| Best Newport RI Golf Course |
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Newport National The setting is serene. Two-hundred rolling acres of former farmland with sweeping Narragansett Bay and the Atlantic Ocean views. Newport National's Orchard Course is an Irish style links course designed by golf architect Arthur Hills and Drew Rogers. It opened to rave reviews in 2002 and has been named Rhode Island's top course by Golf Week Magazine. It features greens, tees and fairways consisting of 100% seaside
bent grass, and grand, swaying fescue often exceeding 4’ in length. The fairways and greens are designed to play fast and firm. A world away but 10 minutes from downtown Newport.
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Phone: 401-848-9690 Green Fees: In Season May - Sept. Weekdays $125, Weekends $150 Location: 324 Mitchell's Lane , Middletown |
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| Best Newport RI Museums ~ Tennis Hall of Fame |
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Baseball has Cooperstown, and Tennis has Newport. The Hall of Fame is a must-see for tennis fans but the good news for the rest of us, is that it's interesting for anyone. This is where tennis really took hold in America, including the tournament that is today, the U.S. Open (first U.S. National Lawn Tennis Championships in 1881). The museum itself is housed in the old Newport Casino, a private social club for the Vanderbilts and other Gilded Age giants. The building was architect Sanford White's first commission and is to this day cited for its historic architectural significance. The Hall of Fame also has the oldest continuously used grass competition courts in the world and the only ones open to the public. Every July features the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships -- the only ATP event played on grass in North America -- along with the annual induction of the hall of fame players. There's really nothing else quite like it anywhere.
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Phone: 800-457-1144 Admission: $8 Season: Museum year round. Outdoor grass courts May - September Location: 194 Bellevue Avenue |
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| Best Art Collection & Exhibition ~ Rough Point |
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When she was the richest woman in the world, Tobacco heiress Doris Duke called Newport home for many summers. While Rough Point probably sits on the most dramatic location along mansion row and the Cliff Walk -- overlooking the Atlantic -- it is the art collection that makes it a show stopper. Assembled over 7 decades, the Duke family collection of fine and decorative art is stunning. There are works by Renoir, van Dyck, Gainsborough, Reynolds and Bol. You will also see some incredible tapestries, textiles and oriental porcelain. Tickets for Rough Point work a little differently than the other Newport mansions. You can buy them ahead of time online, and then park at Rough Point. Otherwise, buy them at Newport's Gateway Visitors Center and a shuttle bus takes you there and back.
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Phone: 401-849-7300 Tickets: $25 (Children under 12 free) Season: April 12 - May 12, Thurs., Fri., Sat. 9:45 - 1:45 May 15- Nov. 10 Tues - Sat. Tours 9:45 - 3:45 Location: Bellevue Avenue |
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| Best Newport RI Cultural & Religious Discoveries |
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Newport has a long and pivotal role in colonial religion and religious tolerance, and is home to a number of historic places of worship, from colonial times to the Camelot era of the Kennedys. Newport had the largest communities of Jews and Quakers in colonial America. And to this day, Touro Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in America, is still an active congregation. Designed by America's leading colonial architect Peter Harrison in 1763, it is considered his finest work. The synagogue (above left) was the first religious struc-ture to be named a National Historic Site. Atop Historic Hill sits Trinity Church (above right). This colonial beauty was built in 1726 and features the only three-tier wineglass pulpit of its kind in America. Among the Episcopal church's many historical notes, the organ was tested by Handel before being shipped from England, George Washington worshipped there and it was occupied by the British during the Revolutionary War. Another famous spire looking down over Newport Harbor (above middle), is St. Mary's Church, the oldest Catholic parish in Rhode Island. But it is probably best known as the church where Jacqueline Bouvier married then senator John Kennedy in 1953. All three of these houses of worship are active and open to the public.
Details
Touro Synagogue: 401-847-4794 Location: 85 Touro Street
Trinity Church: 401-846-0660 Location: Queen Anne Square
St. Mary's Church: 401- 847-0475 Location: Spring St & Memorial Boulevard |
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| Best Newport Guidebooks & Resources |
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