of steak, it seems worth it for a special occasion.

“One of the main draws of dining at The Nordic is that you can chow down on prime rib,” according to Mashed, but there is much, much more, including lobster, snow crab legs, fried scallops, scallops wrapped in bacon and black angus filet mignon.

See the full Mashed story here.

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