9 Best Sights in Newport County and East Bay, Rhode Island

See the "backyards" of Newport's famous oceanfront Gilded Age mansions while strolling along this 3½-mile public walkway. The designated National Recreation Trail stretches from Memorial Boulevard at the western end of Easton's Beach (also called First Beach) south to the eastern end of Bailey's Beach. Along the way you'll pass Salve Regina University's Ochre Court, the Breakers, Forty Steps at Narragansett Avenue, Rosecliff, and Marble House and its Chinese Tea House. Park on either Memorial Boulevard or Narragansett Avenue. The trail is relatively flat and easily walkable between Memorial Boulevard and the Angelsea mansion; beyond that point, it's a mix of unpaved trail and scrambles over rocky cliffs. Make sure you apply sunscreen, wear comfortable rubber-soled shoes, and bring your own water. 

Also called Ten-Mile Drive, this is a stunningly scenic route starting from the end of Thames Street and looping around the Newport shoreline by following Harrison Avenue and Ridge Road to Ocean Drive and Bellevue Ave., ending at Memorial Blvd. You'll pass by Fort Adams State Park; Hammersmith Farm, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis' family home and the site of her wedding reception when she married John F. Kennedy in 1953; the 89-acre Brenton Point State Park, famous for kite-flying; the picturesque Castle Hill Inn and lighthouse; and several small beaches, including the public Kings Beach.

Water conditions range from tranquil to harrowing at this park straddling the southern tip of Conanicut Island. In rough weather, waves crash dramatically (and dangerously) on the rocky point. On a clear, calm day, however, the park's craggy shoreline invites sunning, hiking, and climbing. There are portable restrooms open daily, year-round. On about a dozen dates (July–October), the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum Association (beavertaillight.org) opens the Beavertail Lighthouse, the nation's third-oldest lighthouse (established 1749), letting you climb the 1856 tower's 49 steps (and then a 7-foot ladder) to enjoy the magnificent panorama from the observation catwalk. A museum occupies the lighthouse keeper's former quarters; the lighthouse's last "beehive" Fresnel lens is on display. The old fog signal building has a saltwater aquarium with local species of fish. Both are open seasonally.

Among those buried in this graveyard, which dates back to 1665, are several governors, a Declaration of Independence signatory, famous lighthouse keeper Ida Lewis, and Desire Tripp, whose unusual February 1786 gravestone commemorates the amputation of her arm. Many tombstones were made in the stone-carving shop of John Stevens, which opened in 1705 and still operates today. The historic African American section of the cemetery, which contains the graves of slaves and freedmen alike, is known as "God's Little Acre." The Newport Historical Society sometimes offers walking tours.

The largest coastal fortress in the United States can be found at this park, which hosts Newport's annual folk and jazz festivals and sailing events like the Ocean Race. The nonprofit Ft. Adams Trust offers a varied schedule of guided tours of the fort, where soldiers lived from 1841 to 1950. Tours take in the fort's overlooks and underground tunnels, as well as its impressive walls. The views of Newport Harbor and Narragansett Bay are exquisite. The park also includes a 2.5-mile walking path, the Sail Newport marina, where boating lessons and rentals are available, and Eisenhower House, the summer White House of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

This English-designed smock windmill built in 1787 ground corn for more than 100 years. One of the most photographed sights on the island, the structure, named for its resemblance to farmers' smocks of yore, still works. In summer and early fall, you can enter the three-story, octagonal structure and see the 18th-century technology. The windmill turns on Windmill Day in late July, when the sails are attached to catch the breeze on Windmill Hill. 

This archetypal coastal New England town square is actually Rhode Island's only proper town common. More of a long triangle than a square, the common is anchored by the Georgian-style United Congregational Church. Among the headstones in the nearby cemetery, you'll find one for Elizabeth Pabodie, the eldest daughter of Mayflower Pilgrims John and Priscilla Alden and likely the first European girl born in New England. Surrounding the green are a rock wall and all the elements of a small community: town hall, community center, schools, library, general store, and restaurant.

Weetamoo Woods takes its name from a formidable female sachem of the Pocasset Wampanoag tribe. There are more than 10 miles of walking trails within this 650-acre town-owned parcel and the adjacent 230-acre Pardon Gray Preserve, which encompass a coastal oak-holly forest, an Atlantic white cedar swamp, two grassland meadows, early-American cellar holes, and the remains of a mid-19th-century village sawmill. The main entrance to Weetamoo Woods, ¼-mile east of Tiverton Four Corners, has a parking area and a kiosk with maps.

This 85-acre hollow with picnic tables and a waterfall is a good place for a casual hike along a marked 1.6-mile loop trail that passes through a rare maritime oak-holly forest and winds along and over Dundery Brook. The trail passes a boulder dedicated to Queen Awashonks, who ruled the local Sakonnet tribe during the early Colonial period.