Boutique hotels
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Vanderbilt Grace
- Style
- Blue-blooded beauty
- Setting
- Rhode Island harbourside
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Forty 1° North
- Style
- Clapboard cosmopolitan
- Setting
- Modish marina
Newport Overview
Rhode Island
- Cityscape
- Nautical New England playground
- City life
- Gatsby glitz
A coastal city standout along the shores of Rhode Island, Newport has art-house cred, haute heritage and cable-knitted cool.
Once the summer getaway of choice for the well-heeled families of the 19th-century Northeast, Newport today lures historians, cool-hunting collectors and sailors to its shores. Each of the history-rich mansions along Bellevue Avenue offers a glimpse into the glamorous – and sporadically scandalous – lives of the Gilded Age elite. Mark Twain dreamed up the description of Newport's luxe-loving denizens in his satirical indictment of blue blooded society. A cool combination of culture, lore and architecture, Newport's seaside charm has inspired powerful politicos – John F and Jackie Kennedy married here – artists and novelists such as Edith Wharton. Even though it's the smallest state of the union, Rhode Island manages to pack in 400 miles of sparkling sandy shoreline. Explore craggy coves, sail the seas and soak up the bewitching natural beauty of this New England charmer.
Naturally Newport
Rhode Island is the birthplace of the Johnny Cake, a type of cornmeal pancake made with boiling water and salt, then griddled. Mystery surrounds how these cakes got their name. Do some taste-testing at Commons Lunch (+1 401 635 4388) in Little Compton, 40 minutes outside the city.
Local Knowledge
- Taxis
- Traffic grinds to a halt during the peak season summer months, so catching a cab on the fly is unlikely. Unless you are leaving Newport you can easily get around on foot, or by bike. Call Cozy Cab (+1 401 846 2500; www.cozytrans.com) for longer-range local trips, and shuttles to the airport.
- Tipping culture
- The standard is 15 and 25 per cent – double the tax if you’re looking for a number-crunching short cut.
- Siesta and fiesta
- Shops and banks hours vary depending on time of year, and day of the week. Make sure that you book ahead with most restaurants during peak season. The influx of summer visitors coupled with local demand makes it a stretch for restaurants to accommodate everyone. The bars are always busy in the summer – only luck and perseverance will enable you to get a table unless you’re first in line.
- Packing tips
- Nautical stripes for boating trips, waistcoats for men who want to channel Jay Gatsby, and a guitar or brass instrument to break out during jazz and folk festival season.
- Recommended reads
- The silver-screen adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby – starring Robert Red Redford and Mia Farrow – was filmed here; Edith Wharton penned her commentary on Newport's high society in the The Age of Innocence; Mark Twain's The Guilded Age: A Tale of Today.
- Regional specialities
- Coffee milk is the official state drink – this sweet mixture of coffee-infused syrup and milk has been sipped since before the Great Depression. The seafood is predictably delicious – the local fishermen specialise in catching cod and lobster.
- Currency
- US$
- Time zone
- Eastern Standard Time: GMT -5.
- Dialling codes
- US country code: +1; area code for Newport: 401
- Do go/don't go
- From Memorial Day, May 30 to October, the town is abuzz with tourists. Shoulder season months – September, November and April – offer the same mansion-meandering, sloping seaside experience with smaller crowds and cooler temperatures.
Don't go home without...
Catching some jazz. Even if you miss the Newport Jazz Festival in late summer, you can head to Newport Blues Café (+1 401 841 5510; www.newportblues.com), a popular slap-up joint on Thames Street with a live-music line-up each evening from 9.30pm.
