A guide for visitors to the Women's Golf Open -- and everyone else

06/22/2006 01:00 AM EDT

BY KATHERINE IMBRIE
Journal Staff Writer

Beginning on Monday and continuing for one stellar week, Newport's century-old Country Club will host the United States Women's Open Golf Championship, the largest women's golf event in the world. Stars of the golf tour -- including Michelle Wie, Annika Sorenstam, Meg Mallon, Karrie Webb and defending champion Birdie Kim -- will be in Newport, along with their entourages, drawing thousands from all over the country to cheer their powerful swings and fight-to-the-finish spirit.

Many of those thousands of people will begin to arrive in the City by the Sea this weekend, a fine time to get to know the place before the serious business of sports begins.

So we offer here a tour guide, a little something for everyone to sample in Newport, whether a first-timer or a many-times-returning visitor.

We who live in Rhode Island tend to forget what a special place this small state is, and how unique its attractions. Or, if we've already seen Newport's mansions, its beaches, and its shop-lined wharves, we might not realize the city has hidden charms, less obvious and all the more interesting for that.

Meanwhile, newcomers everywhere always want a Top 10 list. They shouldn't miss a mansion tour, a trip to First Beach, a boat tour on the harbor. Where to dine, what to see, what to do before and during Women's Golf Week in Newport?

We offer some selective suggestions here: "Introductory Newport" for Newport freshmen, and "Advanced Newport" for those seeking an enrichment program.

Culture by the Sea

MANSIONS: Visitors to Newport can't consider their knowledge of the city advanced unless they have been to at least some of the mansions that are the reason so many millions of people come to Newport each year.

Put The Breakers or The Elms on your list if you favor the grandiose, and Marble House and Rosecliff if you prefer something beautiful and elegant. (Certain students, of course, will want to add all of the mansions to their life list, but for the average student, more than a couple of mansions is too much to cram into one Newport visit.)

You've already seen the mansions? Visited them on school trips and when your great aunt Mary came to visit? Then you might want to sign up for the Advanced Mansions course list.

Rough Point -- Doris Duke's estate at the wave-crashing end of Bellevue, a property of the Newport Restoration Foundation -- is on it, as are two lesser-known properties owned by the Preservation Society.

The Isaac Bell House, an 1881 Shingle Style classic, is shown unfurnished and not even quite finished, offering visitors a unique chance to observe the restoration process at work: a seminar on architectural archaelogy.

And Chepstow, on Narragansett Avenue, was the comfortable home of socialite Alletta Morris McDonald McBean until she left it to the Preservation Society. Unlike the more glamorous mansions, Chepstow looks swank but also homey, as if its wealthy and cultured owner had just stepped out for a walk.

ART: In the Art Department, the Introductory Newport course syllabus is led by the venerable Newport Art Museum, a Stick Style Victorian on Bellevue Avenue whose exhibits during Golf Week and continuing through September include "The Art of Golf: Gilded Age to Newport Days," and "The Landscape of Golf: Paintings Commissioned on the Occasion of the Restoration of Whitney Warren's Clubhouse in Newport." (See Bill Van Siclen's review, Page X.)

Been there, done that? Then for an advanced course in art, consider a visit to the National Museum of American Illustration, in the mansion named Vernon Court on Bellevue Avenue. If you do want to sign up for this one, you're in luck, because the museum (which is normally open only for one tour a day) is open, with its gardens, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. tomorrow through Sunday. (See story on page X.)

More galleries, museums and house tours are listed on Pages X, Y and Z.

CHURCHES: Newport has them in many flavors. No one's Life List should be short lovely Colonial Trinity Church on Queen Anne Square (between Thames and Spring Streets), or Touro Synagogue, recently restored and reopened to the public. Touro is the oldest house of Jewish worship in North America, an elegant classical design that is said to have influenced Thomas Jefferson's design of Monticello.

Lesser known -- even among long-time Newporters -- is the peaceful sanctuary of the Seaman's Chapel inside the Seaman's Church Institute in the heart of the bustling shopping area on Bowen's Wharf. A quiet space, lined with nautical frescoes and decorated with clam-shell water basins, the chapel is the perfect spot to collect one's thoughts or to send them heavenward.

Outdoors

Newport's outdoor setting is its claim to fame, and therefore the key to its fortune, both past and present. You can't call yourself a graduate of the city until you've walked at least some of the Cliff Walk, the 3 1/2-mile public path that rims the rugged coast past the Gilded Age mansions from Memorial Boulevard to Ocean Avenue, and until you have driven the Ten Mile Drive -- Ocean Avenue past the legions of kite flyers at Brenton Point State Park and around to the harbor and Fort Adams State Park, built as the largest coastal fortification in the United States, with sweeping views of Narragansett Bay.

