What do you think of when you hear Newport, RI – Sailing? Ocean views? Gilded-aged summer cottages? Tennis? Shopping? Festivals? Newport is all of that and more. We spent a day visiting this beautiful town surrounded by the sea. We started in the historic downtown areas. This is no place for a RV. The roads are way too narrow. Most are one way. Leave your RV parked and bring your car. There are no campgrounds in Newport. There is a campground in Jamestown and more further out on the mainland. We are staying in Mystic, CT. It was a 50 minute drive to Newport from our campsite.

There is such much to do. We just hit the highlights. After finding the Newport Visitor Center on Thames Street we verified our plan of attack for the day. We choose to visit The Breakers first. This is the largest of the summer cottages on Newport. It was built by the Vanderbilt’s for their summer home. When it became to expensive to maintain, it was decided that families would show their homes to help keep these beauties maintained. Tours are now self guided with a headset. Last time I was here was in the 1970s where there tours with person guides. It is still as beautiful as I remember.

We walked along the Cliff Walk to see some of the other beautiful home and gorgeous ocean scenes. We saw small crabs and other small ocean life in tide pools. We took in the views from the scenic Ocean Drive. We went to Fort Adams, an earthworks fort, but we did not do the tour. The tours are every hour on the hour. You cannot enter the fort without a tour guide. We got there at 3:10 pm. We did not want to wait until 4 pm so all our photos are from outside the fort. We also got to see the end of a sailing competition for children. We saw children as young as 10 sailing for competition. We ended the day over in the shopping district where we eat dinner before heading home. It was a wonderfully full day. Have you been to Newport? What are your favorite places to visit?