Find great and fun things to do in Providence/Warwick

Rhode Island > Providence Warwick > Things to Do and See > 60 Great Things to Do in Rhode Island

Enjoy historic and entertaining attractions on a day trip, longer visit, or romantic getaway. There’s a wonderful zoo inside a beautiful park with its own carousel. Go carts run on New England’s largest family track and there’s great music and local theater. Flea markets and farmer’s markets abound, along with museums and galleries, and the Arcade is the country’s oldest indoor shopping mall. Waterfire’s music and light stoke the night and you can enjoy it from a Venetian-style gondola. Providence offers a renowned four-stool diner and spectacular local and continental cuisines.

Roger Williams Park Zoo

1000 Elmwood Avenue Providence, RI, 02907 Phone: 401-785-3510

Happenings at this zoo include visits to animals, zip rides, train excursions

You’ll find 40 acres of fun at the Roger Williams Park Zoo & Carousel Village. It all starts with the animals, of course, and the zoo has over 100 species from around the globe, including elephants, giraffes, snow leopards, bald eagles, New England’s only Komodo dragon, bison, giant and river otters, and red pandas. There’s a free-flight aviary to walk through, a petting zoo where you can interact with farm animals, and in the summer months get hands-on with daily armadillo and tortoise encounters. The zoo also is home to an exhilarating zip ride, where you soar 115 feet above the zoo, a train excursion, and a fully accessible nature play space with a building zone and treehouse.

Save The Bay

Multiple Centers & Dock Locations Providence, Newport, Westerly, RI and Fall River, MA Phone: 401-272-3540

From seal tours to touch tanks, Save The Bay has lots of activities for explorers

Start with this: seal tours! And if that’s not enough, environmental nonprofit Save The Bay also offers lighthouse tours, nature cruises and an Exploration Center & Aquarium where you can meet sea stars, dogfish sharks and sea urchins at their three touch tanks. Lighthouse Tours are offered June through October, while Nature Cruisies and Seal Tours take place October through April. The organization’s Bay Center in Providence offers public, Bayside walking trails, a kayak launch and fishing platform, while the year-round Exploration Center and Aquarium in Newport offers three touch tanks, and dozens of exhibits featuring local species.
Boat tours depart from Newport, Westerly, and Providence RI.

Girl Watching Flamingos at Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence, RI - Credit PWCVB

Go Providence

1 Sabin Street Providence, RI, 02903 Phone: 401-751-1177

From great restaurants and shops to award-winning arts venues, museums and zoos, Providence has it all

What’s your pleasure when you’re on vacation or want to spend a day in the city? Dining in a great ethnic restaurant? Shopping for that one-of-a-kind item? Hiking in a city park with a botanical center and waterfall? Visiting elephants and giraffes at a zoo? Exploring intriguing neighborhoods on a foodie or history tour? In the Providence, RI area, you can do all that and so much more! Award-winning theater, sports events and concerts, funky boutiques, museums that celebrate natural and regional history – this walkable city has it all. Check the website for events from festivals and parades to comedy nights and restaurant weeks. Thinking of staying a couple nights? There are plenty of lodging options, from charming bed-and-breakfast inns to hotels with spacious suites and indoor pools. For more info, visit GoProvidence.com

Browse for Art and Antiques at the Providence Flea

The Providence Flea runs year-round – in the winter, it’s indoors at the Farm Fresh Market Hall at 10 Sims Avenue; in the summer, it’s outdoors in front of Plant City at 275 Water Street. Crafters and antique dealers abound here. It’s the perfect place to pick up some new jewelry, soap, or hand-made artisanal crafts. Snacks and drinks are available from food trucks. There are also themed nighttime markets. 401-484-7783

Campers Inn RV - Your Trusted Source Since 1966! Click Here to Explore.

Join William A. Smith Auctions for its Auction of a Barnard, VT Country Estate! Friday, November 24, 2023 from Noon to 4PM - Click here for more info.

Newport, Rhode Island - A Year Round Destination!

Clouds Hill Victorian House Museum in Warwick IR

Find a Warm Welcome to the Victorian Age at the Mansion

People interested in beauty and elegance of the Victorian age will love a visit to Clouds Hill Victorian House Museum at 4157 Post Road in Warwick. The house was built in the 1870s a wedding gift for Elizabeth Ives Slater. Ownership of the house descended through the oldest female and is now in the fourth generation of the family. Since 2000, Clouds Hill has been opened to the public. (It is also on the National Register of Historic Places.) The museum hosts lots of special events, including formal dinners five times a year. Displays of wedding attire, household appliances, carriages and riding equipment are perfectly intriguing. Guests are met with a true spirit of hospitality by volunteer docents who love discussing Victorian culture. 401-884-9490. [photo by Ian Iannuccilli.]

Breathtaking Art of Many Ages and Cultures

To see a wide variety of spectacular artwork from many cultures and ages, visit the Rhode Island School of Design Museum on Benefit Street in Providence. The RISD Museum houses over 80,000 works of art, ranging from ancient Greek and Roman sculpture to French Impressionist paintings, from Chinese stone and terracotta sculpture to contemporary art in every medium, including textiles, ceramics, glass and furniture. It also serves the general public with a full schedule of special exhibitions, lectures, tours, concerts and other programs. 401-454-6500.

