Champlin's Marina & Resort spans nine acres on the Great Salt Pond on Block Island's western shore, with forty-four renovated guest rooms, a one-hundred-and-forty-slip deep-water marina that accommodates vessels to two hundred and fifty feet, and a full resort campus that runs the western side of the island during the summer season.
"The other side of Block Island. Nine acres on the Great Salt Pond, the island's largest marina at your slip, and a different summer than Old Harbor entirely."
Champlin's occupies one of the largest contiguous parcels of waterfront on Block Island: nine acres on the western shore of the Great Salt Pond, with the marina basin opening directly to the New Harbor channel and the protected inland water of the salt pond on the inside. The property has been in continuous family ownership since the original Champlin's marina opened in the nineteen-sixties, and the resort component grew through the seventies and eighties as Block Island's boating economy expanded. It is the largest marina-and-hotel combination on the island and one of the largest in southern New England.
Forty-four guest rooms occupy three buildings along the marina basin and behind the main pool. The most recent renovation cycle (completed for the 2024 season) took the rooms to a contemporary coastal aesthetic: white-washed pine paneling, navy and pale-blue accents, custom upholstered beds, and bathrooms in marble and brushed nickel. Roughly half the rooms have direct marina-view balconies; the rest open onto the pool deck or the back garden. All rooms have A/C, flat-screen televisions, and free WiFi; the corner suites on the second floor of the main building hold the long view down the marina basin to the salt pond.
The marina is the resort's central proposition and the reason most guests arrive. One hundred and forty deep-water slips, four thousand seven hundred linear feet of dock, a thirty-foot harbor depth that handles vessels to two hundred and fifty feet, full fuel and pump-out services, and a dockmaster team that runs nine months a year. The summer slip waiting list runs to two seasons. For guests without boats, the resort runs a full pool deck with cabanas, a beachfront on the salt pond with kayak and paddleboard rental, three restaurants under Champlin's management on the property, and the Trader's bar that runs as the evening centre for the entire West Side.
Champlin's is the deliberate counterweight to the Old Harbor hotels on the eastern side of the island. The Old Harbor properties are Victorian, walkable, and tied to the ferry landing; Champlin's is contemporary, vehicular, and tied to the boating week. Guests who arrive without a boat trade the village pedestrian scale for a more spacious campus, a swimming pool, three restaurants, and direct access to the salt pond's protected swimming. For a family group with multiple kids, a business group that wants meeting space and a pool, or a bachelor party that needs the marina-side bars without the village twenty-minute walk back uphill, Champlin's is the rational Block Island answer.
Champlin's pool deck and salt-pond swimming beach is the only Block Island hotel setup that works for small children without the walk to Old Harbor beach. Three on-property restaurants mean no twenty-minute taxi ride uphill for dinner, and the family suites in the back building hold connecting layouts the village properties cannot match.
The Trader's bar at Champlin's is the marina-side evening room for the West Side, the resort holds the largest contiguous block of rooms on the island, and the on-property pool deck is built for the kind of weekend that wants the day at the bar and the evening within walking distance of the room. The boating contingent is the heaviest on the island.
Champlin's is the only Block Island property with the meeting room footprint, the pool-deck reception capacity, and the marina-side cocktail terrace to handle a small business off-site or executive retreat. The salt pond setting puts the group out of mobile range without removing the working-day capacity, which is the entire appeal.
80 West Side Road
New Shoreham, RI, 02807
United States
West Side, Great Salt Pond
44 guest rooms
From $258/night
4-Star Marina Resort
Rated 4.4/5 across 1,124 reviews
Check-in: 4:00 PM
Check-out: 11:00 AM
Family ownership since the 1960s
Seasonal property (May-October)
140-slip deep-water marina (vessels to 250 ft)
Three on-property restaurants
Pool deck with cabanas
Salt-pond swimming beach
Kayak and paddleboard rental
Meeting and event capacity
Free WiFi throughout
Trader's bar (West Side evening centre)
From $258/night. Marina slips book two seasons ahead; rooms generally available with three weeks' notice except for July 4 and Race Week.
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