36 Hours
36 Hours in Newport, R.I.
Newport, R.I.
On the surface, Newport is what it appears to be: the glamorous “Sailing Capital of the World” with a new sailing museum to show for it. On the Narragansett Bay side, the harbor brims with America’s Cup boats and celebrity yachts. On the Atlantic side, a rugged coastline with legendary surf and Gilded Age mansions. In between, picturesque streets are lined with boutiques, bars with tipsy brides-to-be, and one of the largest collections of colonial-era buildings in the United States. Recently, locals have been reframing Newport’s well-worn nautical narrative with additions like new art galleries and an L.G.B.T.Q. pride center, and by unveiling, if gradually, the town’s leading role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Lesser-known stories about Newport can be found off-the-beaten path, but with the city’s compact grid, free trolley system, and bike-friendly hotels, car-free wanderers are sure to capture the essence of both worlds.
Recommendations
Key stops
- Bowen’s Wharf and Bannister’s Wharf, with an idyllic backdrop of boats, seafood restaurants, local shops and colonial-era buildings, offer a traveler’s initiation into Newport.
- The new Sailing Museum will enthrall skippers and landlubbers alike.
- The Museum of Newport History provides context of the city’s long and complex past.
- Ocean Avenue is a scenic stretch perfect for mellow pedaling along Narragansett Bay and the Atlantic coast, with hidden beaches and (not-quite-so-hidden) mansions around every turn.
Restaurants and bars
- Thames Street Kitchen is a homey omnivorous nook for a shareable supper.
- Humming Bird is a Jamaican gem and the only Black-owned restaurant in Newport.
- At Clarke Cooke House, a Newport dining institution, come for the oyster bar (and iconic chocolate roulade “snowball” dessert), stay for the people watching.
- Upscales, above Scales & Shells, one of the first restaurants on Lower Thames Street, is a relaxing new culinary retreat for Italophiles.
- Beaucoup is the new darling in Newport’s cafe scene, with baked goods, worldly curios and great coffee from the Providence-based roaster New Harvest.
- Castle Hill Inn sits on a 40-acre peninsula, a dreamy setting for lunch at the Lawn restaurant.
- The White Horse Tavern is believed to be the country’s oldest operating restaurant — raise an old-fashioned to its 350th anniversary this year.
- Dueling Pianos offers nostalgic tunes, generous pours and harbor views in downtown Newport.
Attractions, historical sites and outdoor activities
- Bailey’s Beach is a hidden oceanside spot with powdery white sand and bike racks (but no car parking).
- Fort Adams State Park has bay views and guided walking tours, and hosts music festivals like Newport Folk and Newport Jazz in the summer.
- Marble House, once suffragette stomping grounds, gives a spectacular glimpse into Gilded Age high society.
- Newport Art Museum was founded in 1912 and celebrates diverse voices inside a National Historic Landmark building.
- Newport Pride Center is an inclusive gathering space, with monthly cultural events for the L.G.B.T.Q. community and allies.
- God’s Little Acre is the largest intact colonial-era African burial ground in the United States.
Where to stay
- Forty 1° North offers harbor view rooms, a waterfront bar and restaurant, complimentary bicycles, and a central location off Thames Street. Weekend doubles start from around $550.
- The Beech Tree Inn and Cottage has clean, comfortable rooms (some with gas fireplaces, private balconies and Jacuzzis) in an 1880s Victorian B&B, where free on-site parking, a private garden and lavish à la carte breakfast make the offbeat location near Broadway worth it. Weekend doubles from around $350.
- Bannister's Wharf Marina & Guest Rooms, with a smack-dab-on-the-waterfront location, charms with elegant digs. Weekend doubles from $375.
- For short-term rentals, you may find more affordable options just outside Newport, in the nearby towns of Middletown, Jamestown or Portsmouth.
Getting around
- While Newport is a walking town, maximize the fun by exploring on two wheels. Many hotels offer bikes, but you can also rent a hybrid ($30 for four hours) or e-bike ($55 for four hours) at Ten Speed Spokes. Newport’s free “Hop-on Hop-off” trolley is a beloved summertime mode of transit and stops near the most popular attractions, from mansions to beaches and beyond. Parking can be a pain, but there are downtown lots for $3 an hour.
Itinerary
Friday
3:15 p.m.
Sail like a champ
Next to Bowen’s Wharf, board a 12-metre America’s Cup boat for a two-hour, family-friendly sail ($90) up Narragansett Bay. The America’s Cup Charters fleet includes the legendary US 22 Intrepid, known for winning the sport’s most famous race in 1967 and 1970. Cruising through the harbor, you may spy a white egret coasting off the bow and catch a fishy whiff in the warm breeze. Guests can pitch in, taking the wheel or trimming the sails, or simply relax with a can of sparkling water. The knowledgeable crew sprinkles in tales about points of interest such as the 1870 Rose Island Lighthouse (where you can spend the night) and a red-roofed Victorian mansion where Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy grew up and later had her wedding reception with President John F. Kennedy in 1953.
5:30 p.m.
