The Newport Mansions – The Lazy Explorers

I have grown up in New England, but have never made a stop in Rhode Island. I had always assumed that Rhode Island was just like every other New England state, and certainly not better than my home state of Maine. We found out recently that there are a series of mansions within walking distance of each other in Newport Rhode Island, and that they were decorated for the holidays. So we packed up and made a day trip out of the visit!

In this post we are not going to talk about the individual mansions themselves, but you can find that linked below.

The mansions themselves are standing memorials to a period of American history in which there was massive amounts of wealth being generated through the railroad and coal industries. This is also the period where electricity came on the scene. This period is known as the ‘gilded age’, a term that was coined by Mark Twain in 1873, but not as a compliment to the gold trim that covered seemingly every square foot of these mansions. Instead, he was satirizing the incredible divide between the rich and the poor, and how luxurious the rich lived.

The families that had all of the wealth were mostly considered to be ‘new money’. This age of fabulously rich people moved away from the stoic and regal appearance of old, and opted to instead throw wild parties. These families purchased massive collections of art that would otherwise belong to a prince or a duke in Europe.

All of the mansions offer free audio guided tours (with the option to select your preferred language). This was a nice surprise and made the experience significantly more enjoyable. The tour provides history of the families that lived in each mansion, as well as the history of the buildings themselves and other information about the era. There is the main tour with a few minutes of information for each room, but then some rooms offer even more information, with a few optional stories available to choose from based on information you want to learn. Some people were passing up the guided tour, but we one hundred percent recommend getting it, especially since it’s free!

Christmas Decor

All of the mansions that we visited were decorated for the holidays. Many of the rooms we entered had Christmas trees in them, and every fireplace mantle was decorated with garland. Three of the four mansions that we visited had professionally created gingerbread homes in the kitchens, replicating the mansions that they were in. If you have not had the opportunity to visit the Newport Mansions in the winter for the holiday decorations, we recommend that you take the opportunity to do so!

Our Ranking

The mansions that we were able to visit (a fifth mansion is open during the summer months) were all fantastic, but some were more crowded than others. Each had a distinct flair and focal point in the architecture, and each had distinct landscaping. We visited the mansions in the following order: The Elms, Rosecliff, Marble House, The Breakers.

As someone that suffers from anxiety in crowds, visiting the mansions in this order allowed me to acclimate to gradually larger crowds, until we were in a mass of bumping elbows and ‘excuse me’s’. We did not get to The Breakers until 3, which seemed to be the busiest time in the day. Perhaps if we had started with it in the morning the crowds would have been smaller, but we are not sure.

We ranked the mansions based on the overall experience, including architecture, crowding, interpretive resources and appearance.

The Breakers
The Marble House
The Elms
Rosecliff

The breakers was by far the most popular mansion visited. We needed to wait roughly 20 minutes outside in line before being able to enter. This makes sense, as it was easily the most extravagant of them all. If you are able to get a pass to all of the mansions as we did, we recommend visiting the mansions in reverse order. Starting from the least extravagant and working your way up allows you to fully appreciate and enjoy the unique details in all of the mansions.