Welcome to Newport, a charming coastal city in southeastern Rhode Island known for its incredible architecture, sailing culture and scenic water views. It’s close to a 3 hour drive from midtown Manhattan, 90 minutes from Boston and 45 minutes from Providence but of course, all that depends on traffic. From touring Gilded Age Mansions to walking along a cliff, if you’re interested in a weekend away in Newport, RI, keep reading and hopefully this helps inspire your future trip!

To help show the lay of the land, below is a map with locations throughout the city we’ll be recommending. As the post title indicates, we only included sites we consider walking distance from our hotel, which is also highlighted.

It’s 2021, a few months after Anna and I started dating, and we’re looking for a place to go for our first trip together. We discussed a few options but flight prices were kind of crazy at the time so Anna suggested Newport, RI. About a four and half hour drive from where we are in NJ, I had never really heard of Newport. Luckily, Anna had previously been with her family so she was very familiar. We ultimately decided on going here, picked a weekend, booked a hotel and began putting together a list of possible things to do.

Newport might be small, but there are still plenty of activities to keep you busy. Whether you’re there for the historic mansions, walking around town or are just looking to get out on the water, I promise you won’t run out of things to do here. Once we got to our hotel, we really just wanted to leave our car parked for the weekend and enjoy whatever we can by walking around. So that’s what we did! While there are so many other options within driving distance, here are some of our favorites/recommendations for when you just want to walk:

How does a 3.5 mile walk along the water sound? If you like the sound of that, keep reading! For us, this was at the top of our list of things to do in Newport.

Starting from either the South End off Bellevue Ave near Bailey Beach or the North End off Memorial Blvd near Easton Beach, miles of scenic Atlantic Ocean views awaits. You’ll have plenty of viewpoints to take photos and to top it all off, it’s completely free to do the Cliff Walk!

The northern section of the trail is paved so anyone in a wheelchair or with other physical limitations would be better off sticking to this part. As you go more south, the trail will become rocky and will have sections where climbing over rocks could be required. It’s important to note that the mileage is one way, so if you’re planning to walk the entire trail, it’ll end up being 7 miles total round trip. We only went one way and then walked up Bellevue Ave and stopped off at a few mansions.

Not only are there ocean views, the majority of the trail is lined with the Newport Mansions that were built during the GIlded Age. All along the Cliff Walk, you’ll be passing by the backyards of these incredible homes.

With all that being said, let’s move on to these mansions.

Following the Revolutionary War, it took until the mid-1800s for the city to start becoming a popular destination again. The Gilded Age represented a period when a lot of money started to pour back into Newport. With that, mansions were built by those looking for a summer home. What’s crazy is they considered these summer homes as cottages. That’d be nice to have a cottage like one of these!

In the early 1900s, following events such as World War I and The Great Depression, these homes were no longer being taken care of and were mostly abandoned. That is until The Preservation Society of Newport County, still operating to this day, was formed to maintain these incredible pieces of architecture.

Lining Bellevue Ave, you can go marvel at all of the details of these mansions such as Marble House, Beechwood, Rosecliff and Chateau-sur-Mer. The most popular one, The Breakers, is located off of Ochre Point Road and can be accessed from the Cliff Walk. This one was built by the Vanderbilt family, whose fortune came to be thanks to the railroad industry.

Check them all out here to see them for yourselves, decide which ones you’d be interested in and buying tickets.

Here are some photos we took of The Breakers, but admittedly, we did not do a good job photographing these.

When it’s finally time to grab some food or drinks or when you want to go shopping in any of the souvenir shops or other boutiques, it’s either Thames Street or Bowen’s Wharf that you’ll want to go to. Simply put, this is where all the action is in Newport. People walking up and down the street, boats lining the marinas and rented scooters zooming by, this is where you go when you’re done with everything else for the day.

When we didn’t really have anything planned, we would just wander around Thames Street going in and out of shops and probably eating ice cream. Even late at night when we weren’t ready to end the day just yet, we’d keep walking and just enjoy the peacefulness of it. Of course there are a lot of people during the summer months but that’s the way it goes in popular destinations.

Also, if you’re looking for a tour operator to sail the harbor, rent a party boat or even go parasailing, Bowen’s Wharf is where you’ll want to go as there are so many options for you to choose from.

About a 30 minute walk from downtown will take you to Goat Island, home to the Goat Island Lighthouse. It’s not the biggest lighthouse but for a quick walk, it provides great views of the Narragansett Bay with the Newport Bridge as a backdrop. It’s a great location for a photo op.

Once you’re finished taking in the views, you can then go for a nice walk around the island before heading back to town.

All around Newport you can find beautiful, white-sand beaches to go swimming and take in the sun. Although we are focusing on staying within walking distance of downtown, we understand others will prefer driving. If that’s the case, from April to the end of November, there are parking fees that range from $20-$35 depending on which beach and what day of the week it is.

Now let’s dive into a few of those beaches:

At the north end of the Cliff Walk, you’ll find Easton Beach. In terms of convenience, this is definitely the closest beach to downtown, making it very accessible. Go spend a morning enjoying the waters of the Easton Bay.

At the sound end of the Cliff Walk and the beginning of Ocean Ave is Bailey Beach. Here you can spend some quality beach time while also being overlooked by incredible mansions.

Finally, a little further down Ocean Ave will be Gooseberry Beach. To be honest, the experience here will be pretty similar to the other two so picking one to go to would be enough.

For such a small city, Newport has quite a number of museums to explore besides the ones related to the mansions. Here are some of the options:

Whether you’re into sailing or just want to learn more about the history of the sport, you can stop by the Sailing Museum and Hall of Fame. See where the sport started compared to where it is today while also honoring the inducted sailing greats. It’s also located on Thames Street so it’s in a very convenient spot.

Another hall of fame, this time for tennis. As someone who will only really watch tennis when a major tournament is on, I had no idea Newport was so important for the sport. Similar to the Sailing Hall of Fame, you’ll have the chance to learn about tennis history and the greatest players to ever step on the court.

We’re not big art museum people but feel like this one should be mentioned since a lot of people do enjoy art museums. Located on Bellevue Ave, it’s pretty easy to find for any art lover.

At the southern end of Thames Street, you can learn all about the impact Irish immigration has had on Newport.

We absolutely loved our time in Newport and can’t wait to go back. It can get a little pricy to stay during the summer months but it’s completely worth it. There’s so much to do in such a small city and we didn’t even include places a little further outside of town. If you’re looking for a weekend getaway or an addition to a longer New England road trip, you definitely can’t go wrong with a stop in Newport.