7 ways to experience the tropics in New England

If you’re craving warm weather this winter, but can’t swing a southerly vacation, here are seven ways to bring the tropics to you without venturing beyond New England. – By Victoria Abbott Riccardi, Globe Correspondent

Get bronzed

Fool yourself into thinking you’ve jetted to Bali and gotten some rays by indulging in the Bali Paradise Experience and Spa Tan at G20 Spa + Salon. For your Bali moment, your skin is rubbed with fruit extracts, herbs, and oil before you enter the Experience Room, which offers herbal-infused steam, a refreshing ice fog, and tropical shower.

For the bronzing treatment, your skin is buffed with a body polish; rinsed with massaging water jets; coated with a mist-free application of bronzer; and blow-dried to avoid streaking and spattering.

The Bali Paradise Experience is 40 minutes and costs $75 while the spa tan last for 60 minutes and costs $125.

Savor Tiki drinks

Sip Polynesian flavors through your straw at DRINK, where the bartenders have mastered the art of Tiki drinks. With 15 rums, fresh squeezed juices, and homemade syrups, they can craft the perfect mai thai, jet pilot, zombie, and other rum-based cocktails.

Do the salsa

Every Thursday night from 10 p.m.-1 a.m., pretend you’re in Latin America by salsa dancing through SalsaBoston.com’s Club Caribe in the second-floor lounge in the Marriott Courtyard in Cambridge. DJs provide the rousing music and lessons are available from 8-9 and 9-10 p.m.; all ages are welcome.

Admission is $12; add $5 for a lesson.

Sit under the palm trees

Settle on a bench in the Conservatory under the fringe of palms and think of Hawaii at the Roger Williams Park Botanical Center. New England’s largest public, indoor display gardens house 150 ypes of plants and flowers and nearly 20 kinds of palms.

Admission for adulst cost $3 while tickets for children ages 6-12 cost $1. Admission is free for kids under the age of 6.

Swim, body surf, and waterslide

on your bathing suit and surf in the wavepool at Kahuna Laguna indoor water park at Red Jack Mountain View Resort, then whoosh through one of four high-speed water tubes into the landing pool. With a shallow pool for tots, water cannons, hot tubs, a play tower, and the Tiki Tide Café, you could be at a resort in Costa Rica.

Day passes cost $40 each while children under 2 are free.

Sample Latin-style cooking

ry the flavors of South America at Tico, the boisterous, colorful eatery of chef-owner Michael Schlow. With 88 tequilas to choose from and dishes like lobster and avocado tacos and chorizo with chimichurri, you’ll forget you’re in “the home of the bean and the cod.’’

Spy gorillas in a tropical forest

Watch eight gorillas in a rain forest setting complete with thousands of plants at the Franklin Park Zoo. Yes, you’re out of Africa, but you imagine otherwise as you view the magnificent creatures in their lush, warm habitat.

Admission for adults costs $17 while admission for seniors age 62 and up costs $14. Children ages 2-12 can get in for $11, while kids under 2 are free.