NEW ENGLAND BLOG July 7th, 2021 - NEWPORT

07/07/21- Was able to sleep in and not have to get an early start for a change, which boded well because *foreshadow alert* we walked a ton.

Our meal we ordered last night came with pancakes, which we reheated this morning, and then we walked twenty minutes to get to the first mansion of The Breakers.  This place was the home of the famous Vanderbuilts and was huge.  Much more people here than yesterday, but luckily it wasn’t overly crowded.

There were secret rooms, large murals on the ceiling and information on the family as we went through.  I was very impressed with the detail that went into this place and would definitely recommend for anyone traveling through Newport.

After going back to our place for a bit, as the weather was baking us today (good thing we put on sun block), we walk another twenty minutes to the second mansion, The Marble House.  Also a Vanderbuilt home, this was another extravagant residence that had numerous rooms, a grand staircase, lavish kitchen and a Japanese Tea Garden inspired building in the back.  Thankfully we brought our snacks with us as we were absolutely famished at this point.

All of the walking around was actually fun as we got to see numerous houses and smaller mansions with enormous plots of land and grand gates for entryways.  I couldn’t imagine living in this area by any means, much less having the funds to pay for it.

With the mansion tours done, we venture out to the Cliff Walk about 11 minutes away.  This is a 3.5 mile stretch outlining the bay with both paved and rocky areas.  The entire journey from one end to the other could take several hours to complete and pretty much for the most adventurous people, so we chose to do only a mile of it and that’s all we needed.

The views were awesome as the waves crashed into the base of the rocks.  We passed several mansions along the path as the sun was coming down and the cool breeze kicked in.  By the time we were done it was already past 7pm and we were ready to hit our room.  During the walk, we ordered food to be delivered and we got home about five minutes before it arrived.  Talk about perfect timing.

All in all, two days in Newport was plenty for us to explore.  There are more things to do like museums and cruises but the highlights were all we were looking for this time around.  It was a pleasant stay and our AirBnB host was very accommodating.

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