First and Second Beaches are really named Easton's (in Newport) and Sachuest (just across the town line to the northeast of Newport, but still on Aquidneck Island, in Middletown). Both are great beaches, Easton's still pretty clear of the clingy red seaweed that can plague it later in the summer, and Sachuest always second-to-none in natural beauty.

Post-graduates -- that is to say, locals -- know that Third Beach, just around the corner from Sachuest on the Sakonnet River, is a quiet treasure, a place where the water is calm, wind-surfers glide, and the crowds tend to be smaller than at beaches Number 1 and 2.

Over on Ocean Drive, you won't get into ultra-exclusive Bailey's Beach, the club created for Newport's high society, but anyone willing to pay to park ($15 weekdays, $20 weekends, $5 after 3 p.m.) can sun and have fun at the beach in the next cove over, Gooseberry. It's a beautiful place, every bit the beach that Bailey's is, without the attitude.

Nature trails wind through the Norman Bird Sanctuary and Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge, both just over the town line in Middletown, and both special places not just to watch birds, but also to hike to views that you won't get to see any other way.

To see Newport from the water, first-time visitors can sign up for harbor and Bay tours on any number of vessels, ranging from the 12-meters of the America's Cup Charters fleet (Weatherly, American Eagle, Nefertiti, Intrepid and Freedom), to the 70-foot schooners Adirondack and Madeleine and the 100-foot Aurora.

A far-less-expensive harbor tour -- one that the locals use -- can be had by paying for a ferry ticket on the Jamestown Ferry (www.conanicutmarina.com), which makes several trips a day ($15 buys an all-day pass) linking Newport, Jamestown on the island of Conanicut across Narragansett Bay's East Passage, Rose Island with its restored lighthouse, and Fort Adams. The ferry is a 49-passenger Down East style vessel, not as sleek as the schooners and the 12-meters, but just as seaworthy, and the views are the same.

Dining

Newport's list of high-profile restaurants is long, and year after year you'll find the Clarke Cooke House, the Black Pearl, Castle Hill Inn and the White Horse Tavern at the high end of it. They are all classics -- worthy of anyone's short list of great places for fine dining.

For a drink and a nibble at an outdoor table overlooking the ocean, you cannot do better than the patio at The Chanler (Memorial Boulevard overlooking Easton's Beach) or the broad lawn with its Adirondack chairs at the Castle Hill Inn and Resort, off Ocean Avenue.

On the more casual side, tourists and locals alike have made long-time favorites of the Brick Alley Pub, Salas', Yesterday's, and the waterside Marina Grille on Goat Island.

You've already been to all of those? Then as an "Advanced Newporter," consider moving on to some new, or at least some less familiar places.

On the harbor, the West Deck at the end of Waite's Wharf has for years been one of the most consistently good restaurants in Newport. (The menu inside is not the same as the bar menu outside.) Same goes for The Place at Yesterday's, on Washington Square. Casual diners go to the pub-style Yesterday's, to the left, but diners in search of something special ask to sit on the Wine Bar side, called The Place.

Just about a month old and still getting into gear for the summer is a new place called H2O at the Ann Street Pier, off Thames Street near the Memorial Boulevard turn. With a Euro-style vibe, sleek looks, and a fusion-y menu, it could just turn out to be the hit of the summer.

Casual places a little off the beaten track will give you a taste of the Newport of the people who live there. A sweet new cafe inside the post-and-beam farmstand Sweet Berry Farm (in Middletown) is an atrium-like setting where you can enjoy homemade soups, sandwiches, salads and treats. It's an inviting place to take a break from picking your own strawberries in the farm's acres of fields. High season is right now, so don't wait to go.

And on busy Aquidneck Avenue, also in Middletown, you can find great fresh seafood in the market or on the restaurant side of Anthony's Seafood. Anthony's is a classic in-the-know favorite: The reason to go is the fish, not the atmosphere. If you want atmosphere when dining in Newport, be prepared to pay the big bucks and go back to Thames Street where the "Introductory Newport" tourists are.

That's how it is in the City By The Sea: Lots of different courses, something for everyone to enjoy -- so much, in fact, that you might not be able to fit it all in before tee time Monday.

kimbrie@projo.com / (401) 277-7630

Save the link: Projo.com today launches About Newport, a guide to mansions, nightlife, events and more with photos, links, surveys, and a place to upload your own photos of the City by the Sea:

projo.com/aboutnewport/

A lot about Newport is online

These days, every course of study has Web links. For Newport, the best one for newcomers is www.gonewport.com. That's the online voice of the Newport Convention and Visitors Bureau, whose physical base is the Gateway Information Center at 23 America's Cup Ave. Telephone information is available toll-free at (800) 326-6030.

