Newport, Rhode Island: International Tennis Hall of Fame & the Cliff Walk

I have been putting lots of miles on my car with trips all over the East Coast this summer, and like I mentioned in last week’s post, I recently went to Newport, Rhode Island for a tennis tournament at the International Tennis Hall of Fame (I told you my family loves tennis). I got to see some great tennis matches, and I also loved seeing all the beautiful buildings in the area and on the famous Cliff Walk. Historic buildings are my favorite, so I took tons of photos! 🙂

Newport is only about 5 hours away from Philadelphia, so it’s an easy weekend trip. We started the day with a singles match of John Isner (who I’ve actually met and seen play before) against Dennis Novikov. Andy Roddick and Kim Clijsters were also there that weekend to be inducted in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, but we didn’t run into them (though I have seen Andy Roddick play twice before).

The International Tennis Hall of Fame has a museum and grass courts (you get free admission into the museum with your tournament ticket), and the Hall of Fame Open is the only tournament in the U.S. played on grass courts. The venue is absolutely beautiful, and I loved how they maintained the historic buildings! I felt like I had stepped back in time.

Isner (on the right in the teal shirt) is easy to pick out from a crowd because he’s 6’10”!

After the match, we went to the International Tennis Hall of Fame museum. There were a lot of interesting tennis accessories over the years that were really cool to see, and I didn’t realize how long women had been able to compete in tennis, so that was really interesting to learn about. They also had a hologram of Roger Federer, who is my favorite player, and I actually got to meet him a few years ago on my 19th birthday!

We actually caught a glimpse of Monique Kalkman-van den Bosch, a paraplegic tennis player who was being inducted into the Hall of Fame that weekend!

One of the women competed wearing a poodle dress!

After the museum, we walked around downtown until a doubles match started. The area was beautiful, and like I said, I absolutely loved all the historic buildings! It was a pretty quiet area with lots of cute shops, and I didn’t really have any time for shopping this time but all the antique stores looked really nice.

This is an old mill that they created a park around

You know I got excited for a Viking hotel 😉

After walking around and stopping for some snacks, we went back to the tennis courts to wander around some before watching Sam Groth and Leander Paes take on Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Rajeev Ram. It was a pretty close and exciting match, and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Rajeev Ram won (they later went on to win the tournament).

I don’t get an open sky like this in Philly, so I take advantage of sunset photos whenever I get the chance!

The next day, we did the Cliff Walk before I needed to head back to Philly. The Cliff Walk is a walkway along the shore that takes you to some of the most beautiful mansions I’ve ever seen. Newport was the summer destination for many of the rich and famous back in the day (including families like the Vanderbilts), and their homes did not disappoint. You can go inside of some of the homes, but I didn’t have time so I’ll definitely do that the next time I’m in Newport!

Some of the homes on the Cliff Walk are still privately owned, so if you go, make sure you don’t trespass on someone’s property. Even though it’s on the shore, I was surprised that it wasn’t cooler with an ocean breeze. It was pretty hot and really humid, so make sure you dress appropriately and bring some water!

The Breakers, the Vanderbilts’ summer home

Newport is now one of my favorite places in the U.S., so I will definitely be going back at some point! 🙂 It was quaint, beautiful, on the water, and it had tennis, so that’s really all I could ever want! If you’ve been to Newport before, what did you do? Comment below!

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