It is so hard to know where to stay in Misquamicut based on Tripadvisor and other reviews, but I can wholeheartedly recommend this hotel to you, if scenic views, the beach, and peacefulness rather than luxury your main objective. The pictures on the web site do the place justice, but what they don't capture is the relaxing and easy atmosphere this oceanfront hotel creates. We were here on Memorial Day weekend; I don't know what it's like during the height of the summer.
The Pleasant View Inn is probably the last hotel on the Misquamicut shore as you are heading toward Watch Hill, so it is quieter and has a flatter beach than the other parts. You are just a moment's walk from a protected bird nesting area. It is situated on a small knoll, so that you have the option of either sitting up high on lounge chairs on the grass where drinks from the bar are just a moment's walk away (and where you can avoid getting sandy) or walking down a flight of steps to the gorgeous beach below. The waves are a lot of fun here, and the particular day I was there (Memorial Day weekend), the waves were comfortably big and didn't deposit a lot of sand in my bathing suit. The water was also quite warm for May, and I stayed in for at least half an hour without feeling cold.
The fact that the beach is flatter here makes it ideal for running. The sand is hard enough that you don't sink in, so it is one of the most wonderful beaches I have ever run on. It is really inspiring to run next to the sounds of the crashing surf, and it's just a few steps out your hotel room door, so you don't have to "run" to it on pavement!
Now for the hotel itself, like the others have said, it is not the most luxurious of hotels, but the Standard Rooms are adequate. The furniture and bathroom finishes seem circa 1980's, but everything is really clean and the beds are allegedly replaced every three years. The bedspreads are pretty, though. Our standard room had a side view of the ocean, but we were not right on the beach. We were only there one night, though, so I decided to save a little money by not getting a deluxe beach front room. The standard room was fine for one night, but if you're spending the weekend, I'd recommend the beach front rooms, although try to avoid the ones on the first floor.
All rooms have a really large refrigerator, so you could potentially make your own breakfast and lunch, but we found the restaurant to be very reasonably priced and more importantly, extremely pleasant (we tend to be do-it-yourselfers when it comes to meals, but we broke with tradition here). The decor in the dining room seems even more dated than the rooms--maybe circa 1940s or 50s--but again, it is clean and very well kept and you spend most of your time looking at the view anyway!
I know most people want to know about the staff, so I'll say that they were some of the nicest staff members I've ever encountered. They were so friendly and seemed to care about each individual customer. Granted it was a holiday weekend, so they had a lot of people to attend to and service was maybe a little slower, but you don't really notice because it is just so pleasant eating outside or in the dining room.
We didn't go in the pool, but it was really crowded, even though it is on the street side of the hotel. It was probably a little warmer on this side as the sun goes down on this side of the street. It seemed really nice.
This is a great choice if you want to get away from it all and just swim, read books, and play on the beach. It was just as nice, if not nicer than Cape Cod!
