Rhode Island’s Newport Cliff Walk traces the perimeter of the southern edge of Newport town, high above the crashing surf of the Atlantic Ocean. The 3.5-mile (5.6-kilometer) public walkway fronts many of Newport’s famous Gilded Age mansions, such as Astor’s Beechwood, Rosecliff, Marble House, the Breakers, Ochre Coure, and Rough Point.
The breathtaking Rhode Island shoreline unfolds along Ocean Drive, a 10-mile (16-kilometer) scenic road along Newport’s southern coast. Points of interest include the New York Yacht Club, Fort Adams State Park, Hammersmith Farm (where President Kennedy had his wedding reception in 1953), Brenton Point State Park, and Gooseberry Beach.
Leafy Bellevue Avenue and its surrounding streets are home to some of the most exclusive properties in New England. The affluent area is mostly residential, and encompasses many of the Gilded Age summer “cottages” built by such iconic names as Vanderbilt and Astor. These include the Isaac Bell House, The Elms, Marble House, and Kingscote.
The birthplace of American tournament tennis, the International Tennis Hall of Fame showcases a collection of more than 20,000 artifacts, including vintage photos, trophies, tennis equipment, tennis clothing, and video highlights of famous matches. The facility has 13 grass tennis courts and one clay court, all open to the public for play.
Set against the picturesque backdrop of Newport Harbor and Narragansett Bay, Fort Adams State Park is a popular recreation area for swimming, sailing, fishing, and field games. The park also has a historic character thanks to sprawling Fort Adams, and is the home of major music festivals each summer.
The Breakers, the crown jewel of the Newport mansions and the summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, is an architectural and social mark of the Gilded Age, with 70 rooms, five stories, and a design modeled after 16th-century Italian Renaissance palaces. Inside, all the furnishings on view are original; outside, open-air terraces give way to breathtaking ocean views. If America had castles, this would surely be one of the greatest.
The 50-room Marble House, one of the first Beaux-Arts structures in the US, was built between 1888 and 1892 as the Gilded Age summer cottage for William and Alva Vanderbilt. Inspired by the Petit Trianon in Versailles, the $11 million mansion made mostly of marble became a National Historic Landmark in 2006.
Easton’s Beach (also called First Beach) is Newport’s largest sandy expanse, stretching for nearly a mile (1.5 kilometers) with Atlantic surf. Locals and visitors gather here to swim, soak up the sun, and stroll along a boardwalk, while a 1950s carousel and weekly concerts entertain during the summer months.
In 1658, more than a dozen Jewish families, mostly refugees from Spain and Portugal, founded a Sephardic community. A century later, British-Colonial architect and local resident Peter Harrison designed a two-story Palladian house of worship for this community, the Touro Synagogue. It continues to serve Newport’s Jewish community today.
The 13-acre (5-hectare) Ballard Park is an elegant Newport oasis ringed with dense forest and plenty of green spots for sun and shade. The park features walking paths, streams, wooded ravines, a vernal pond, and two 19th-century quarries. Parts of the park even offer views of the Atlantic Ocean.
Named for one of New England's most influential 19th-century residents, the Mary Baker Eddy Library is a library and museum housed a neoclassical building in Boston's beautiful Back Bay area. The top draw for visitors is typically Mapparium—a multi-story stained-glass globe depicting the world in 1935—which is featured on guided tours.
Located in Cambridge, just northwest of Boston, Harvard University is synonymous with educational prestige and accomplishment. Known for a curriculum that challenges and inspires its students, this Ivy League university boasts numerous Nobel Prize winners and eight US presidents, including Barack Obama, among its faculty and alums.
Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the well-respected Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university with a strong focus on technology, science, and engineering. Although it’s a 168-acre urban campus, you’ll see visually interesting buildings mixed with peaceful green spaces.
Centuries-old Burial Hill in Plymouth dates back to the 1620s, when it was part of the original village erected here by the Pilgrims. Visitors can stroll tree-lined pathways to admire some of the oldest gravestones in the United States, see resting places of statesmen and Mayflower passengers, and enjoy hilltop views of Plymouth Harbor.
Plimoth Patuxet Museums is a Smithsonian-affiliated living history museum complex that portrays the English settlers who arrived in the New World in the 1600s and the original inhabitants of the land, the Wampanoag people. You’ll meet historical reenactors in the reconstructed 17th-century English village and the Historic Patuxet Homesite, both with docents in period dress offering interactive talks and demonstrations to illustrate a chapter in American history.
