A Gilded Age Guide to New York and Newport

Condé Nast Traveler

3 days ago

Watching this season of The Gilded Age and want to live for a moment within that show's world? It's not difficult to understand your desire. During the late-19th-century period depicted, New York City and Newport alike were grand, blank canvases upon which the wealthy were able to erect massive and splendiferous testaments to their liquidity. It wasn't all roses, by any means—the wives approached the Newport summer season with more rigor than their husbands had for business dealings, and divorcées like poor Aurora Fane were socially destitute despite no wrongdoing on their part. (Which is why it's more fun to visit today.)
Below, we've rounded up the best hotels in both New York City and Newport to get your Bertha Russell on and steep in the period's left-behind grandeur, plus some of the places you'd do well to visit during your sojourn to go even deeper.
New York City
Where to stay
Lotte New York Palace
The Lotte New York Palace made its mark on impressionable viewers when it served as a frequent hangout for the entitled characters of Gossip Girl on TV, but its history catering to New York's elite stretches back to 1882, when six neoclassical style townhouses were first erected with a courtyard that faced out to Madison Avenue. These historic buildings were annexed to a 55-story hotel tower in 1974 by hotelier Harry Helmsley, and the property has been pampering guests ever since. Today's incarnation of the hotel features gorgeous, luxury guest rooms with up close and personal views of St. Patrick's Cathedral, along with a separate hotel-within-a-hotel called The Towers, which offers more space, better views, and personal butlers. The hotel also has two restaurants and four bars, including one named Trouble's Trust (after Leona Helmsley, AKA the Queen of Mean's dog). —Juliana Shallcross
Book Now
Powered By: Expedia
Book Now
Powered By: Booking.com
The Fifth Avenue Hotel
Modern master Martin Brudnizki's Fifth Avenue riot of colors, patterns, and curiosities is perhaps his most impeccably orchestrated yet. The vaulted lobby is dressed up in ornate wall panels; corridors are bedecked in vivid wallpapers; rooms are filled with painted screens and pagoda-style lamps that are an ode to the travels of hotel owner Alex Ohebshalom. A go-for-broke assemblage of art, from old-world oils to modern photography, greets you around every corner. It's the bold palette Brudnizki is known for, a dreamlike pastiche that would have been chaos in the hands of a less practiced hand. Just as adept is the hospitality, which extends from the ready-to-please butler service on every floor to extra touches like the candle that's slipped into your room after you've complimented the scent in the lobby, a martini cart that appears at your door when you need a nightcap, and the warm welcome you'll get when you return. And you will return, even if just for a perfect Negroni at the hotel's Portrait Bar or an extravagant dish from Café Carmellini—but most of all, for the chance to wake up in a giant cabinet of curiosities in the heart of New York's NoMad district. —Arati Menon
Book Now
Powered By: Expedia
Book Now
Powered By: Booking.com
The best things to do
Quite a few Gilded Age mansions remain on Fifth Avenue, which once bore the mantle of Millionaire's Row (Billionaire's Row along 57th Street is an equivalent for our times, and not nearly as attractive). Quite a few of these are open to the public in one way or another. Fifth Avenue is long, and walking up and down its Central Park stretch isn't easy. But the greatest concentration of its Gilded Age pleasures is uptown, in a walkable stretch of the 80s and 90s. There's the Metropolitan Museum of Art, of course, on the east side of Central Park between 79th and 84th Street, which was founded in 1870 by the Union League Club. It's a major landmark of the period, but lacks the intimacy of a mansion setting—the massive building in which it's set was built to be a museum, and has been expanded many times.
And so, while you're up there, be sure to also swing around the corner to Neue Galerie on East 86th, where 19th-century German and Austrian art hang in the 1914-constructed mansion of industrialist William Starr Miller, designed by Carrère & Hastings (of New York Public Library fame). There's also the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum within the former residence of industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, and the recently-renovated-and-restored-and-reopened Frick Collection in the former mansion of financier Henry Clay Frick. Downtown (relatively), in Murray Hill, you'll also find the Morgan Library & Museum housed in the library of J.P. Morgan (who features in The Gilded Age) himself. A few of these spots, and many more, are featured on walking tours like this one for those who prefer a more organized itinerary.
Newport
Where to stay
The Chanler at Cliff Walk
Imagine this: you've sat in traffic all the way from Boston or New York City, and as you turn into the Chanler's impressive gates, you're immediately transported to the Gilded Age. You can finally exhale. An unbeatable location abutting Newport's famed Cliff Walk, an award-winning fine-dining restaurant, and plenty of moments for quiet privacy in the thick of the action—the Chanler offers an alchemy that's tough to beat, even by Newport standards. This isn't a hotel for the one-and-done tourist looking to tick Newport off their list—it's a luxurious, one-of-a-kind opportunity for even the most seasoned Newport connoisseurs to engage with this storied destination. It's one of the most strategically located hotels in Newport, striking that perfect balance between not too close yet not too far from anything and everything. Here, you're a few steps from the Cliff Walk's northern terminus, a few further steps down to Easton's Beach, and about one mile from the hustle and bustle of downtown. The walk to central Newport's bars, restaurants, and attractions is pleasant enough, but the Chanler also offers a chauffeured Cadillac to bring you to and fro if you so choose. And why wouldn't you? —Todd Plummer
Book Now
Powered By: Skylark
Book Now
Powered By: Expedia
The Vanderbilt, Auberge Resorts Collection
The Vanderbilt is an elegant yet unpretentious snapshot of the Newport of yesterday and the Newport of today. Stepping into the lobby is like stepping into the foyer of this Gilded Age mansion during its heyday a hundred years ago. This meticulous resort recalls a time when Newport was the essential summer destination to see and be seen. Food and drink take center stage. For fine dining, The Gwynne serves contemporary twists on New England classics and utilizes Newport's freshest catch—the Spanish-style grilled octopus is not to be missed. The place is like a music video for Taylor Swift's Rhode Island ballad, 'The Last Great American Dynasty.' —T.P.
Book Now
Powered By: Expedia
The best things to do
Touring the mansions is the best thing to do in Newport, period. Dedicate at least a day to seeing a few of them. If you can only hit one, hit the Breakers, which was the summer cottage of the Vanderbilt family (for whom the Russells stand in on the show). It's a shockingly large summer home that has to be seen to be believed. But there are quite a few other homes worth seeing around Newport. Operated by Newport Mansions and the Preservation Society of Newport County, and therefore under the same umbrella as the Breakers, are places like Marble House (also a bygone Vanderbilt deed) and Rosecliff, the Versailles-inflected summer home of silver heiress Theresa Fair. You can book your Breakers ticket, or your Breakers-plus-one mansion ticket, via GetYourGuide.