Newport, Rhode Island

Newport, Rhode Island, is where the Gilded Age built its summer playground, and the mansions remain—a string of palaces along Bellevue Avenue and Ocean Drive that rival the great houses of Europe in scale, opulence, and sheer audacity. The Breakers, Cornelius Vanderbilt II's seventy-room Italian Renaissance palazzo completed in 1895, is the most famous, but Marble House, Rosecliff, The Elms, and Rough Point each tell their own story of an era when America's industrial titans competed to build the most magnificent "summer cottage" on this narrow peninsula between Narragansett Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

But Newport's story begins long before the Vanderbilts. Founded in 1639 by religious dissidents seeking tolerance, the town became one of colonial America's five major ports, its merchant fleet trading in rum, slaves, and manufactured goods across the Atlantic world. The colonial heritage survives in the Historic Hill district, where pre-Revolutionary houses line narrow streets with a density and charm that rivals any New England town. The Touro Synagogue, dedicated in 1763, is the oldest surviving synagogue in the United States and a testament to the religious pluralism that distinguished Rhode Island from birth. The International Tennis Hall of Fame, housed in the McKim, Mead & White-designed Casino (1880), celebrates Newport's role as the birthplace of American tournament tennis.

Newport's food scene has matured well beyond the traditional New England seafood shack—though the seafood shacks are still here and still excellent. The waterfront restaurants of Bowen's and Bannister's wharves serve the local catch—littleneck clams, lobster, bluefish, and the famous Rhode Island-style calamari (lightly breaded and served with hot cherry peppers)—in settings that look out over the harbor and its forest of yacht masts. The White Horse Tavern, operating since 1673 and claiming to be the oldest restaurant in America, serves refined New England cuisine in a building whose low ceilings and wide-plank floors have witnessed three and a half centuries of hospitality. For contemporary dining, the restaurants along Thames Street and Broadway offer creative menus that draw on the state's farming and fishing communities.

The Cliff Walk, Newport's most celebrated outdoor experience, is a 3.5-mile public path that follows the edge of the coastline between the mansion grounds and the open ocean. The walk threads between the impossibly manicured lawns of the great estates and the wild, rocky shore—a juxtaposition of extreme wealth and natural beauty that is uniquely Newport. At points, the path narrows to a few feet, with crashing waves on one side and Gilded Age architecture on the other. Fort Adams State Park, at the harbor entrance, hosts the Newport Jazz Festival and the Newport Folk Festival—two of the most prestigious music festivals in the country, launched in the 1950s and 1960s. The America's Cup was sailed in Newport waters from 1930 to 1983, and the city remains one of the world's premier sailing destinations.

Newport is accessible by car from Boston (ninety minutes) and New York (three hours), and serves as a regular port of call for New England coastal cruises. The best time to visit is June through September, when the mansion tours are in full swing, the sailing season is at its peak, and the Jazz and Folk festivals fill the parks with music. Autumn brings spectacular foliage along Ocean Drive and the Cliff Walk. The Christmas in Newport celebrations, from Thanksgiving through New Year's, feature mansion tours decorated for the holidays and a festive atmosphere throughout the town.