If you're new to the city, or even if you're not, the Gateway Center, with parking in back, a wealth of information inside, and located within an easy walk of Thames Street, Washington Square, and the historic Point neighborhood, is the best place to begin exploring Newport. It's also close to the Providence-Newport ferry dock, as well as bus and trolley lines -- three great ways to get out and see what the city has to offer.

Friends of the Waterfront

For "Advanced Newporters," an excellent set of Web sites branch from that of Friends of the Waterfront, www.newportwaterfront.org.

This is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and enhancing public access to the increasingly commercialized and members-only Newport shoreline, from the city's busy harbor to the spectacular ocean shorelines along Ten Mile Drive and the Cliff Walk. The group raises money to help with projects such as repairing and maintaining the Cliff Walk and also functions as a powerful advocate for the public's right to enjoy the city's chief asset: its waterfront.

Three of the Friends' Web sites are dedicated to specific parts of the waterfront: www.tenmiledrive.com, www.newportharborwalk.com, and www.cliffwalk.com. Whether you are an old-timer or a newcomer to Newport, all three Web sites offer a wealth of information.

Details, details

For more information on places and events mentioned in the main story:

America's Cup Charters, 49 America's Cup Ave., (401) 849-5868. On the Web: www.americascupcharters.com.

Anthony's Seafood, 963 Aquidneck Ave., Middletown, (401) 848-5058.

Black Pearl, Bannister's Wharf, (401) 846-5264. On the Web: www.blackpearlnewport.com.

Brick Alley Pub, 140 Thames St., (401) 849-6334.

Castle Hill Inn and Resort, 590 Ocean Drive, (401) 849-3800. On the Web: www.castlehillinn.com.

The Chanler, 117 Memorial Blvd., (401) 847-1300. On the Web: www.thechanler.com.

Clarke Cooke House, Bannister's Wharf, (401) 849-2900. On the Web: www.clarkecooke.com.

Easton's Beach, Memorial Boulevard, (401) 845-5810.

Gooseberry Beach, Ocean Avenue, Newport, (401) 847-3958.

H20, Ann Street Pier (off Thames Street), (401) 849-4466.

Jamestown Ferry, from Fort Adams, Bowen's Wharf and Perrotti Park. (401) 423-9900. On the Web: www.conanicutmarina.com.

Marina Grille, 5 Marina Plaza, Goat Island, (401) 848-0795.

National Museum of Illustration, 492 Bellevue Ave., (401) 851-8949. On the Web: www.americanillustration.org.

Newport Art Museum, 76 Bellevue Ave., (401) 848-8200. On the Web: www.newportartmuseum.com.

Norman Bird Sanctuary, 583 Third Beach Rd., Middletown, (401) 846-2577.

Preservaton Society of Newport County mansions: The Breakers, The Elms, Rosecliff, Marble House, Chepstow, Isaac Bell House, all on Bellevue Avenue. Information: (401) 847-1000. On the Web: www.newportmansions.com.

Rough Point, a property of the Newport Restoration Foundation, Bellevue Avenue: (401) 849-7300. On the Web: www.newportrestoration.org.

Sachuest Beach, Sachuest Point Road, Middletown, (401) 846-6273.

Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge, Sachuest Point Road, Middletown. (401) 847-5511.

Salas', 343 Thames St., (401) 846-8772.

Schooner Adirondack, Newport Yachting Center, America's Cup Ave., (401) 847-0000. On the Web: www.sail-newport.com.

Schooner Aurora, Goat Island, (401) 841-8868. On the Web: www.newportexperience.com.

Schooner Madeleine, Bannister's Wharf, (401) 847-0298. On the Web: www.cruisenewport.com.

Seaman's Church Institute Chapel, 18 Market Square, (401) 847-4260.

Sweet Berry Farm, 19 Third Beach Rd., Middletown, (401) 847-3912. More information at www.farmfreshri.com.

Third Beach, Third Beach Road, Middletown, (401) 846-2577.

Tourist guide to Newport: www.destinationnewport.com

Touro Synagogue, 85 Touro St., (401) 847-4794, www.tourosynagogue.org.

Trinity Church, Queen Anne Square (Spring St.), (401) 846-0660.

U.S. Women's Open Golf Championship: www.2006uswo.com

West Deck, One Waite's Wharf (at Thames Street), (401) 847-3610.

White Horse Tavern, 26 Marlborough St. (at Farewell Street), (401) 849-3600. On the Web: www.whitehorsetavern.com.

Yesterday's and The Place, 28 Washington Square, (401) 847-0116. On the Web: www.yesterdaysandtheplace.com.