Newport, Rhode Island
March is a special month for my boyfriend and I because it is our anniversary month. Every year for our anniversary we plan a cute little weekend getaway to celebrate. This year was our four year anniversary, and we decided to head to beautiful Newport Rhode Island and spend it there. We both have never visited Newport or Rhode Island in general, so this was an exciting little trip for us. I heard positive things about Newport from my best friend (who visits there often) and was excited to get there and explore for myself. Of course as always, we had to find a super cute Airbnb to stay in, and with all of the old historic homes in Newport that wasn’t that difficult to come by. We stayed in a beautiful historic home called the Pine Lodge. It was mint green and absolutely gorgeous inside and out. Our host informed us that "the unsinkable Molly Brown" who was a passenger on the Titanic stayed at the Pine Lodge, which I thought was very cool. Also, right across the street was the house where Clement C. Moore wrote the famous “The Night Before Christmas: A Visit from St. Nicholas” in 1823. So, even after only just arriving we were already surrounded by history and were loving Newport right off the bat. The town had the most charming vibe and we immediately fell in love. There are tons of sweet little shops and unique cafes to eat at. One of the nights we ate at a place called the Fastnet Pub, where they had live Irish music and delicious pub food. This was the perfect place to sit and relax after walking around all day and have a Guinness (or five.) Every single street is lined with historic homes, each one cuter and more unique than the last. We couldn’t get two feet before I was stopping to take a photo of one. Honestly, I can say that fell in love with each and every single house in Newport. The place is just chock-full of old world charm and I would move right into any one of those homes in a heartbeat!
As always, we did a little research on the area before our visit and knew that the Newport mansions were a must see. For those of you who aren’t familiar with them, there are several extravagant mansions in Newport Rhode Island that were owned by certain wealthy people and families such as the Vanderbilt's, Nevada silver heiress Theresa Fair Oelrichs and Philadelphia coal magnate Edward Berwind to name a few. We decided to get the tickets online ahead of time which I think worked out well. It wasn’t exactly packed (I don’t think March is peak season) but I would say that it was busier than we expected. So having our tickets in hand made it super easy for us. We just got them scanned at the door and walked right in. I'd definitely recommend getting them before hand, especially if you are planning on visiting in the summer to avoid waiting online to buy tickets for each mansion. A cool thing about the tickets is they do not expire, so if you want to split your tours over the course of a few days, you can. This worked out for us and we ended up seeing two mansions our first day and the last three our second day.
There are a few different tours you can choose from but we went with the five mansion tour tickets, which gives you a list of mansions and you pick five to tour from that list. We decided to tour, The Breakers, Marble House, The Elms, Rosecliff and my favorite Chateau-sur-Mer. This was so exciting for us because we love to visit and tour mansions back on Long Island and had heard AMAZING things about the Newport ones. Let me just say, these incredible homes (or castles to be honest) did not disappoint. They were actually so gorgeous/intricate/detailed that it was a little overwhelming. Each home had its own feel to it and every one seemed to be grander and more extravagant than the last. Each mansion had an audio tour guide that you could listen to and follow along with as you walked through each room (except for Chateau-sur-Mer, that one was an actual human tour guide which I personally liked better). These mansions are so over the top and lavish that you really do not know where to look first, it was quite a visual experience. The thought of living in any of these homes is overwhelming, and to think that these people spent their day to day lives in them is a bit surreal to me. There is way too much detail for each mansion to go through individually, but I shared a ton of photos from each of them below (seriously go look, they’re gorgeous) If you haven’t visited yet, I would certainly recommend going. Especially if you have an appreciation for art, architecture, interior design and history. You will be completely enamored!
Another one of the places that I made sure we definitely stopped at was the Castle Hill Lighthouse. Being a lighthouse lover, I always make sure we go visit any local lighthouse in an area we are staying. The tricky part about this particular lighthouse is well…finding it. It is a little hard to locate when you first arrive. When we first got there, we pulled up and the GPS said “you have arrived” but we looked around and realized we were in the parking lot of a restaurant. So! After scratching our heads for a bit we decided to do a little investigating and discovered that if you walk down and out of the parking lot, along the sidewalk there is a fairly short path off to the right through the woods that leads you directly out to the lighthouse. Phew! I have to admit, I got a little upset at first because I thought we weren’t going to be able to find it. I’m super happy that we did, because we arrived just in time for the sunset so the view was gorgeous. Also, it was one of the cutest little lighthouses I’ve seen thus far, and I have seen my fair share of lighthouses. The only negative thing I must point out about this little venture is that I did have a tick on me after walking back through the trail..mind you this was in March. So, if you decide to visit this lighthouse, definitely check yourself for ticks after walking the trial, especially if you’re going in the summer. You just might have a little buddy clinging to you…eek! BUT...All in all, we had a lovely weekend in Newport celebrating our anniversary, despite it being a little chillier than we would of liked, having some snow flurries and a pesky tick or two. Definitely looking forward to visiting again and exploring more, but preferably when its warmer. Until next time Newport!
