Cliff Walk in Newport, Rhode Island
A Walking Guide to 3.5 Miles of Spectacular Views and Opulent Houses
Newport, RI and the Gilded Age
Known as the “Queen of Resorts”, Newport, Rhode Island was a premier summer destination for wealthy, influential families looking to escape the city heat in the mid-19th century. Steamships provided daily service to and from New York City, with some equipped like floating hotels – perhaps the precursor to today’s cruise ships! The most elaborate ships contained plush carpeting, gilded chandeliers, gaslights, and elegant furnishings. Many of America’s richest families eventually built summer homes in Newport during the late 19th century in an attempt to secure a place in “the Four Hundred” – a list of New York Society members, led by Caroline Astor. High above the crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean in Newport, you can still find evidence of the opulence of America’s Gilded Age. The Cliff Walk is a 3.5-mile trail sandwiched between the ocean below and historical mansions showcasing ostentatious designs and décor.
The Cliff Walk, designated a National Recreation Trail in 1975, is thought to have originated as a trail preserved as a right-of-way for the Indians, for fishing and seaweed gathering after colonists took their land. It remains a public right-of-way to this day. If you want to walk the entire trail, plan to dedicate an entire day. With stops to take photos, tour one mansion, and just gawk at the scenery, we spent about six hours on our feet. As just a steady hike, it takes approximately 2.5 hours to traverse the entire trail.
How to Get There
There are a couple of options for hotels right on the Cliff Walk. If you stay at The Chanler at Cliff Walk or the Cliffside Inn, you can step right out of your hotel to begin your trek to explore the Cliff Walk. Both of these options are a bit pricey, though, so we stayed a bit further away and drove to the Cliff Walk one morning.
Easton’s Beach
Easton’s Beach, locally known as First Beach, sits near the beginning of the Cliff Walk and offers public parking. Between May 1 and October 31, the city charges a daily parking fee. You can check the hours and rates here. You pay at a machine near the steps to the beach, and display the ticket on your dashboard. Easton’s Beach also offers a snack bar and facilities.
After we left our hotel, we stopped off at Cru’s Cafe near the Newport Casino historical building and grabbed coffee and breakfast sandwiches to go. When we arrived at Easton’s Beach, we started our day with a picnic on the beach. The waves lapped gently at the shoreline here, unlike the crashing waves against the cliff nearby. It was peaceful and quiet; the noises of Memorial Boulevard behind you are blanketed by the sounds of the ocean. Easton’s Beach was known as the Common Beach during the Gilded Age. It was a popular bathing spot for middle and working class folks.
You can download the official Newport Cliff Walk Commission map here. It provides information about alternate access points to the trail if you do not want to walk the entire length. The map is also posted at the trailhead. The trail can be broken into five segments. We walked the entire length of the trail, starting at Easton’s Beach and ending at Bailey’s Beach. Along the way, look for 16 trail markers that display QR codes you can scan for more information.
Cliff Walk Segment 1: Easton’s Beach to Narragansett Avenue
The first segment is about 0.7 miles, and runs from Easton’s Beach to Narragansett Avenue. It is one of the easiest walking segments, with a wide, paved path. From Easton’s Beach, you walk up the hill, and the entrance to the Cliff Walk is on your left after you pass the metered parking area of Memorial Boulevard. There is a sign in the median of Memorial Boulevard, though the writing will be on the opposite side if you are walking up from Easton’s Beach. A plaque attached to the rock wall also marks the entrance.
This segment of the trail is sunken below the houses, so you will only catch glimpses of the homes. The first mansion you see is the Chanler, which is now an upscale hotel and restaurant (Cara). It was built between 1870-1873 for New York Congressman John Winthrop Chanler and his wife Margaret Astor Ward, the great-granddaughter of John Jacob Astor.