Walk the wharf
Back on land, Bowen’s Wharf and Bannister’s Wharf mark the unofficial starting line for exploring Newport. Along the historic brick and granite quay, you’ll find moored schooners, seafood restaurants and 18th-century buildings. Grab a stool at the oyster bar at Clarke Cooke House, built by a sea captain in 1780, and pair a glass of Sancerre with freshly shucked oysters ($3.50 each) from Nova Scotia, Maine and Rhode Island. Make time to locate the first Rhode Island Slave History Medallion on the Chandlery building behind the Bowen’s Wharf anchor, installed in 2020. Scan the QR code to read about the port’s history as a major hub in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
6:30 p.m.
Enjoy a local feast
In a sea of tourist-driven, fast-casual restaurants, Thames Street Kitchen is an ever-classy, farm-to-table buoy. The chefs Tyler Burnley and Chad Hoffer take full advantage of the small-scale agriculture on Aquidneck Island (home to the towns of Portsmouth, Middletown and Newport), where farmers are known to deliver produce off the back of a moped. Reserve a seat in advance at the bar to watch supper come to fruition in the open kitchen. Order warm salted bread with cacio e pepe butter ($4) to soak up the yolky sauce of the raviolo with serrano ham and ricotta ($10). Early reservations also mean top pick of shareable cuts of rib eye and strip steak ($3 an ounce).
8 p.m.
Raise a glass to the past
New bars seem to open with each regatta season, such as the speakeasy-styled Bar 12 and tiki charmer Wharf Fish House. But who can compete with the O.G.? The White Horse Tavern, a National Historic Landmark that is believed to be the oldest tavern still operating in the United States, is toasting its 350th anniversary this year. It was a meeting place of the colony’s General Assembly and Criminal Court for nearly 100 years (and was also run for a time by a rich pirate). Under the big wood beams, patrons sip vanilla-infused, smoked old-fashioneds ($17), sharing stories about far-flung travels. Some are hoping history will be honored nearby, too: Across from the tavern, in Liberty Square, a Newport Middle Passage monument has been proposed to honor the Africans who perished on slave ships and the enslaved workers who helped build the city.
Grab a stool at Clarke Cooke House, built by a sea captain in 1780, and pair a glass of Sancerre with freshly shucked oysters.
Saturday
10 a.m.
Learn the ropes
The Sailing Museum, which opened last year in the historic Armory building, is a high-tech interactive voyage across an ever-evolving sport. You’ll design your own sailboat, learn its anatomy, and race alongside fellow museumgoers. Exhibits cover ocean conservation and barrier-breaking seafarers, like Bill Pinkney, the first African American to sail solo around the world, and Maureen McKinnon, the first woman to win gold in the Paralympic Sailing Olympics in 2008. Check out the America’s Cup Hall of Fame, which displays models of the winning boats, and use the touch screen to discover nationwide sailing organizations, be it a school, yacht club, or community sailing program.
11 a.m.
Explore on two wheels
The first national bike organization, the League of American Wheelmen, was born in Newport in 1880. The mostly flat Newport remains a bike-friendly town today, ideal for breezy cruising. Pick up a rental at Ten Speed Spokes, then pedal away from downtown and out along peaceful roads, past mansions and the Ida Lewis Yacht Club on Lime Rock, where the lighthouse keeper Ida Lewis rowed out to rescue more than 18 people between 1842 and 1911, including soldiers from a nearby military compound, now Fort Adams State Park. Fort Adams, which offers expansive bay views and guided walking tours ($20), marks its 200th anniversary in 2024 and is home to the public sailing center Sail Newport and annual summer concerts like the Newport Folk Festival and Newport Jazz Festival.
Castle Hill Inn
12 p.m.
Lunch on a legendary lawn
Pedaling two miles past Fort Adams along Newport’s bucolic southwestern edge, turn right at the sign for the Castle Hill Inn, built in 1875 as a summer home for the pioneering deep-sea oceanographer Alexander Agassiz. While locals prize the hotel’s grassy knoll for sundowners, a midday reservation on the patio at the Lawn restaurant brings plenty of close-up boat watching. Enjoy Point Judith calamari ($19) and a large gratin pan of rigatoni al forno ($32) with eggplant confit, tomatoes, olives and goat cheese. If it rains, the floor-to-ceiling windows in the dining room beautifully frame Narragansett Bay. On a sunny day, recline post-feast in white Adirondack chairs as boats tack across the water. Afterward, follow the hotel’s short private trail that leads to the Castle Hill Lighthouse, tucked into a cliff and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Castle Hill Inn
1 p.m.
Ride into the Gilded Age
Pedal south on Ocean Avenue, along breathtaking bluffs and past Brenton Point State Park, popular with kite flyers, until you reach the secluded Bailey’s Beach. There’s powdery white sand, few, if any, people, and no place to park a car. From there, a four-minute spin north on Bellevue Avenue will bring you to the Beaux-Art style Marble House (entry, $25), which cost $11 million to build between 1888 and 1892 ($7 million spent on marble). It was William Vanderbilt's 39th birthday present to his wife Alva, who would make this home an unofficial command post of Rhode Island’s suffrage movement. The free self-guided audio tour offers informative nuggets about rooms like the Versailles-inspired grand salon. Suffragettes drank tea from “Votes for Women” chinaware in the Chinese Tea House, which, today, serves a $35 prix-fixe afternoon tea on weekends.