Maple, Llamas, and Wool Blankets Come From This Welcoming Farm

Chepachet Farms and Sugar House at 226 Tourtellot Hill Road in Chepachet is a working farm where farmers Jody & Neil Esposito welcome everyone to visit and enjoy the maple sugaring season, farm animals, and the Green Thumb horticultural program that celebrates the work of farms. Sugar season is usually late February to mid-March, and the sugar house and maple store are open to visitors from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on days when boiling is happening (call ahead or check the farm’s Facebook page). Also at the farm, guests can meet the resident llamas, draft horses, miniature horse, donkey, sheep, goats, ducks, pot-bellied pig and chickens. You can even choose and buy a Rhody Warm blanket or throw for the chilly times of the year. 401-568-9996.

Yes You Can … Have Fun Creating Art

Muse Paintbar, with many locations, including a cozy storefront on the very hip North Main Street in Providence, rocks the slogan “Making Masterpieces and Memories.” Bring a friend or a group to enjoy some wine or tasty snacks while you follow close directions by an artist-leader in creating a painting. Bring your inner Van Gogh if you wish, but, really, no artistic talent is required. You are here for fun and to splash some color on a palette. Go into Muse’s website to see exactly what paintings will be the specific subject for each day’s class. You can do it! 401-764-3600

Arts and Food, With a Deeply ‘60s Vibe

AS220 is a non-profit community arts space at 115 Empire Street in downtown Providence with a mission of providing an unjuried and uncensored forum for the arts. AS220 is part incubator and part bazaar for the visual and performing arts. The Empire Street Complex HAS a performance space, galleries, studios, and the Perishable Theatre. Also: there is very good food and grog at AS220 Food + Drink . Find a genuine 1960s vibe with good, solid, representation from the vegetable category, Satisfying and groovy. This is not an off-the-shelf art experience. 401-831-9327.

You Think You’ve Seen Reality? Try It Virtually

Base Station VR, at 286 Thayer Street in Providence,, is Rhode Island's first dedicated virtual reality arcade and lounge. This is a virtual reality experience that you cannot get with cheaper headsets. Experiences include Beat Saber, Arizona Sunshine, Superhot VR, Skyfront VR, Elven Assassin, Job Simulator, and many more. Categories of experiences include action, adventure, scary, puzzles, and others. Come alone or bring friends. An eight-by-eight-foot space allows room for movement. Try a $5 demo. The operators swear you’ll be hooked on this otherworldly experience. Open year-round, but hours vary. Check the website. 401-484-1895.

Walking tour by the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitor’s Bureau

Walk the Majestic Streets of the East Side of Providence

Providence has many distinctive neighborhoods, and one of them – The East Side – is particularly endowed with natural and architectural beauty, along with connections to the state’s founding principles of religious freedom. The self-guided East Side walking tour created by the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau starts at the magnificent State House and then ambles across the Providence River, past a national memorial named for Roger Williams, the city’s founder, and other places along North Main and Benefit streets that are equally stirring for their roles and their architecture: First Baptist Church, Rhode Island School of Design, the Providence Athenaeum and Brown University. Follow the tour on your phone and feel the pull of lofty minds from our past.

Providence Children's Museum - Providence, RI

Children's Museum Is a Delight for the Small Fry

The Providence Children’s Museum on South Street in Providence is a joy for kids and parents because of the enormous variety of themes, and play and discovery areas. Examples: Water Ways is a water play environment; Play Power uses air tubes and magnetic mazes to enhance pure play; The Children’s Garden is an oasis of native plants; The Climber is a two-story-high climbing maze; Underland is a subterranean world of roots, worm tunnels and critters’ burrows. And that is only a partial list. The museum hosts lots of seasonal and special events. Really – the place has everything for kid fun and learning. 401-273-5437.

Craftland is Gift-Shopping Heaven

212 Westminster Street Providence, RI, 02903 Phone:

A little bit like a brick-and-mortar Etsy tucked into Providence’s artsy Downcity district, Craftland is an artist-owned shop full of unusual handmade gifts and “and select pieces of artistry and weirdness from across the country,” according to its proprietors. It’s hard to tell what you might find here, but categories could include photography, stationery, clothing, accessories, original artwork, housewares, toys, prints, jewelry, stationery, and oddities that defy categorization. Craftland began in 2002 as a holiday pop-up, but its popularity led it to become a year-round establishment. And, Craftland purchases are tax free.

What is a “Poke Bowl” Anyway?

Poke is the next generation of sushi, according to a West Coast chef. The word itself means to slice or cut in the language of Hawaii, and the dish is usually chunks of raw, marinated fish — usually tuna — which are tossed over rice and topped with vegetables and sauces. In early 2020, Yelp included among its top 100 eateries in the United States the Hometown Café & Poke Bar at 185 Camp Street in the Mount Hope neighborhood of Providence. Hometown’s co-owners described poke as “deconstructed sushi in a bowl, but more bold and flavorful.” Hometown started in 2017 in a trailer, but now it’s in a bright and sunny storefront. You don’t need to be a daring diner to love poke; try it! 401- 868-1247.

State

Blackstone Valley

Block Island

Newport

South County