Why you should visit
Because it is a spectacular way to see how the very rich lived.
Because the Vanderbilt were very generous with their wealth.
Because you're in Newport, Rhode Island
Because this beats being dragged around another dreary museum! OK, pretend you didn't just read that.

What you should expect to pay In the summer of 2006, it cost $15 per person for the guided tour of the Breakers Mansion. Other tickets options are available that allow you to see more then one mansion at reduced prices. With just an afternoon in Newport, one mansion was enough for me. The tour is conducted by a Preservation Society member and lasts approximately one hour. You are not allowed to take pictures inside the hour. The lines were out the door on the Sunday afternoon we visited. Expect to wait in line about 45 minutes in the summer.

The first major room you see is a grand hall. It is amazing. It is 50 feet high and 50 feet wide. It is very striking and beautiful. The ceiling is painted with a blue sky and billowing clouds.

The family quarters are on the second floor. Each room seemed to get larger and larger. Each has a private bath with both fresh and salt running water. The balcony overlooked the ocean. The vast lawn was gorgeous with lots of flowers and green lawn.

The entire house looked Italian inside with gold and marble everywhere you looked.

The Vanderbilts had seven children. Their youngest daughter, Gladys, inherited the house on her mother's death. The Preservation Society of Newport County purchased the house from her heirs.

Today the house is designated a National Historic Landmark. Admission to the house is $15 for adults and $4 for children. They do offer multi house combo passes. We received a two dollar discount because we bought our tickets at our timeshare resort.

Completed in 1895, just in time to upstage her sister-in law Alva's recently completed "cottage," Marble House, The Breakers was designed to impress.

The first major room you see upon entering the house is a grand hall, designed in imitation of a Italian palazzo, complete with a blue sky and billowy clouds. The overall effect is more The Venetian than the Palazzo Medici, but it's striking nonetheless, especially when decked out with swags of pine and banks of pointsettias for the holidays.

The family quarters, on the second floor, are somewhat more restrained. They are decorated in a vaguely 18th century French style by the Boston architect Ogden Codman. Each room has a private bath, complete with hot and cold running fresh and salt(!) water.

Though we went in early December, it was unseasonably warm, and my sister and I were able to walk the gently rolling lawn to look at the ocean below. The loggia of the house generally provides a good view of this, but it's sealed up with glass windows in the winter.

If you go around the holidays, when the house is decorated, try for one of the last tours before the $25 evening Holiday specialty tours - you'll benefit from cheaper prices, and the ability to snag a holiday snack of cookies and eggnog in the first floor loggia.

Admission to The Breakers alone is $15 for adults, $4 for kids. In the summer, you can get one of a variety of combo passes that allow you to see five mansions for $31 adult, $10 kids, but I personally find that four mansions per day is my limit - more is just too exhausting.