Providence RI Rhode Island
151
Cruises availables
At departure or passage at this port
American Cruise Lines (151 Cruises)
American Glory
90 Cruises
American Legend
56 Cruises
American Liberty
5 Cruises
Frequently Asked Questions
At the waterfront, in the India Street area. Downtown is then a ten to twenty minute walk along the water.
Yes, but wear the right shoes: the College Hill slope is real, and the climb to Benefit Street and Brown University has to be earned. The Riverwalk and Waterplace Park, by contrast, stay flat and easy.
Follow the Riverwalk to Waterplace Park, climb Benefit Street, visit the Rhode Island School of Design museum and come back down by the wharves. With a full day, add Federal Hill for a meal and the State House dome.
An installation that sets the river alight on certain summer evenings: around a hundred braziers strung along the current, lit at dusk, with music and reflections. The schedule is published in advance; if your call falls on a lighting night, do not miss it.
It packs into about a kilometre and a half one of the densest concentrations of pre-1800 architecture in the United States: Georgian and Federal houses with fanlight doors, lanterns, and brick sidewalks buckled by tree roots. It leads to Brown University and the RISD Museum.
Far more than you would expect from a school museum: Egyptian mummies, French Impressionists, contemporary design and a giant 12th-century wooden Buddha. It sits on College Hill at the top of the Benefit Street climb.
On Federal Hill, west of downtown, under the bronze pinecone arch that marks the entrance to Atwells Avenue. Delicatessens, cafés where espresso is drunk standing up and family trattorias run by the third generation keep the neighbourhood’s Italian roots alive without laying it on.
Because in the 1990s the city made a bold bet: dig up waterways long buried under concrete and give them back their banks, footbridges and squares. The move transformed downtown, and you now walk between Waterplace Park and the Riverwalk under arched bridges.
The US dollar and English. Credit cards are accepted everywhere and restaurant tipping runs 15 to 20 percent; on Federal Hill you will still hear conversations slipping between languages.
June through October. Summer brings the WaterFire evenings and the patios; autumn brings New England light and colour to the brick of College Hill, with quieter streets.
