Newport, Rhode Island, with a permanent population of scarcely 28,000, attracts 3.5 million visitors a year to more than 300 special events from races and regattas to jazz and film festivals. In summer they say you can cross the harbor by foot, merely stepping from the deck of one yacht to another.

You can also take the Cliff Walk, a 3.5-mile path between the Atlantic Ocean and the velvet lawns of those monuments to conspicuous consumption commonly called "the mansions." Best time to go is late afternoon, and as you stride notice the purple blossoms of rosa rugosa, a reminder of Newport’s naval history. Commodore Matthew Perry brought this wild rose from Japan and used its fruit to protect his sailors from scurvy.

Those who built the massive houses during the pre-income tax Gilded Age a century ago preferred the term "summer cottages" in quaint understatement, but the not-for-profit Preservation Society is blunt. "America's First Castles" they say with a nod towards "Marble House," "The Elms," "The Breakers" and others. The Society manages nine buildings spanning 250 years of architectural and social history as well as sponsoring concerts, lectures and symposia to pay for the upkeep. Between May and September all the houses are open daily while a few have limited hours year round. Other open properties about town such as the Astors' "Beechwood" and the pseudo-medieval "Belcourt Castle" are privately operated.

While the results of responsible preservation logically attract socially conscientious ecotourists, Newport offers more, and much of it has to do with the sea. Rhode Island is "The Ocean State" after all.

The United States Navy has a long association here including the site of the original Naval Academy (predating Annapolis) and the present postgraduate Naval War College. The Navy presence is the reason for Newport's more than 114 listed guesthouses since providing accommodations for visiting families is a longtime necessity as well as tradition. In the early 1900s the Atlantic Fleet was based in Narragansett Bay, and the free museum on the Coasters Harbor Island base has regional as well as national exhibits of the naval heritage.

As early as 1646, Newport was a shipbuilding center. Two years ago the International Yacht Restoration School (IYRS) moved to historic quarters on the waterfront to teach wooden ship reconstruction and repair techniques to students from all over the world. Classic yachts (including the Coronet, winner of the 1887 Transatlantic Race) are donated to the school so the restored vessels can be used to teach navigation, sailing, boathandling and seamanship. Tours are offered June through October, and the tall ship Endeavor (a replica of Captain Cook's ship) will dock here on its circuit of North America.

Among the almost infinite number of seagoing events are Sail Newport's Blind National Regatta in May; the Newport-Bermuda Race in June; Black Ships Festival in July; World Disabled Sailing Championship in August; International Boat Show in September. Waterfront festivals sponsored by the Newport Yachting Center raise funds for local charities.

The Museum of Yachting in Fort Adams State Park has four galleries including one devoted to the America's Cup and another to yachtsmen who have sailed around the world alone (1998 is the centenary of Capt. Joshua Slocum's solo voyage in Spray, a 37-foot oyster sloop). Also in the park is a reproduction of the Providence, first command of John Paul Jones. The annual Used Boat Show is in May, but you can sail aboard or charter a yacht that was an America's Cup winner or take a lesson at the nonprofit community Sailing Center all summer long.

Other forms of historical participation are possible too. You can, for example, play tennis on one of the grass courts used in the U.S. Open 1881-1914 at the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum on Bellevue Avenue. You can dine at the 19th century La Forge Casino or 17th century White Horse Tavern. You can spend the night in one of the period houses now an operating bed & breakfast or even in the 1912 Rose Island Lighthouse.

Rhode Island was founded by religious refugees from Massachusetts so no surprise that even going to church has historic preservation overtones. George Washington attended Episcopal Trinity Church founded in 1698. The nation's oldest synagogue is Touro Synagogue (1763) built for a Sephardic congregation begun in 1658. Friends Meeting House dates from 1699, and The Seventh Day Baptist Meeting House from 1729. St. Mary's (1828), first Catholic church in Rhode Island, was the site of the Jacqueline Bouvier-John F. Kennedy wedding in 1953.

The Newport Historical Society sponsors walking tours from May to October, and the Old Colony & Newport Railroad makes nine and 18-mile runs in season along Narragansett Bay in coaches used in 1884 and 1904. The Newport Aquarium (shark-petting permitted) is at Easton’s Beach, and downtown on Market Square the Rhode Island Fishermen & Whale Museum in the Seaman's Church Institute was designed by a marine biologist to demonstrate operational environmental awareness in the state's oldest industry. Like the interactive Thames Science Center on Long Wharf it appeals to all ages.

Newport shares Aquidnick Island with the towns of Portsmouth and Middletown. You can join an early morning birdwalk at the 450-acre Norman Bird Sanctuary at Middletown or take a beach trail ride from the nearby Newport Equestrian Academy. Sachuest Point is a National Wildlife Refuge on the island's easternmost point. The 1880 Green Animals Topiary Garden in Portsmouth is owned by The Preservation Society of Newport County and may be visited on combination tickets with the Mansions.

Getting around Newport town can best be done by foot or bicycle, though there are public buses, a free trolley in summer, guided bus and boat tours. Leave your car in the multi-level facility behind the Gateway Visitors Center at 23 America's Cup Avenue. Restrooms, maps, brochures, telephones, direct lines to inns, ticket sales to events and auto-tape tours to Ocean Drive are conveniently assembled in one spot, and the first half-hour of parking is free. Bikes, mopeds and wheelchairs are for rent on Long Wharf.

By bus, bike or car, don't miss Ocean Drive, 15 miles of seafront, parks and estates. You will pass the Summer White House of President Dwight Eisenhower on the grounds of Fort Adams State Park though at present it is open only for weddings and conferences. You can visit Hammersmith Farm, girlhood home of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Summer White House for President John F. Kennedy, still complete with family furniture and mementos. However, it will revert to a private home at the end of the 1998 season, closing another chapter in the social history of Newport.

For more information:

Newport County Visitors Information Center
800/ 976-5122 x123

The Preservation Society of Newport
401/847-1000

Rhode Island Division of Tourism
800/556-2484. For a free vacation kit: 800/845-2000

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