Description: While Newport still has its wealthy residents who summer in the Victorian "cottages" tucked away behind the hedges and gates that line its streets, today's Newport is a city of hotels and B&Bs.
One of the oldest hotels sits at the beginning of famous Bellvue Avenue. The neo-Georgian Hotel Viking was built by the Vanderbilts and other wealthy families in the ‘20s to house their summer guests (the cottages may be the size of elementary schools, but they tend to only have one or two guest bedrooms).
The Viking is comfortable and tasteful, recently refurbished with Queen Anne-style furniture both in the lobby (more utilitarian than impressive) and the guestrooms.
The Viking is one of the few places in the center of town where you can get a room with two queen-size beds, a good thing when there are three people in your party, since most B&B's have rooms with either one king- or queen-size bed or two twins. The beds are made up with a pile of comfy feather pillows and covered with cozy down duvets.
The bathrooms in the guestrooms are split into two areas--the sink and closet on one side of the entry door and the tub and toilet on the other. Both areas are tiny, but the bathtub is nice and deep and has a rain showerhead.
Toiletries (which come in bizarre colors--I'm a little wary about washing my hair with shampoo that's a slightly iridescent turquoise) are from the hotel's on-site spa, Spa Terre, and the rooms have nice cushy terry robes for your use.
The rooms themselves are spacious, with a large window at the far end, but almost no storage for clothes--a possible problem if we had been staying for longer than the weekend. They're decorated in forest green, gold, and burgundy, with botanical prints over the bed and the TV stowed away in a Queen Anne-style armoire.
Service is friendly and accommodating--we ordered room service (homemade potato chips and onion dip and calamari with hot peppers and saffron aioli--yum!) and asked them if they could bring down a corkscrew for a bottle of wine that we'd bought. They not only agreed, but they brought us glasses as well.
All in all, the Viking was a pleasant place to stay, with a good location, clean and spacious rooms, and a friendly staff. In the winter, rates are reasonable--$164 a night for a weekend night, with free self-parking. In the summer, however, B&B's would be a better value (at least for couples), since the Viking's summer rates run around $300 a night without breakfast or parking ($15/day).
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