🇺🇸 United States · New England
Newport is one of those cities where history is in the air on every corner: from its 17th-century colonial streets to the sumptuous Gilded Age mansions looking out over the Atlantic. Set on Aquidneck Island, on the shore of Narragansett Bay, in the tiny state of Rhode Island, Newport was for centuries a prosperous port and, at the end of the 19th century, the most exclusive summer resort in the United States, where the Vanderbilts, the Astors and other immensely rich families built summer palaces they called, with false modesty, 'cottages'.
Newport's great attraction is precisely those Gilded Age mansions, genuine palaces inspired by the castles and villas of Europe, with interiors of marble, gold and works of art, which today can be visited as museums. The most famous is The Breakers, the summer residence of the Vanderbilts. Linking several of these mansions with the edge of the ocean runs the Cliff Walk, a path of some five kilometers between the cliffs and the mansion gardens, one of the most beautiful coastal walks in the country. To all of that add Newport's strong sailing tradition, as a capital of the sport and the historic home of the America's Cup.
This guide covers Newport with a practical and warm eye: which mansions to visit, how to walk the Cliff Walk and drive the Ocean Drive, what to see in the colonial historic center, where the beaches are, how to get out sailing on the bay and where to eat. Newport is best enjoyed on foot, with time to admire the opulence of its golden past, feel the Atlantic breeze on the cliffs and let yourself be carried along by the seafaring atmosphere of its harbor.
The Narragansett Bay region was the territory of the Narragansett people long before the Europeans arrived. Newport was founded in 1639 by English settlers seeking religious freedom, within the colony of Rhode Island, celebrated for its tolerance: Quakers, Baptists and Jews lived side by side here from early on. The Touro Synagogue, from 1763, is the oldest surviving one in the United States. In the 18th century, Newport was one of the most prosperous ports in the colonies, with intense maritime trade (including, tragically, its involvement in the slave trade and the so-called triangular trade). During the Revolution, the city was occupied by the British and later became a base for the allied French forces. In the 19th century, Newport turned into the favorite summer resort of the American elite: the richest families in the country (Vanderbilt, Astor and others) built the opulent Gilded Age mansions that are its great attraction today. Newport is also a historic capital of sailing and was for decades the home of the America's Cup. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The smallest state in the country: founded as a refuge of religious tolerance by Roger Williams, cradle of the American Industrial Revolution, of the gilded summers of the Newport mansions and of Narragansett Bay.
Read the history of Rhode Island →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Before the Europeans arrived, the region of Narragansett Bay and Aquidneck Island was the territory of the Narragansett people, one of the most powerful Algonquian-speaking nations of southern New England. The Narragansett lived off fishing, shellfishing, hunting and farming, and kept a rich cultural and trading life. They gave their name to the great bay that defines the geography of Rhode Island.
The English colonization of the area was tied to the search for religious freedom. Rhode Island was born as a refuge of tolerance, founded by dissenters such as Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, expelled from the rigid Puritan colony of Massachusetts for their ideas. In that spirit, Newport was founded in 1639 by a group of settlers, among them William Coddington and Nicholas Easton, at the southern end of Aquidneck Island. The new town adopted from the outset a policy of remarkable religious tolerance, unusual for the time.
That freedom of conscience drew to Newport communities that elsewhere were persecuted or frowned upon: Quakers, Baptists and, notably, a Jewish community that settled in the town and prospered. This openness would be one of the defining traits of Newport and of Rhode Island, and would leave landmarks such as the Touro Synagogue. So, from its founding, Newport stood out for a mixture of port activity and religious pluralism that set it apart from other New England colonies.
During the 18th century, Newport lived through a first golden age as one of the most important and prosperous trading ports in the Thirteen Colonies, rivaling Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Its excellent natural harbor and its seafaring tradition made it a center of international maritime trade, with ships coming and going laden with goods across the Atlantic. The town filled up with merchants, craftsmen and professionals, and built buildings and churches that still stand today.
That prosperity had a dark and tragic side, however: Newport was deeply involved in the trade in enslaved people and in the so-called 'triangular trade'. Merchants from the town financed voyages that carried New England rum to Africa, where it was exchanged for enslaved people who were transported to the Caribbean, and from there molasses was brought back to make more rum. Newport was one of the main ports of this trade in the northern colonies. Acknowledging this history is part of understanding the true origin of much of the town's colonial wealth.
From this prosperous era dates one of the symbols of Newport's tolerance: the Touro Synagogue, dedicated in 1763, considered the oldest surviving synagogue in the United States, built by the town's Jewish community. Its existence, alongside churches of different denominations, reflects the religious pluralism that characterized Newport at the height of its commercial boom, a legacy that coexists with the darkest pages of its history.
