minibus hire Newport

Newport offers a lot, from fabulous shopping to fun on the River Usk.

Explore Belle Vue Park and Wentwood Forest to get some fresh air in your lungs. You can see over the city from the top of the Newport Transporter Bridge and snap your finest selfie. Alternatively, visit the Newport Museum and Art Gallery for some culture.

Cornelius Vanderbilt and his wife spared no cost in creating what they meant to be the ultimate display of Newport Gilded Age houses. Architect Richard Morris Hunt created the 70-room "cottage" for the dominating cliff-top site to which the Vanderbilts and their servants (33 of the rooms were built to accommodate them) decamped from their New York home each summer.

The mansion's magnificence is so striking that it's easy to overlook the subtle elements of its decoration: the carved wood and stucco flourishes and the embellishments lavished on almost every possible surface. As fascinating as the mansion is, the kitchens and pantries, which may be toured, provide additional information on the luxury of their existence. The gardens and stables are also available for viewing.

Cliff Walk has some of the most incredible views of the Newport homes. This site served as the background for magnificent lawn and garden events throughout the Gilded Age. Marble House, The Breakers, Rosecliff, Beechwood, Rough Point, and numerous others share the favored site between Bellevue Avenue and the sea.

The shingle beach ranges from shingle beach to rugged cliffs, often so high that Cliff Walk needs to tunnel over them. The route may be accessed at the bottom of Forty Steps (at the end of Narragansett Avenue) or from Easton's Beach on Memorial Boulevard.

The Elms is sumptuous in a more controlled sense, with clean lines and a bright, airy vibe, albeit not nearly as extravagant as The Breakers. The foyer stairway is supported by marble columns and framed by a scrolled iron railing.

The Elms was built to house the collections of a Philadelphia coal tycoon and his wife, and it had every contemporary amenity of the day. The visits are especially intriguing since they provide fascinating peeks into the inner workings of the structure and the home. The exquisite gardens have been meticulously restored to their former glory.

Marble House, designed by Richard Morris Hunt soon before The Breakers, was completed in 1892. William K. Vanderbilt gave it to his wife Alva as a birthday present, and she retained it after divorcing him and relocating to a house across Bellevue Avenue.

The home is replete with sumptuous elements - ceiling murals, chandeliers, carved and gilded woodwork, and a grand staircase - but none more magnificent than the ballroom, inspired by Versailles' Hall of Mirrors and nearly totally encrusted in gold. Alva constructed a Chinese teahouse in 1913, which may be seen from Cliff Walk.

Rosecliff was designed by Stanford White, the "star architect," around the beginning of the twentieth century and was modeled on Louis XIV's Grand Trianon at Versailles. It belonged to one of Newport's most colorful personalities, Tessie Oelrichs.

Although Rosecliff was constructed for entertainment - Tessie was a famed Newport hostess - most visitors see it as the most livable of the estates. It includes Newport's most enormous ballroom, which has hosted some of the city's most opulent events, including one at which legendary magician Harry Houdini entertained the guests.

Rough Point is the most recent of the houses to open to the public and the most recently occupied. Doris Duke spent her summers here until her death in 1993 when she left it to the Newport Restoration Foundation, a foundation she formed to conserve cultural assets.

The home, her art and antiquities collections, and the gardens built by Frederick Law Olmstead reflect a distinct period and style in Newport's history and may be viewed now in much the same way as they were while Doris Duke resided there.

The Vernon Court Mansion on Bellevue Avenue in Newport's historic neighborhood houses the National Museum of American Illustration. This museum honors the "Golden Age" of American illustration, which lasted from the 1870s until the 1950s. During this period, illustrated books and newspapers such as the Saturday Evening Post included some of the most notable works of illustration art by artists such as Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish, Violet Oakley, Howard Pyle, and others.

The museum has the world's most incredible original Maxfield Parrish paintings and the second-largest Norman Rockwell collection. Artifacts such as paintbrushes, materials used by Rockwell and Parrish, and souvenirs are also on display. Exhibits at Vernon Court are complemented by period furniture and decorative art, including numerous famous pieces of sculpture, in line with the historical setting.