Oceanfront 1 (#42039)

Newport is famous for its natural seaside beauty and for the magnificent mansions and gardens built there by the industrial barons of America’s Gilded Age. But you don’t need to have a tiara or chauffeur to enjoy Newport’s treasures, from interesting museums to mansion tours to walks or bicycle tours along rocky coves. Newport was the playground of the wealthy (think Vanderbilts and Astors) from the 1880s to the early 20th century. Their fantastically elaborate mansions along Bellevue Avenue – the Breakers, the Elms, Marblehouse, Rosecliff – are open to tours. Newport also was host from 1930 to 1983 to the America’s Cup, the world’s premiere yacht regatta. Even though the Australians wrestled the Cup from the New York Yacht Club in 1983 and the contest moved out of Newport, yachting and boating remain deeply ingrained along Newport Harbor and at the city’s Museum of Yachting. Many types of cruises in and out of local waters are offered to the public.

Newport also has made itself a year-round vacation destination in part by hosting a variety of festivals, including its legendary jazz and folk and classical festivals in the summer as well as many other ethnic festivals throughout the seasons. They include the Black Ships Festival in July, celebrating culture and commerce with Japan; an Irish Festival at Labor Day; Christmas in Newport in December; and Newport Winter Festival in January.

For simpler fun, it is a pleasure simply to walk around the tightly packed, Colonial-period houses of Newport’s downtown and to sample the offerings of its many charming shops and restaurants. Or make your way to the Cliff Walk, a three-mile path with rocky beaches dropping off to one side and the lawns of the mansions rising to the other. A drive or bike ride along Ocean Drive also will carry visitors past spectacular sights, both natural and man-made.

North of Newport, also on Aquidneck Island, is Portsmouth, where polo competitions are open to the public on Saturday evenings in the summer. Portsmouth is also a place of beautiful bicycling trails and vineyards. And don’t miss the Green Animals in Portsmouth, a whimsical and unique topiary garden with scores of hedges and trees shaped to resemble giant animals. On the mainland east of Aquidneck Island are the small, lovely towns of Tiverton and Little Compton. People who love to drive or bicycle along beautiful roads will be astounded by the miles and miles of old stone walls and farms that probably looked very much like they did 200 years ago.

Jamestown, the island between Newport and the mainland, is blessed with beautiful beaches and wooded roads that are perfect for idyllic summertime bicycle rides. At the island’s southern tip is Beavertail Park, on a peninsula that juts dramatically into the mouth of Narragansett Bay, with elevated paths above rocky beaches, and, of course, a lighthouse.