Newport Art Museum
3:30 p.m.
Admire statement pieces
Ride north a couple of miles (or hop on the bike-friendly #67 trolley) along Bellevue Avenue, until you arrive at the Newport Art Museum, an oft-overlooked wonder founded in 1912. In a current exhibition, “Shaman Ladders and Other Stories” (through Nov. 5), the Cuban-born Rhode Islander Ana Flores’ deep-seated tree chairs invite viewers to find answers in nature. Newport is as much for art lovers as for thalassophiles: Newcomers like CUSP Gallery and the Matriarch store are keeping the community’s creative soul afloat, as well as the longtime art co-op Spring Bull Gallery and the local artist Chris Wyllie. Also make time to see the “Pride: In Retrospect” exhibition, showcasing 50 years of queer history, at the Newport Pride Center, a new inclusive space and resource for the L.G.B.T.Q. community.
Newport Art Museum
6 p.m.
Level up at a celebrated ristorante
Bypass the crowd outside Scales & Shells, the Italian seafood institution since 1987: Instead, a door on the corner of Thames and Goodwin Streets leads you to its new sister restaurant upstairs, Upscales. Neither restaurant takes reservations, but an early arrival at Upscales, which is the more laid-back of the two, should grant you the coveted balcony table overlooking Thames, where a hungry horde may still be huffing by the time you’ve finished the Lavender Bees Knees cocktail ($14) and started on the lobster ravioli ($29).
Midtown Oyster Bar
7:30 p.m.
Hit the high notes
Move west on Thames past the booming Midtown Oyster Bar, the bachelorette parties and the glowing pedicabs rumbling along the cobblestones, until you reach a little-known historic site on Pelham Street, the first street in the United States to be illuminated with a gas-lit lamp in 1805. Above the lamppost is a sign for Dueling Pianos, a rollicking piano bar experience with roots in the ragtime era of the 1890s. On the building’s third floor, grab a drink with sparkling harbor views from the lounge area. At 8 p.m., two singing pianists will perform requested songs, be it Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets” or Mark Ronson’s cover of “Valerie.” (Standing-room tickets range from free to $20. Tables for five start at $100.)
Midtown Oyster Bar
Pedal a bike down Ocean Avenue, along breathtaking bluffs, to reach the secluded Bailey’s Beach. There’s powdery white sand, few, if any, people, and no place to park a car.
Sunday
9 a.m.
Rêve up for the day
Beaucoup, a new cafe and boutique on Thames Street with a bright-yellow striped awning and robin-egg-blue Fiat parked out front emits an irresistible joie de vivre, despite the neighboring gas station. Locals can guess that the person responsible for turning a dingy old liquor shop into a heavenly milieu is Cheryl Guibone, the owner of the nearby home goods store, Guibone Living. While you eat a warm spinach and feta feuilleté pastry and a cinnamon sugar scone (each $5.50), your eyes may travel across the tables topped with surf magazines and a Porsche photography book, over the gingham settee, and up to the giraffe sconces, colorful striped beach bags and handmade palm hats: a snapshot of Ms. Guibone’s adventures to places like Marrakech, Cartagena, Marbella and, of course, Paris.
10 a.m.
Travel back through time
At the Museum of Newport History (suggested donation, $5), above the Newport Historical Society's shop, dive into the city’s long, fascinating and complicated history. Learn how English settlers fled rigid Puritanism in Massachusetts and obtained settlement rights from the Narragansett tribe in 1638. You’ll learn religious freedoms were celebrated in the 18th century among the Quakers, Jews and Congregationalists, while nearly half of the families owned at least one enslaved person. Take in revolutionary war artifacts and Gilded Age gossip, and climb into a covered wagon that plays mini history lectures. God’s Little Acre, the country’s largest intact colonial-era African burial ground, is a 10-minute walk from the museum. Download the Action Tour Guide app for a self-guided audio tour of notable headstones, such as Duchess Quamino, the “Pastry Queen of Rhode Island.”
12 p.m.
Spice things up
On the way back downtown, get lost on Broadway, a refreshingly un-touristy slice of Newport with rainbow crosswalks, hipster coffee shops, craft cocktail bars, a record store and neighborhood haunts like Humming Bird. The delightful chef wife-husband team, Dezna Bowen and Abraham Parkes, have decorated the place with baskets, Jamaican hues and a Usain Bolt mural. Since 2018, the only Black-owned restaurant in the city has been feeding devoted denizens slow-braised oxtail and piquant jerk chicken dishes with perfectly crisp fries. While you sit in the window, savoring caramelized bites of fried plantains, a steady stream of clientele will come in to take golden beef patties for the road. Stay long enough, you may do the same.