Duration: 8 hours
Experience:
- Newport is an extraordinary seaside city destination known as the “Ocean State” on Aquidneck Island in the New England state of Rhode Island! Newport is known for the Gilded Age mansions lining Bellevue Avenue, some of which are now museums. On the grounds of these beautiful mansions as well as neighboring locations you will explore the lush, ornate, and whimsical gardens and landscapes filled with natural beauty, history, color, fragrance, and spectacular views. Also, a touch of Napa in a Newport Vineyard!
- Private car departure from a Boston hotel at 8am, Helicopter trip from Boston to Newport, RI (approx. 35 mins.) Private vehicle tour to (4) Mansion Gardens and Newport Vineyard, returning to the airport, helicopter trip back to NYC and car to your Boston hotel.
- Customize and choose (4) of the following:
- Blithewold Mansion Gardens & Arboretum a 33-acre summer estate with grand views of Narranansett Bay. One of New England’s finest garden estate with excellence in horticulture and historic preservation. You will be walking the beautiful gardens (Rose Garden, North Garden, Idea Garden, Rock Garden, Water Garden, Pollinator Garden, Vegetable Garden, Lord & Burnham Greenhouses, Lover’s Lane, Bamboo Grove).
- Green Animals Topiary Garden, the oldest and most northern topiary garden in the United States. Green Animals is a rare example of a self-sufficient estate combining formal topiaries, vegetable, herb gardens, orchards and a Victorian house overlooking Narranansett Bay. You will see more than 80 pieces of topiary throughout the garden (animals and birds, geometric figures and ornamental designs, sculpted from California privet, yew and English boxwood)
- The Elms Mansion Gardens for a stroll through the elegant European Classical Revival gardens one of America’s Beaux-Arts landscapes. The grounds were designed in French eighteenth-century taste including a sunken garden and weeping beeches.
- The Breakers a Vanderbilt mansion, a 14acre estate on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The entrance has sculpted iron gates, 30’h walkway gates part of a 12’h limestone and iron fence bordering the property on all but the ocean side. The pea-gravel driveway is lined with maturing pin oaks and red maples. The trees of The Breakers’ grounds act as screens between The Breakers and the neighbors of Newport. Among the more unusual imported trees are two examples of the Blue Atlas Cedar, a native of North Africa. Clipped hedges of Japanese yew and Pfitzer juniper line the tree-shaded footpaths that meander about the grounds. Informal plantings of arbor vitae, taxus, Chinese juniper, and dwarf hemlock provide attractive foregrounds for the walls that enclose the formally landscaped terrace. The grounds also contain several varieties of other rare trees, copper and weeping beeches. The wide borders paralleling the wrought iron fence are planted with rhododendron, mountain laurel, dogwoods and many other flowering shrubs that effectively screen the grounds from street traffic and give visitors a feeling of seclusion.
- 17acre Chateau-sur-Mer, among the earliest Gilded Age mansions along Bellevue Avenue ‘castle by the sea’, to see the exquisite Victorian gardens enveloping the property. They were designed initially by gardener Robert Christie, elaborated on by Ernest Bowditch in the 1890’s, and between 1895 and 1940 Swedish gardener Sven Johnson maintained the estate’s landscape, punctuated by greenhouses, stables and a garden house bordered by an eight-foot-tall wall on the north and east perimeters. Enjoy the elegant sculptures, groomed gardens and the Sod Maze, a 142’ dia. earthwork behind the mansion.
- Newport Vineyards, where there are over 50-acres of vines, spread across 100-acres of historically preserved farmland. Newport Vineyards prides itself on a robust portfolio of estate-grown wines perfected for over 25yrs. It is a beverage and culinary destination for a private tour of the grape growing and winemaking process from budding to bottling. Afterwards, you will enjoy a wine tasting (5 wines) or Taproot Beer, dessert or specialty wine and a souvenir logo glass. Private tour and tasting 1.5hrs. A lunch or dinner reservation for outdoor dining can be set as a finale to your wonderful day in Newport!
- Spanish and German-speaking tour guides are available (subject to availability)
Included:
- Roundtrip vehicle transfers Boston Hotel/Heliport
- Roundtrip private helicopter Boston/Newport
- English speaking tour guide (local in Newport)
- Driver, Vehicle, Driver gratuity (local in Newport)
- 24/7 Support Line
Not Included:
- Dining (a reservation can be set in place)
- Admissions (Mansions / Gardens / Vineyards)
- Guide gratuity
Please contact us for pricing information.