A part of Boston's maritime story, the Rowes Wharf development updated an historic battery, which was renovated in the 1980s. The renewed expanse of downtown waterfront boasts hotels, shops, and eateries with Boston Harbor views. There's easy ferry access, and several sailboat tours start here; it's an ideal jumping-off point for a cruise.
Sandwiched between Boston Common and Chinatown, the Boston Theater District is known for its many historical theaters, as well as restaurants and nightspots catering to theatergoers. People have flocked to this area since the 19th century to enjoy everything from opera and dramas to dance, concerts, and comedy performances.
Known as the “birthplace of American liberty,” Lexington, Massachusetts, is where the first shot of the American Revolutionary War was fired on April 19, 1775. Nowadays, you can retrace history at sites around town, and enjoy a rich artistic, cultural, and culinary scene.
Built in 1713, Boston's Old State House is the city’s oldest public building and considered pivotal to prerevolutionary US history. Dwarfed by Boston’s skyscrapers and a fixture on its revolution-tracing Freedom Trail, the onetime government building is now a museum to the city’s revolutionary era and the events that kindled the American Revolution.
Dating from 1729, Boston’s Old South Meeting House was a congregational church and a gathering place for protestors who sparked the American Revolution with the 1773 Boston Tea Party. A key site on Boston’s Freedom Trail, the brick building is now a museum where visitors can chart the beginnings of the country’s 1776 revolution.
Old Sturbridge Village is an outdoor living-history museum in central Massachusetts that showcases rural New England life in the 1830s. With antique buildings, working farms, and exhibitions across rolling grounds, the village is brought to life by costumed interpreters and artisans, providing an immersive journey back in time.
Built in 1797 and named by George Washington, the three-masted USS Constitution frigate in Boston is the United States Navy's oldest commissioned ship and one of the world's oldest warships. Visitors can go aboard the ship, docked at Boston's Charlestown Navy Yard and restored to its original glory, to explore an important slice of US history.
Part theme park, part water park, and known for offering a top selection of roller coasters, Six Flags New England is a mostly seasonal attraction serving thrill seekers and families alike. This entertainment hub buzzes all summer. Steamy weather brings crowds from across the northeast hungry for water slides, tasty food, and summer fun.
Located in Franklin Park in south Boston, Franklin Park Zoo is one of the city’s top family-friendly attractions. Extending across 29 hectares (72 acres), the zoo houses a diverse array of animals that ranges from gorillas and bison to exotic birds and African lions.
In the heart of downtown Boston, Copley Square is a public park flanked by some of the city’s most notable buildings. Composed of lawns, a fountain, and the imposing 19th-century Trinity Church, it serves as the finishing point for the Boston Marathon and a relaxation, shopping, and dining hub for locals and visitors.
One of Boston’s leading art institutions, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum occupies an early 20th-century mansion that’s modeled on a medieval Venetian palazzo. The 7,500-strong collection—which belonged to the city’s leading fin de siècle arts patron Isabella Stewart Gardner—includes highlights such as Titian’s Europa and works by John Singer Sargent, Botticelli, and Rembrandt. Empty frames in the galleries serve as reminders of an infamous art theft, which has remained unsolved since 1990.
The farmers market is an age-old tradition that's thriving at Boston's bustling Haymarket. Vendors have been peddling farm-fresh products here since the 1830s, and, nearly 200 years later, it's still a shopping hub for Bostonians. Though not the typical tourist spot, this is a great place to chill with locals and embrace the culture.
The Samuel Adams Boston Brewery is where the popular company’s beers are invented. Visit the small-batch brewery and tap room to try a variety of ales, lagers, and seasonal brews and to learn about the company’s history and its brewing process.
Back Bay borders the south bank of Charles River, southwest of Downtown Boston. Balancing commercial streets with residential avenues, the area is characterized by handsome Victorian brownstones, modern high-rises, grand 19th-century public buildings, and high-end restaurants, shops, and bars.
The South End sits just south of Boston’s Back Bay area and is one of the city’s most culturally rich areas. Renowned for its redbrick houses, community parks, and tree-lined streets, it also offers a buzzing creative and culinary vibe, with open-air markets, independent shops, and cosmopolitan restaurants.
