Anchored in Newport: Our Rhode Island Harbor Getaway
We spent a long weekend in May 2026 in Newport, Rhode Island, checked into the Newport Marriott right on the harbor, close enough to watch the sailboats swing at their moorings from our window. Newport has a rhythm to it: salt air in the morning, history at lunch, and a sunset that turns the whole harbor gold. We tried to keep to that rhythm for three days, and it did not disappoint.
Our first morning started the way every good harbor town morning should: with coffee in hand and no real plan. We found it at a small coffee shop tucked at the end of the wharf, where the espresso machine hums a few feet from the water and the patio looks straight out over the boats in the harbor. It's a small, unfussy place — hand-lettered menu boards, mismatched mugs, and a staff that greets regulars and first-timers with the exact same warmth. We sat outside with our coffees and just watched Newport wake up, which might be the most quintessential thing you can do here.
From there we wandered the wharves the way you're supposed to — no agenda, just open doors. Bowen's Wharf and Bannister's Wharf are lined with little galleries and shops built into eighteenth-century wharf buildings, and one stopped us in our tracks: a small upstairs gallery run by a woman who has spent more than three decades collecting rare antique maps and prints from nearly every corner of the world. The shop is stacked floor to ceiling with them — engravings and hand-colored lithographs of coastlines, cities, birds, and botanicals, some over a century old. If you have a small room at home that needs a little character, this is where you find it: an old map of a place you've never been is somehow exactly the right size and exactly the right story for a blank wall.
By early afternoon we'd worked up an appetite, and there was really only one place that made sense: lunch at the International Tennis Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame sits inside the old Newport Casino, a shingle-style clubhouse built in 1880 for James Gordon Bennett Jr. and designed by Charles McKim, with interiors by Stanford White — the very club that hosted the first U.S. National Championships, now the US Open, back in 1881. We ate at the restaurant on the property and asked to sit on the back terrace overlooking the grass courts. Watching a match warm up on the same lawns where tennis history was made, over a lobster roll and an Aperol spritz, is one of those small, perfect Newport moments.
That afternoon we booked a tour with Bruce at Newport Jaguar Tours, and it turned out to be a highlight of the trip. Bruce picked us up in a beautifully kept classic Jaguar and spent the next few hours narrating Newport like he's lived every decade of it — the Gilded Age fortunes behind the mansions along Bellevue Avenue, the Kennedy family's ties to the town, the sailing and naval history baked into every street. We wound past the mansions with the top down, then out to a couple of local wineries for a tasting. Full disclosure: the wine wasn't the main event. The views from those hillside vineyards, looking back toward the water, absolutely were.
We closed out the day with dinner at Clarke Cooke House, one of the oldest and most storied restaurants in Newport, tucked into a cluster of eighteenth-century buildings on Bannister's Wharf. We sat downstairs in the bar room, which has this great low, sun-washed light even in the evening, and ordered our way through a dozen oysters, a bowl of mussels, and a couple of very good martinis. Clarke Cooke House has been a Newport fixture for decades, and you can feel it — it's the kind of place that's outlasted every trend by simply being excellent, unpretentious, and exactly itself.
The next morning was for the Cliff Walk, and it earns every bit of its reputation. It's a 3.5-mile public path that runs along the edge of the bluffs, with the Gilded Age mansions on one side and the open Atlantic crashing on the other. What surprised us was the surfing — there's an actual break, Ruggles Avenue, right along the route, and watching surfers paddle out beneath the lawns of the mansions is a strange and wonderful contrast that sums up Newport pretty well: old money and salt life, side by side.
We ended the walk at The Chanler at Cliff Walk, a Gilded Age mansion turned hotel sitting right where the Cliff Walk begins, and stayed for lunch. It's a genuinely magnificent property — you can sit down for breakfast, lunch, or dinner — and we settled in for a long, unhurried lunch with ocean views stretching out past the terrace. The food was outstanding from start to finish and the service was some of the most attentive we've had anywhere. It's a proper fine-dining experience, and if you're in Newport, it's worth the reservation.
No Newport evening topped sunset cocktails on the lawn at Castle Hill Inn. The property sits on its own point where Narragansett Bay opens into the ocean, and on clear evenings they set Adirondack chairs across the sweeping lawn in front of the 1875 mansion for exactly this purpose. We ordered a round of drinks from the outdoor bar and just sat there as the historic Castle Hill Lighthouse caught the last light and the sky went through every shade of orange and pink. It's unhurried, unpretentious, and about as good a sunset as you'll find anywhere in Rhode Island.
Newport has plenty more than we could fit into a long weekend. Ocean Drive is a gorgeous scenic loop past even more mansions and rocky coastline, Fort Adams State Park has sweeping harbor views and a summer concert series, and touring The Breakers or Marble House gives you the full, over-the-top scale of the Gilded Age that the Cliff Walk only hints at. A sunset sail out of the harbor is an easy add if you have another evening to spare.
Three days wasn't enough, but it was enough to fall for Newport's particular mix of old money, working harbor, and salty coastline — and enough to already be talking about when we'll go back.
Cliff Notes
A practical, at-a-glance guide to the places, pours, meals, and views from the trip.
Newport Marriott Hotel & Spa
Right on the harbor at 25 America's Cup Ave: https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/pvdlw-newport-marriott-hotel-and-spa/overview/
Ask for a water-view room to watch the boats from bed.
Springline Coffee
Coffee at the end of Bannister's Wharf: https://springlinecoffee.com/
Order: a latte, and take it out to the patio overlooking Bowen's Wharf.
Anne Hall Antique Prints Gallery
Antique world maps and prints at 10 Bowen's Wharf: https://annehallantiqueprints.com/
Look for a small map or print — perfect character for a small room at home.
La Forge Casino Restaurant (International Tennis Hall of Fame)
Lunch on the terrace overlooking the grass courts: https://laforgenewport.com/
Order: the lobster roll and an Aperol spritz.
Newport Jaguar Tours
Book a private classic-car tour with Bruce: https://newportjaguartours.com/
Ask for the mansions-and-wineries route — go for the views, not the wine.
Clarke Cooke House
Dinner in the downstairs bar room on Bannister's Wharf: https://www.clarkecooke.com/
Order: oysters, mussels, and a classic martini.
Cliff Walk
Walk the full 3.5-mile path along the mansions and the Atlantic: https://cliffwalk.com/
Watch for surfers at the Ruggles Avenue break partway along.
The Chanler at Cliff Walk
Breakfast, lunch, or dinner at the mansion hotel where the Cliff Walk begins: https://www.thechanler.com/dining
Reserve ahead — it's a fine-dining experience and tables go quickly.
Castle Hill Inn
Sunset cocktails on the lawn overlooking Narragansett Bay: https://www.castlehillinn.com/
Arrive at least 30 minutes before sunset to grab a spot on the lawn.
Planning note — Book Bruce's Jaguar tour and dinner reservations (especially Clarke Cooke House and The Chanler) a few days ahead in peak season, and check the Hall of Fame's match schedule before you go in case there's tennis on the grass courts during your visit.
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