Looking for the best things to do in Silver Spring? Just north of DC in Montgomery County, downtown Silver Spring has transformed into a lively, diverse hub of dining, arts and green space. Locals point to the downtown Ellsworth district, the AFI Silver Theatre and Fillmore music venue, and the trails of Sligo Creek and Brookside Gardens.

Things to do in Silver Spring

Downtown Silver Spring

The walkable Ellsworth Drive district — restaurants from around the world, the central plaza (with winter ice skating and summer events), and a lively, diverse energy.

Arts & Music

The AFI Silver Theatre (classic and independent film) and The Fillmore Silver Spring for concerts.

Parks & Gardens

The Sligo Creek Trail for walking and biking, and the beautiful Brookside Gardens in nearby Wheaton.

Things to do in Silver Spring at night

Downtown Silver Spring’s restaurants and bars, a show at the AFI or a concert at the Fillmore, and the plaza’s events lead the evening — with DC one Red Line stop away.

Free things to do in Silver Spring

• The Sligo Creek Trail
• Brookside Gardens
• Downtown plaza events and the diverse food scene

What Silver Spring locals actually recommend

The best international restaurants, downtown events, quiet trail spots — that comes from people who live here. On Neighborhood Nurturers’ Silver Spring community, real neighbors answer “what should I actually do this weekend?” Join your Silver Spring neighbors free →

Where this fits in Silver Spring

The best days here mix the well-known spots with the places only locals frequent. The picks in this guide make the most sense once you know how Silver Spring is laid out. the Sligo Creek Trail and the free Brookside Gardens sit at the center of where locals actually spend their time, so planning a full day out around one of them rarely goes wrong. When you want something calmer, Wheaton Regional Park pulls you away from the busiest blocks, and downtown Silver Spring is the kind of spot regulars mention but visitors miss. Anchor your plan to one of those and the rest of the day in Silver Spring tends to fall into place.

More Silver Spring guides

Silver Spring rewards people who dig a little deeper. These related guides map the same neighborhoods from different starting points: Free things to do in Silver Spring, Best restaurants in Silver Spring, undefined Silver Spring — enough to plan a whole day or two.

Ask a Silver Spring neighbor

The best tips never make the guidebooks — they come from neighbors who know which spot is worth it this week. That is what the Silver Spring community on Neighborhood Nurturers is for. Ask Silver Spring locals what they would do, or join free and get honest answers from people who actually know Silver Spring.

The things worth doing, named

AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center

The best single reason to be in Silver Spring, and one of the finest repertory cinemas in the Washington region. Three screens showing documentaries, foreign-language cinema, restorations and retrospectives rather than whatever opened on Friday, and it hosts the AFI documentary festival. The building is itself the attraction: the 1938 Silver Theatre, an 1,100-seat movie palace designed by John Eberson, one of the great cinema architects. It closed in 1985, stood empty for years, and restoration began in 2001. Seeing a 1940s film in a restored 1938 room is a different experience from seeing it anywhere else.

The Fillmore Silver Spring — 8656 Colesville Road

The music room, listed at roughly two thousand capacity and run mostly as general admission, which puts touring acts within a short walk of the Metro. Two things to know before you buy: there is no official venue parking garage, so you will use the county garages, and bags are limited to 12 by 6 by 12 inches and are searched at the door. Our full Fillmore guide covers parking, capacity and where to eat first.

Silver Spring Civic Building and Veterans Plaza

Opened in July 2010 and functioning as the town outdoor living room. The plaza carries the FreshFarm farmers market on Saturday mornings, 9am to 1pm through the season, a run of free festivals through summer, and an outdoor ice rink in winter. It is the one place in Silver Spring where you can turn up with no plan and find something happening.

Brookside Gardens — 1800 Glenallan Avenue

A 54-acre public display garden, free, sunrise to sunset, with rose, fragrance, butterfly and Japanese-style gardens and two conservatories that keep it worth visiting in January. In winter it hosts Garden of Lights, a ticketed walk-through display of more than a million lights along a half-mile path. Full detail on our Brookside Gardens and Wheaton Regional Park guide.

Wheaton Regional Park — 2000 Shorefield Road

About 538 acres, sunrise to sunset, with a miniature train and carousel at $3.50 per person (train runs early April through December), the remodelled Adventure Playground, horse stables, an ice rink, tennis, fishing and a dog park.