After the Chanler, you will catch glimpses of a few private homes, including 1 ½ Cliff Terrace, with its Spanish style roof, and 20 Seaview Avenue. When you reach Narragansett Avenue, you can find public restrooms at the end of the first section of the trail.
This is also where you will find the Forty Steps. The Forty Steps carry you from the trail down to the sea. Originally built in the 1830’s for access to the beach and Conrad’s Cave, the steps became a favorite gathering place for servants during the Gilded Age, where maids would dance with their boyfriends on their night off.
Cliff Walk Segment 2: Narragansett Avenue to The Breakers (Ruggles Avenue)
The second segment of the Cliff Walk is just under a mile, running from the Forty Steps to Marine Avenue. It is on this portion of the walk where you will have the best views of Gilded Age mansions. If you don’t want to walk the entire trail, this is the best segment to see. You can park at Narragansett Avenue to skip the first segment of the trail and start at Forty Steps, then head away from the cliff to view more mansions along Bellevue Avenue.
The first property past the Forty Steps is Ochre Point. It was built between 1882-1883 for Robert Goelet, son of real estate tycoon Ogden Goelet, by the same architectural firm that built the Newport Casino. Descendants of the Goelet family still own Ochre Point.
Next door to Ochre Point is Ochre Court, built between 1888-1891 for Ogden Goelet by architect Richard Morris Hunt, who also designed Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina. Ochre Court is a French Gothic style chateau built entirely of Indiana limestone. Salve Regina University now uses it as an administrative building. You may recognize the property from the movie True Lies, starring Arnold Schwarenegger, which used this location to film many of the outdoor scenes.
Beyond Ochre Court is the privately-owned white house known as Cave Cliff, built in 1877 for Ohio Senator George Hunt Pendelton. The next property, Vinland Estate, is a Queen Anne-style brownstone built between 1883-1884 for Catherine Lorillard Wolfe, a tobacco heiress. Vinland Estate also belongs to Salve Regina University, where it serves as classroom and office space.
The Breakers
Just past the halfway point of this segment of the trail, you reach the Breakers. The original Breakers property was a wood-frame, shingle-style home built in 1878 for tobacco magnate Pierre Lorillard. A faulty furnace caused the home to burn to the ground in 1892, and the Vanderbilts purchased the lot.
The Breakers, built of Indiana limestone in a Beaux Arts-style between 1893-1895 by the Biltmore architect Richard Morris Hunt for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, is modeled after Renaissance palaces in Turin and Genoa Italy. The Breakers is one of ten properties maintained by the Preservation Society of Newport County and open to the public for tours. For more information on how to book tours of the Breakers or other properties, see their website. We left the Cliff Walk at this point to tour the house. You can read more about our tour here.
Cliff Walk Segment 3: Ruggles Avenue to Marine Avenue
After touring the Breakers, we returned to the Cliff Walk for the third segment via Ruggles Avenue, passing Fairholm and Anglesea from the street before circling around to see them from the trail.
Anglesea is located on the point, and was built in 1880 for Walter H. Lewis, a dry goods merchant and relative of Pierre Lorillard. Anglesea is privately owned, and boasts a gorgeous glass gazebo structure near the Cliff Walk, overlooking the sea. After rounding the point, you can see the oceanfront side of Fairholme, a Tudor-style home built in 1870 for Philadelphian Fairman Rogers, a civil engineer and philanthropist.
The last two houses on this segment of the Cliff Walk are Midcliff and Honeysuckle Lodge, both built in 1886 in an asymmetrical Queen Anne-style.
Midcliff was once owned by President Truman’s ambassador to Luxembourg, Pearl Mesta. Josiah M Fiske, a successful New York City flour merchant, originally named Honeysuckle Lodge as Masonlea, instead. Once you pass these two properties, you arrive at Belmont Beach, distinguished by the large granite blocks.
