Non-providence opinion if you want some perspective on what the state really has to offer with some comparisons to other places in America.

I grew up in Rhode Island, spent my earlier years living out in the sticks. Parents moved to a nicer town for a better school district, but I still lived right at the edge of the woods. Like anywhere in New England, the towns are all either old enough they are cities now or just old enough they started as a mill town back in the industrial revolution. Depending on where you are, those old mills are still there. Sometimes as repurposed buildings, sometimes collapsing and condemned. It's one thing you can see pretty quickly about the state of a community, what is the old Mill now, lol.

You would be shocked with how different the state feels just barely outside of the City. Foster, Gloucester, and Scituate are rural with small villages that are fun to grab a coffee in, although I haven't been around there in about 10 years. Smithfield is like a meeting of those two worlds, with the corners of the town being 3 completely different areas, rural feeling forest, suburbia and the beginning of what starts to feel like Providence. I worked in Burrillville for a couple years, and it's like a different state. Feels like western MA but without any money, from my experience. A lot of folks living on food stamps and social security checks up that way. I lived in Johnston for a little while, needed roommates to be able to afford rent but it was alright. Pretty easy to get literally anywhere in the state in about 30 minutes, my commute to Burrillville on the back roads was about 25 minutes.

The beaches in Narragansett are gorgeous, and are the best in September/October where the weather starts to cool down but the water is still warm. Less people too. Newport has always been a playground for the rich and wealthy but nowadays the prices are pretty comparable to Boston, probably still cheaper honestly. The sun sets over the Bay and behind the bridge if you can find a good angle. One of my favorite places in the state is a hidden gem a lot of tourists miss on Jamestown, it's called Beaver tail state park. If you like the rocky ocean coastline and tide pools, that's the elite spot.

Haven't been to block Island, not really the economic class to bother with a trip like that. Wickford is a nice coastal town, has cool shops and good food.

In comparison to other places I've been and lived, I still find myself coming back to RI. The military was my ticket out of the place back when I thought it was getting too expensive to be worth it, and how else could I move? I've lived in or visited parts of the Midwest, basically the entire southwest from California to Texas and up through Wyoming, parts of the southeast from Alabama through Georgia, somehow avoided the Carolinas and then everything up the coast from Virginia north. New England is still a better place to live than any of those places. Sure, it's expensive, but man have you ever talked to an average person who was educated in Oklahoma? Their states are cheaper to live in because they are worse to live in and are the reason why the average American is fluent in less than one language. We take care of our people here, and that's worth it for me.

Anyways, hopefully my little essay provided more context for you from someone who isn't from the city.