Must-See Activities and Attractions
Rhode Island may be small, but it is no small task to list all the best places to visit while vacationing in the Ocean State. Seriously consider including these highlights on your itinerary.
Block Island
800-383-BIRI
Block Island is home to more than forty species of rare and endangered plants and animals. Highlights include beaches, boating, bicycling, fishing, lighthouses, and sweeping views of the sea from the 185-foot clay cliffs at Mohegan Bluffs.
Green Animals Topiary Garden
Cory's Lane, Portsmouth
401-683-1267
This splendid Victorian estate boasts America's oldest topiary gardens, first planted in 1880. California privet, golden boxwood, and American boxwood trees are artfully “carved” into geometric and ornamental designs and even whimsical animal shapes such as an elephant, a camel, and a teddy bear. Also visit the rose garden, the antique toy collection in the main house, and the plant shop.
Historic Carousels
Crescent Park Carousel
700 Bullocks Point Avenue, Riverside
401-433-2828
Looff Carousel
Slater Memorial Park, Route 1A, Pawtucket
401-728-0500, ext. 252
Flying Horse Carousel
Bay Street, Westerly
401-348-6007
Rhode Island is home to three historic carousels. In Riverside, you'll find the 1895 Crescent Park Carousel, designated a National Historic Site and a National Historic Landmark. Kids will have trouble choosing a mount from the sixty-six hand-carved figures designed by Charles I. D. Looff. Slater Memorial Park in Pawtucket is home to Looff's earliest carousel, built in 1894 and installed in the park in 1910. It features forty-two intricately carved horses, plus three dogs, a lion, a camel, and a giraffe. The oldest carousel in America, Westerly's Flying Horse Carousel, was constructed circa 1867 and has twenty horses that were each hand-carved from a single piece of wood.
International Tennis Hall of Fame
194 Bellevue Avenue, Newport
401-849-3990
The International Tennis Hall of Fame and the world's largest tennis museum are housed at the Newport Casino, where the first American tennis National Championships were held in 1881. The complex also features thirteen grass tennis courts — the only competition grass courts in the country that are open to the public.
FAST FACT
The long-proposed Heritage Harbor Museum may finally become a reality in 2008, albeit on a smaller scale than was originally envisioned in 1999 when Narragansett Electric donated the decommissioned South Street Power Station in Providence to house a new museum dedicated to Rhode Island's legacy and traditions. The 55,000-square-foot museum will now be part of Dynamo House, a $140 million hotel and retail development. For updates on the museum's progress, visit
Newport Mansions
A visit to Rhode Island isn't complete without a visit to at least one or two of Newport's magnificent seaside mansions. The Preservation Society of Newport (401-847-1000,
TRAVEL TIP
Newport may have the mansion market cornered, but a lovely 33-acre turn-of-the-century mansion in Bristol is worth visiting. Blithewold Mansion and Gardens (101 Ferry Road/Route 114, 401-253-2707,
Rhode Island Beaches
Rhode Island has 400 miles of coastline, so if the ocean calls to you, you'll be pleased to find dozens of places to play in the sand. South County boasts the state's most popular spots including South Kingstown Town Beach, Roger W. Wheeler State Beach, Blue Shutters Town Beach, Watch Hill Beach, and Misquamicut State Beach, which also offers family amusements. You'll also find public beaches in Bristol, Jamestown, Middletown, Narragansett, Newport, Portsmouth, Tiverton, Warwick, and on Block Island.
Roger Williams Park Zoo
1000 Elmwood Avenue, Providence
401-785-3510
Providence is home to the country's third-oldest zoo, which has been a popular family attraction since 1872. The widely acclaimed zoo is home to more than 1,000 animals representing 139 species.
Slater Mill
67 Roosevelt Avenue, Pawtucket
401-725-8638
The mill that precipitated cataclysmic change in not only Rhode Island but also the nation is a must-see. Slater Mill, the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, is a museum complex that includes the original yellow-clapboard textile mill built by Samuel Slater in 1793, the 1810 Wilkinson Mill and machine shop, and the 1758 Sylvanus Brown House, home of a master craftsman who contributed to Slater's success by making machine patterns and wooden machine parts for the textile mill.
Water Place Park and River Walk
Memorial Boulevard, Providence
Water Place is the four-acre urban park along the Woona-squatucket River that is the centerpiece of revitalization in Rhode Island's capital city. The charming cobbled walkways, footbridges, and amphitheater will remind you of Venice, and you'll do a double-take when you spot a gondola gliding along with a gondolier at the stern and a smiling, picnicking couple aboard. Believe it or not, a company called La Gondola (401-421-8877,