Sligo Creek Trail

A 10.2-mile paved hiker and biker trail, free, gently graded and heavily shaded, running through the stream valley that threads the whole town. At weekends, sections of Sligo Creek Parkway close to cars under the Open Parkways programme and the road fills with families on bikes. See the Sligo Creek guide for the car-free stretches and their days.

National Capital Trolley Museum

A genuinely charming oddity: a museum of the streetcar era where you can ride restored trolleys rather than only look at them. It is the sort of place that sounds like a filler entry and turns out to be the thing the visiting six-year-old remembers.

Silver Spring Black Box Theatre and the public art walk

Small-scale live theatre downtown, and a walking route of public art installations threaded through the district. Both are free or cheap and both are routinely missed by people who have lived here for years.

Acorn Park

Small, quick, and the reason the town has its name. The original spring, flecked with mica so the water looked silver, is believed to have been where this park now sits just off East-West Highway. Five minutes, and worth it for the context alone.

Half-day plans that actually work

A rainy Saturday: a matinee at AFI Silver, an Ethiopian lunch at Abol Ethiopian Cuisine across the road, then the conservatories at Brookside Gardens, which are warm and green whatever the sky is doing.

With small children: drive to the Shorefield Road entrance at Wheaton Regional Park, do the Adventure Playground and the train, walk across into Brookside Gardens, and finish at Parkway Deli and Restaurant on Grubb Road, which has been feeding families here since 1963.

An evening out: a beer at Silver Branch Brewing Co. next to the Metro station, dinner one block off Ellsworth Drive, then a show at the Fillmore, finishing at Quarry House Tavern on Georgia Avenue, which runs to 2am at weekends.

A warm Sunday, free: the farmers market at Veterans Plaza in the morning, then walk or ride an Open Parkways stretch of Sligo Creek Parkway while it is closed to cars.

Getting around

Almost everything downtown sits within a ten-minute walk of the Silver Spring Metro station on the Red Line, which also handles MARC commuter trains and a large regional bus terminal. The two big parks are a short drive north, or reachable on the Sligo Creek Trail without a car. If you drive downtown, use the Montgomery County public garages on Colesville Road, Georgia Avenue, Wayne Avenue and Cameron Street and read the posted rate at the entrance, since county pricing and evening hours change.

What is on, season by season

Spring is the strongest season here. The azaleas and formal beds at Brookside Gardens come into their own, the butterfly programming opens at the Conservatory in mid-April, and the miniature train at Wheaton Regional Park restarts in early April after its winter break. The Sligo Creek Trail is at its best before the humidity arrives.

Summer belongs to Veterans Plaza. The FreshFarm farmers market runs on Saturday mornings, the free festivals stack up through July and August, including the Silver Spring International Food and Craft Festival, and the plaza sprinklers at 951 Ellsworth Drive keep children occupied for nothing. The Silver Spring Jazz Fest lands in September and is free.

Autumn is the quiet one and arguably the best for walking. The wooded sections of Sligo Creek and Wheaton Regional Park colour up, crowds thin at both parks, and the AFI Silver programming gets serious as festival season arrives.

Winter is better than you would expect, because so much of it is indoors or deliberately built for the cold. The outdoor ice rink opens at Veterans Plaza, Garden of Lights runs at Brookside Gardens with more than a million lights along a half-mile path, the Conservatory has carried a free garden railway display over the same period, and the AFI is a cinema, which is the correct place to be in February.

Frequently asked questions

What are the top things to do in Silver Spring?

Explore the walkable downtown Ellsworth district and its diverse dining, catch a film at the AFI Silver Theatre or a concert at The Fillmore, walk or bike the Sligo Creek Trail, and visit Brookside Gardens.

What is Silver Spring, MD known for?

Its revitalized, walkable downtown, an outstanding and diverse international food scene, the AFI Silver Theatre and Fillmore music venue, and easy Red Line access to DC.

What are free things to do in Silver Spring?

The Sligo Creek Trail, Brookside Gardens, and downtown plaza events are all free.

Is Silver Spring worth visiting near DC?

Yes — for its diverse food scene, downtown, and the AFI and Fillmore, all a quick Red Line ride from Washington.