When it comes to beaches, Block Island has a split personality — much of its coast is rocky and hard to get to, situated as it is at the bottom of high bluffs. Then there is Crescent Beach, which arcs from the end of Old Harbor in a glorious two-mile expanse of sand that is easily one of the best beaches in the Northeast. Families flock to the section closest to town, nicknamed “Baby Beach” for its gentle surf and frequent tide pools crawling with fiddler crabs. Older kids gravitate to Benson Beach, a few hundred yards up (and best accessed from Corn Neck Road), where boogie board and sea kayak rentals are available. At the far end of the island, almost at its northern tip is Mansion Beach, a quiet and pristine stretch of sand far away from the crowds.