• Visit the state capital, Providence, and wander through Waterplace Park, a 1.6-hectare (4-acre) urban park that surrounds a tidal basin. Admire many finely restored homes on the East Side, and Brown University's 18th-century buildings.

• Spend a day at the Museum of Natural History and Planetarium (website: www.providenceri.com/museum), looking at collections containing over 24,000 archaeological and ethnographic specimens, with the focus on Native American and Pacific Island heritage.

• Tour the Slater Mill Historic Site (website: www.slatermill.org) in the city of Pawtucket, the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution.

• Sail into the pretty harbour at Newport. Many of the town's magnificent mansions (including those built by the Vanderbilts and the Astors) are open to the public. Visit the Touro Synagogue (website: www.tourosynagogue.org), the oldest synagogue in America, and the White Horse Tavern, built in 1673 by a pirate.

• Enjoy Newport's summer jazz and folk festivals. Classical music takes centre stage in July during the Newport Music Festival (website: www.newportmusic.org). In August the Apple & Eve Newport Folk Festival and the JVC Jazz Festival in Newport, one of the oldest and best known in the country, draw music-lovers to Fort Adams State Park.

• Take the one-hour ferry trip from Point Judith to Block Island to see the National Wildlife Refuge and the magnificent 60m- (200ft-) high Mohegan Bluffs (website: http://lighthouse.cc/blockisoutheast).

• Join in the state's numerous watersports, from canoeing, scuba diving, parasailing and deep-sea fishing, to every type of sailing in this yachtie's mecca. Most cruises, sailing lessons and charters depart from Newport. Narragansett Bay is home to yachting regattas as well as a thriving fishing industry.

See Contact Addresses for further tourist information.