Newport
New York families built summer houses here from the 1850s that they insisted on calling cottages — The Breakers has seventy rooms — and used them for six or eight weeks a year. A public right of way runs between the lawns and the sea for five and a half kilometres, which the owners fought and lost, and the America's Cup was defended from this harbour for fifty-three years.
Why go
Gilded Age mansions on a cliff — summer "cottages" of forty rooms, kept as museums. A sailing capital — the America's Cup was defended here for fifty-three years. Colonial Newport — the oldest synagogue in America and a 1673 tavern still serving. The Cliff Walk — five and a half kilometres between the lawns and the Atlantic.
The character
Newport was one of colonial America's five great ports, built on trade and religious tolerance — Rhode Island's charter guaranteed liberty of conscience, which is why Touro Synagogue, the oldest surviving in the country, was dedicated here in 1763. The Revolution and the rise of New York ended the shipping economy, and the town spent a century as a backwater.
Its second act made the name. From the 1850s New York families began building summer houses on the cliffs, and by the 1890s the Vanderbilts, Astors and their peers were competing in an architectural arms race — The Breakers, Marble House, Rosecliff, all built for a season of six or eight weeks a year and staffed by dozens. The Preservation Society bought them when the money left, and they are now the best surviving record of Gilded Age America. Meanwhile the harbour became the centre of American yachting: the America's Cup was defended from Newport from 1930 until 1983, and the sailing culture is still the town's working half.
Places of character
The Breakers — Hunt's 1895 Vanderbilt house of seventy rooms; the audio tour is unusually candid about the servants. Marble House and Rosecliff — the other two worth doing; three mansions in a day is the maximum. Cliff Walk — the public right of way between the lawns and the sea, half paved and half rock scramble. Touro Synagogue — 1763, and George Washington's 1790 letter about religious liberty was addressed to its congregation. White Horse Tavern — serving since 1673, and claiming to be the oldest in America. Fort Adams and the harbour — the sailing centre, with the jazz and folk festivals each summer.
The way to do it
Buy the Preservation Society combination ticket and do two or three houses, not five. Walk the Cliff Walk south to north in the morning light. Get on the water — a schooner charter from the harbour is the correct way to see the mansions. And book the jazz festival in advance if you come in early August.
One perfect day
Coffee on Thames Street, then the Cliff Walk from Easton's Beach with the Atlantic on one side and the lawns on the other. The Breakers when it opens, then Marble House if the appetite holds. Lunch of a lobster roll on the harbour. Afternoon on the water: a two-hour sail out past Fort Adams and back with the mansions from the sea, which is how they were meant to be seen. Colonial Newport late in the day — Touro Synagogue and the 1673 tavern. Dinner on the wharf, and a walk along the harbour with the masts clinking.
Grand hotels
Castle Hill Inn — an 1875 mansion on a promontory at the harbour mouth, with the lighthouse below the lawn. The Chanler at Cliff Walk — an 1873 summer cottage at the start of the walk, now a twenty-room hotel.
When to go
Best expression: September — the sea is warmest, the light is long and the summer traffic has gone. Consider: early August for the folk and jazz festivals at Fort Adams. Avoid if possible: July weekends, when the bridge queues and the mansions are at capacity.
The frame
Ideal stay 3 nights · Minimum 2 nights · Best arrival by road from Boston or Providence · Airport PVD, 45 km · Walkability excellent along the harbour and the Cliff Walk · Best without a car yes, with the trolley