Easton's Beach and the Cliff Walk from downtown

About 10 to 15 minutes by car, just over the line in Middletown. It's the area's longest beach, with open ocean, real waves and Aquidneck Island's best-known surf break at the eastern end. There are lifeguards, a snack bar, restrooms and showers in summer, and a daily parking fee, higher on weekends.

Walk out to Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge at the far end for rocky trails, seals in winter and big views back over Newport.

Peabody's Beach on Third Beach Road in Middletown is privately owned and has been run by the same family for more than a century. It sits on Sachuest Cove right beside the town's Third Beach, so the water stays flat and shallow instead of taking the ocean swell — the pick for small children, and a good spot for finding sea glass and shells. Lifeguards are on duty 9 to 5 in season, there's a snack shack and grill, and parking is first come, first served at about $30 on weekdays and $45 on weekends and holidays. The lot locks at 7 and the gate closes to non-members after 5, so it's a morning-to-afternoon trip rather than an evening one.

Gooseberry Beach on Ocean Drive is privately owned but open to the public for a daily parking fee. It's a small, sheltered cove with gentle water, lifeguards and a snack bar, about 10 minutes by car from the house and the closest thing to a beach-club day.

Newport's true beach clubs, such as Bailey's Beach (Spouting Rock Beach Association) and the Clambake Club, are members-only, and you can't buy a day pass.

Fees, hours and seasons change each year, so check before you go. Beach chairs and gear are in the house.

The path runs between the Atlantic and the back lawns of the Gilded Age "summer cottages." Heading south from the Forty Steps, you pass:

• Ochre Court (1892): a French-château mansion by Richard Morris Hunt, now Salve Regina University's administration building, right by the Forty Steps.
• The Breakers (1895): Cornelius Vanderbilt II's 70-room Italian Renaissance palace, also by Hunt and Newport's most-visited mansion. From the path you see its seaward loggias across the lawn.
• Rosecliff (1902): Stanford White's white terra-cotta house, modelled on the Grand Trianon at Versailles. Scenes from The Great Gatsby (1974) were filmed in its ballroom.
• Marble House (1892): built for Alva and William K. Vanderbilt from 500,000 cubic feet of marble. Its red-and-gold Chinese Tea House sits right on the cliff edge beside the path.
• Rough Point (1891): Doris Duke's oceanfront estate, kept as she left it and open for tours through the Newport Restoration Foundation.

The Breakers, Rosecliff and Marble House are run by the Preservation Society of Newport County; you enter them from Bellevue Avenue, not the Cliff Walk. See the mansions guide for tickets and tour tips.

Where the Cliff Walk finally runs out, at the east end of Bailey's Beach, there's a short public strip of sand that locals call Reject's Beach — the nickname is a joke at the members-only club next door. It's free and open to everyone, with the same water and the same cliff views, and the contrast across a single property line is half the fun.

There is no parking, no restrooms, no showers and no lifeguard, so it's a walk-in beach only. The street parking in the surrounding residential blocks is limited and tightly restricted, so don't plan on driving up to it. Bring water, sand toys and anything else you need, carry it all in and out, and wear shoes you can cross rock in.

From the Forty Steps it's roughly two miles south along the path, and the return is on foot, so go in the morning and save your energy. Because the only real way in is on foot, it stays quiet and local — the best payoff for walking the full length of the Cliff Walk.