Newport County Travel Guide

Perched gloriously on the southern tip of Aquidneck Island and bounded on three sides by water, Newport is one of the great sailing cities of the world and the host to world-class jazz, blues, folk, classical music, and film festivals. Colonial houses and gilded-age mansions grace the city. Besides Newport itself, Newport County also encompasses the two other communities of Aquidneck Island—Middletown and Portsmouth—plus Conanicut Island, also known as Jamestown, to the west, and Tiverton and Little Compton, abutting Massachusetts to the east. Little Compton is a remote, idyllic town that presents a strong contrast to Newport's quick pace. Narrow and scenic Mount Hope Bridge carries traffic north from Aquidneck Island to Bristol, the most charming of the three towns that make up the East Bay region, which is encompassed entirely within Bristol County, one of the nation's smallest geographically.