Traveling with Tykes : Martha's Vineyard

Martha's Vineyard

We visited in the Spring before it was warm enough to enjoy the beautiful beaches, but it is amazingly beautiful year round! We were here for a weekend and since it was too cold to enjoy the beach it was the perfect amount of time to get to see and do everything else wonderful about the island. Some restaurants and shops close down in the off-season, but there was nothing I was looking forward to that was not open.

There are many ways to get to Martha's Vineyard, we drove to Cape Cod and took the ferry into Edgartown. Once there I had pre-arranged to rent a jeep to get around.

My favorite place on the island was the Aquinnah Cliffs. You can make a picnic basket (or ask your hotel and they can make one for you) and enjoy a nice lunch or sunset dinner here. This is a great option if you have children. It's quite a drive and if you don't rent a car there is a shuttle. If you are here during a busy season the parking can be a problem, but it wasn't for us.

The Aquinnah Cliffs

This is the way to shop here with a little one! There are many cute shops and galleries. One of my favorites was the original Vineyard Vines!

We stayed at the Harbor View Hotel. The location was perfect. The service was spot on, the only draw back was the high price for what seemed to be a regular hotel room. There are some rooms with amazing views and patios but those options weren't available to us at the time.

Across from the hotel is a nice path to the Edgartown Lighthouse and beaches.

My Favorite restaurant was Among the Flowers Cafe. The outside patio was beautiful and very kid friendly! We walked from our hotel every morning for breakfast! Check out their website amongtheflowersmv.com

If you have a chance stop by The Black Dog Tavern. This is the original spot that created the bumper stickers you see driving around occasionally. They also have really cute souvenirs of all kinds!

There wasn't a bad meal the whole weekend!

After our wonderful visit, we returned our jeep and caught the ferry back to Cape Cod! Here's the link on Trip Advisor for more wonderful advice! Hope this helps!

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g29528-Martha_s_Vineyard_Massachusetts-Vacations.html

Travelingwithtykes next post.... Turks and Caicos

Providence, Rhode Island

The Children's Museum is fabulous here. One of the best I've been to. If you are here with children it's worth your time!

The Carousels! All of them

The Crescent Park Looff Carousel was our favorite. As you go around you have to try and grab the gold rings. It's not easy.

The Wright Dairy Farm
This farm is over 100 years old and they sell Cakes, Whipped Cream, Milk and all kinds of amazing desserts. It is so wonderful and fresh and the reason why is they use the freshest ingredients and the milk from their own cows. Kids love visiting because of the cows and chickens. There is daily milking at 3.
This place is totally unique in its greatness!
Check out the website http://www.wrightsdairyfarm.com

Dining
Federal Hill is an area of Providence with the best restaurants in town. The square here has many restaurants with outdoor seating that are kid friendly. There's also a unique poultry store here where you can buy chickens and they have the chickens in the back ready to be sold for food! It's kind of interesting for the children and I'd never seen anything like it. It's worth it to stick your head in and check it out.

Constantino's in Federal Hill

Along the river in downtown Providence there is a restaurant called Hemenway's Seafood Bar and Grill and was a favorite spot of ours. It has large windows that overlook the river that the children seemed to enjoy.

Near Brown University there is an area called College Hill. This is a great area to explore and your children will enjoy a bite to eat at Johnny Rockets. Super kid friendly!

If you happen to be here in the Winter there is an outdoor Ice Skating rink downtown. This was a fun way to spend one of our days.

There is an awesome bike/running trail from Providence that is beautiful especially in the Fall.

Day trips from Providence

Newport, Rhode Island

Less than an hour drive, this was one of our favorite places to go! It was so close we went as often as we could.

Some of our favorite things to do there were:

Sailing- There are sailboats that you can charter

Eating outside at the Black Pearl

Going to the beach-

There are 3 beaches in Newport. We usually went to the first beach called Easton's Beach but also enjoyed beach 2 called Second Beach. We never made it to the third beach. I believe it's smaller than the first two. On a hot day in the summer the water was too cold for me, but the kids loved it.

Second Beach had bumper boats and a large blow up slide.

Grabbing an Awful Awful at the Newport Creamery

This is similar to a milkshake and is not awful!

In Newport, there are Beautiful mansions you can tour that are worth seeing, however, children do not care about the inside of these large old homes. If you have time away from children I'd suggest visiting them. The children do enjoy the outside though and there's an awesome trail to explore called the Cliff Walk. I highly recommend this activity with children.