The American War of Independence hit Newport hard and abruptly ended its first golden age. Given the strategic importance of its harbor, the town was occupied by British forces from 1776 and remained under their control for several years. The occupation was devastating: many inhabitants fled, trade came to a halt, buildings were destroyed or used as barracks and the town's population and economy suffered a blow it would take a long time to recover from.
After the British withdrawal, Newport became a key base for the French forces that had come to the aid of the American revolutionaries. The French army commanded by the Count of Rochambeau established itself in the town, which became an important point of support for the Franco-American alliance. From Newport and the region, operations set out that would prove decisive for the final victory of independence. The French presence left its mark on local memory.
Despite the recovery of independence, Newport never fully regained its old 18th-century commercial splendor. The region's port leadership shifted to other cities, such as nearby Providence, and Newport entered a period of relative economic decline. But that pause, paradoxically, helped preserve its colonial heritage —since it was not demolished to build new things— and set the stage for a second and very different golden age that would come in the 19th century, this time not as a trading port but as a resort of the elite.
In the 19th century, Newport lived through its second and most famous transformation: from a former port fallen on hard times it became the most exclusive summer resort in the United States. The process began in the middle of the century, when well-off families from the South of the country and, above all, from the great cities of the Northeast began spending their summers in Newport, drawn by its cool climate, its sea breezes and its refined atmosphere. What started as a restful destination became the stage on which American high society displayed its wealth.
The high point came during the so-called Gilded Age, in the last decades of the 19th century, when the richest families in the country —the Vanderbilts, the Astors, the Belmonts and other dynasties enriched by the railroads, finance and industry— chose Newport to build sumptuous summer residences. With a mixture of ostentation and false modesty, they called 'cottages' what were genuine palaces inspired by French châteaux and Italian Renaissance villas, raised by the most celebrated architects of the day, such as Richard Morris Hunt, with interiors of marble, gold and works of art brought from Europe.
During the brief summer 'season', Newport became the center of the social life of the American elite, with a frenetic calendar of balls, parties, regattas and events in which the great families competed in lavishness. Mansions such as The Breakers (of the Vanderbilts), Marble House, The Elms or Rosecliff are the most spectacular testimony to that world of privilege and excess. Today, preserved as museums, they are the city's greatest tourist attraction.
Alongside its fame as a resort of the elite, Newport forged another identity for which it is celebrated the world over: that of capital of sailing. The passion for competitive sailing, tied to the leisure of the upper classes who summered in the city, turned Newport into one of the great centers of recreational boating and yacht racing in the United States. Its harbor, in Narragansett Bay, offered ideal conditions and a long seafaring tradition.
The great symbol of this calling was the America's Cup, the oldest and most prestigious yacht racing competition in the world. For decades, across the 20th century, Newport was the home of the America's Cup defense races, which were sailed off its shores and drew the best sailors and enormous international interest. The city lived to the rhythm of these competitions, which reinforced its sailing prestige and its economy, until, in 1983, the trophy changed hands and the venue moved.
Even today, Newport keeps its status as a mecca of sailing: its harbor is still full of sailboats and yachts, it hosts regattas and nautical events throughout the season, and boat trips leave from its wharves so that visitors can enjoy the bay. Sailing is an inseparable part of the city's identity, along with its mansions and its colonial history.
After the twilight of the Gilded Age —battered by income tax, the world wars and the social changes of the 20th century—, many of Newport's sumptuous mansions were left with no use, cost fortunes to maintain and were in danger of demolition. The city and a group of committed people understood the value of that unique heritage. In 1945 the Preservation Society of Newport County was founded, which acquired and restored several of the great mansions and opened them to the public as museums, saving them for future generations and turning them into the engine of the city's tourism.
Newport also established itself, across the 20th century, as a cultural and musical center of note. The city is celebrated for its open-air music festivals, especially the Newport Jazz Festival and the Newport Folk Festival, born in the 1950s, which became legendary events in the history of American music (at the Newport Folk Festival, for example, Bob Dylan was at the center of mythical episodes). Every summer, these festivals draw crowds and reaffirm Newport's role in culture.
Today, Newport combines all its historical layers in a fascinating destination: the 17th-century colonial center, the echoes of the Revolution, the splendor of the Gilded Age mansions, the sailing tradition and the cultural life of its festivals. It is one of the most visited tourist destinations in New England, where the visitor can go from admiring a Vanderbilt palace to walking among cliffs, sailing across the bay or enjoying a concert, in a city that knew how to preserve and reinvent its extraordinary heritage.