Cliff Walk Segment 4: Marine Avenue to Ledge Road
Marine Avenue marks your last opportunity to exit the trail for the next 1 ½ miles. The fourth segment of the trail extends to Ledge Road, and the terrain is hazardous in places. You need good sturdy shoes for this segment of the Cliff Walk, because you will be climbing over potentially slippery rocks. The Cliff Walk resumes its place sunken below the mansions, offering limited views of the houses.
The ocean views, however, are spectacular.
This segment of the trail is more of a hike than a stroll. You can follow Marine Avenue up to Bellevue Avenue to view the houses from the street-side, instead. We chose to continue on the Cliff Walk.
After visiting Belmont Beach, the next property along the Cliff Walk is Rosecliff. Rosecliff is a white-glazed terracotta, H-shaped house built between 1898-1902 for Mrs. Herman Oelrich (wife of shipping magnate) and her sister, Virginia Fair, both prominent members of society succeeding Mrs. Astor. The interior of Rosecliff has been used as a stage set for The Great Gatsby, starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, The Betsy, starring Robert Duvall, and True Lies, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Preservation Society of Newport County maintains Rosecliff and offers tours.
Beyond Rosecliff is Beechwood, built in 1852 for New York dry goods merchant Daniel Parish and renovated in 1881 by famed architect Richard Morris Hunt for Mrs. William Backhouse Astor, Jr. Notice the chimney caps, which look like birdhouses.
The next property along the Cliff Walk is the Marble House, with its Chinese Teahouse. You will see the roofline of the teahouse prominently as you make your way along the trail. You can tour this house through the Preservation Society, but you cannot access it from the Cliff Walk. Instead, you must access the property from Bellevue Avenue.
Beyond the Marble House are several mansions not visible from the Cliff Walk, such as Beaulieu, Clarendon Court, and Miramar.
The last house on this segment of the trail before you reach Ledge Road is Rough Point, a Tudor-style sandstone built in 1891 for Frederick William Vanderbilt. Doris Duke, a tobacco heiress, inherited the property and founded the Newport Restoration Foundation, which now operates tours of Rough Point.
Beyond Rough Point, you will enjoy a stretch of trail that is absent of houses. You may see Land’s End and The Waves out in front of you on the point as you climb over the rocky terrain. Land’s End, built in 1865 for Samuel Ward, a banker and co-founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The property’s name comes from the colonial name of the reef the house sits upon. Just past Land’s End, you will come upon Ledge Road, where you can exit the trail. However, this is not the official end of the Cliff Walk.
Cliff Walk Segment 5: Ledge Road to Bailey’s Beach
Continuing past Ledge Road, onto the final segment of the trail, and you reach The Waves, the last mansion on the Cliff Walk. The Jefferson Memorial architect, John Russell Pope, built the current house for himself in 1927. Former Rhode Island governor Charles Warren Lippitt previously owned the property, named Breakwater; but locals referred to it as Lippitt’s castle due to its numerous round towers. Lippitt’s Castle was demolished in 1926.
You can continue on the Cliff Walk a bit further, past a few more beautiful, but modest properties, to Reject’s Beach.
Just to the west lies Bailey’s Beach, an exclusive beach club. Those not permitted exclusive access could hang out at Reject’s Beach instead. From the beach, you can exit at Bellevue Avenue, and locate the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) bus stop, where Trolley 67 will take you back down Bellevue Avenue towards Easton’s Beach. You can download the RIPTA app and purchase tickets electronically using your phone. Visit their website for pricing and schedules. It cost us $2 per person for the trolley ride. We told the driver where we parked, and he told us to get off at the International Tennis Hall of Fame stop, just up the street from Memorial Boulevard. We walked about a mile from the Hall of Fame back to Easton’s Beach. Another option is to take the Trolley to the Visitor Center, then catch Flex Bus 231 back to Easton’s Beach.
Once we got back to Easton’s Beach, we decided our feet needed a little treat. We stripped off our shoes and socks, and waded into the ocean. The water was quite chilly, but refreshing for our tired feet!