Rhode Islanders talk with a distinctly eastern-New-England accent, similar to Boston's famous broad a and dropped r. Natives also have a habit of adding r to the end of a word. For example, some people may say idear instead of idea. Some words you might hear while visiting: "bubbler" (water fountain), "grinder" (submarine sandwich), and "cabinet" (milkshake).
Rhode Islanders will affectionately complain that if they have to drive anywhere and it takes longer than a half hour, then it is too far.
Natives also have names for certain landmarks, sometimes with a historical aspect with it. For instance, the Henderson Bridge, which is a mini-freeway/bridge in the Providence area, is affectionately known as the "little red bridge" because before the present bridge was built, a red wooden bridge stood there. Central Falls and East Providence will be known, especially in newspapers, as CF and EP respectively. Barrington will sometimes be called Borington because there are no liquor stores there (it is prohibited by a town ordinance).
Rhode Island's local pastime is politics, which can get very emotional here. Rhode Island has the only surviving parliamentary democracy in the US. Combine that with an "everybody knows everybody" state of mind and you've got Rhode Island politics in a nutshell.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Rhode Island
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Rhode Island - updated May 2024
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Rhode Island Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
