Newport; Full of Surprises part 1

I recently took a trip up to Newport, Rhode Island.

For a number of years I would travel in and out of Providence, Rhode on business but never took time to visit Newport.

Providence is south of Boston and a few hours north of New York. This proximity to those major cities and the ocean helped create Newport.

On this trip, it was a non stop flight into Providence on Southwest (you can catch that non stop in Nashville or Orlando. At $475 my flight was pricey but I chose a good seat and wanted non-stop. I kept my cost down on the return flight by using points.

Upon arrival, we grabbed a rent a car from Hertz. While you can take the train in and out of the major cities in the northeast I believe exploration requires a car.

We grabbed a mid sized rental which cost us around $90 a day plus gas.

We landed early enough to take the highway down to Mystic, Connecticut. Why Mystic? Mystic is a small tourist town on the water. We wanted to set foot in Connecticut which was just a few miles away and enjoy the tourist vibe.

The town is quaint, it has a great tourist vibe. There is a drawbridge that connects the town and allows larger boats through the channel.

We spent the afternoon walking along the water and enjoying the shops. We stopped by an ice cream shop, the ice cream looked good but I stuck with coffee, For Dinner we grabbed a table at S & P Oyster company. We sat along the water and enjoyed a nice bottle of wine, fresh seafood and dessert. The tab including tip was around $200.

After dinner we head back to Rhode Island. For accomodations we chose a Hampton Inn just outside of Newport in South Kinigstown. . Here are the reasons we chose the Hampton Inn.

1-We had points, so we used a combination of points and dollars ($60 per night) to save our cash for more important things. Rooms inside Newport were very costly. So for three nights we spent less than we would have spent for one night in Newport.

2-Hampton Inn always provides a breakfast and coffee and their accomondations are consistent, esspecially the newer ones.

3-It was on the primary route to and from the airport and provided free parking.

Our goals for the Newport trip were simple but aggressive.

1-Tour the mansions from the Guilded age, It was late in the season but there were still a few open.

2-Walk the famouse cliff walk., The walk runs in front of the mansions along the cliffs to the sea.

3-A visit to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in NewPort.

4-Eat at America's oldest restaurant.

5-Have a few minutes for other surprises.

Lets start with the mansion. We would tour The Breakers, The ELMs, Marble House and Rosecliff.

The Mansions and their stories are incredible, They are from an incredible period in America's industrial revolution. Take a few hours to tour each. We chose to make the Breakers our second stop so that we could take advantage of the cafe, well worth it.

We purchsed the app with the audio tours for each of the mansion stops. Hear the stories of the industrialists who built these summer mansions and brought with them large staffs to manage the property and serve their guests.

Ticket prices vary from $25-$60 depending on what you want to see.

I've attached a link below and some photos from our visit.

https://www.newportmansions.org

Once finished with the mansions, we had a few side trips starting the the Cliff walk in our second installment.,