Rhode Island’s capital

Providence is smart, urbane, and “wonderfully weird,” said Andrea Sachs in The Washington Post. One of the oldest cities in the country and home to a healthy college population, it balances historical pedigree with charming eccentricity. Take the three-eyed troll I ran into downtown on a weekday morning—a creation of the performance troupe Big Nazo Lab, whose fantastical puppets regularly work public spaces. There’s also a tiered 1828 downtown retail arcade whose boutique-like shops include a bookstore dedicated to “weird fiction.” For outdoor fun, visit 435-acre Roger Williams Park, with its natural history museum, swan boats, and the country’s third-oldest zoo. And you’ll want to walk historic Benefit Street, on College Hill, home to the Rhode Island School of Design. Brown University sits a block higher, but the hill’s premier visitor attraction is RISD’s art museum, the country’s fourth-largest. “Not bad for the smallest state in the union.”