Tours in Westerly

Segway of Newport makes the world smaller by equipping customers with wheeled transports ideal for exploring Newport’s beauteous scenery. Crowned by TripAdvisor voters as the town's best tour company, Segway of Newport offers regular guided group tours atop Segways, Ultra Motor electric bicycles, and Dahon folding bikes. After a brief training session, patrons masterfully steer Segways toward Thames Street and onto scenic 10-mile Ocean Drive. Here, they coast past Newport Country Club and Gooseberry Beach before peering over the Cliff Walk's jagged edges and pondering whether the ocean is bouncy. Ultra Motor electric bikes reach speeds up to 20 miles per hour, driven by feet or their own enchanted power, whereas 7-speed cruisers or 21-speed mountain bikes allow riders to set a pace of their choosing.

During your tasting for two ($5 value per person), you'll sample five different red and whites from Osprey's superb selection. The award-winning grapen goodness is culled from lively vinifera vines creeping across the 90-acre grape growery. Spend time sipping in Osprey's comfortable tasting room and scouring the sky above the sun-bathed rows of green for soaring ospreys, who guard grapes from liquor-loving kobolds. The take-home bottle of 2006 reserve chardonnay ($15 value), a full-bodied sip that's ripe with aromas of tropical fruit, toasted oak, and vanilla, has a well-balanced acidity that pairs well with seafood and sea-smoothed stones. Check Osprey's Dominion's schedule of events to see when there's live music.

As an aerial photographer, it makes sense for Jeff Codman to pilot a Robinson R44 Raven. The viper-red aircraft affords him unlimited freedom of movement, nearly 360-degree visibility, and the ability to hover and swoop like a hummingbird as he dips 100 feet above the earth to snap shots of sailboats, unusual toupees, and ocean-side mansions.

Now, with Bird's Eye View Helicopters’ tours, Mr. Codman grants guests the same breathtaking aerial views in the helicopter that he’s enjoyed for more than 20 years. The Fall Foliage tour transports guests over a patchwork quilt of red and orange foliage, and the Island Tour traces a route above Ocean Drive and historic lighthouses. Mr. Codman even lets amateur pilots take the reins during a 25-minute introductory flight.

Now in its 16th season riding the rails, the Newport Dinner Train whisks up to 200 passengers through the lush lands and rich history of Aquidneck Island. A 44-ton diesel engine powers the locomotive, which pulls vintage 1940s dining cars, similar to the ones grandparents had to haul barefoot through the snow on their way to school each morning.

Since 2007, the team behind Historic Tours of Newport has carefully consulted literature and publications documenting Newport’s heritage in its effort to chart engaging and enlightening van tours that propel passengers through more than 365 years of history. Expert guides dispense factoids about Newport’s social, religious, and architectural past on 60- to 90-minute Ten Mile Ocean Drive tours, which whisk visitors past a plentitude of sites including Bellevue Avenue’s 17th-century buildings and mansions, Chateau-sur-Mer’s dainty gardens, and the tree stump where town loon Humphreys McCaw declared himself king. Guests eager to peek inside one of myriad mansions detailed on the tour can opt for a Majestic Mansion tour, which permits escorted entry into one of six elegant manors during Ten Mile Ocean Drive excursions. Patrons purchasing private tours can additionally elect the two-hour Newport Now tour, which explores the city’s contemporary shopping malls, farmers' markets, and secret Redcoat-revivalist meeting places or custom design a tour around whatever sites and they yearn to behold.

Colleen Barrow has spent her entire lifetime seeking out and memorizing the coordinates of the most scenic sights dotting British Columbia's Southern Gulf Islands. Rather than trapping them in a photo album or enormous snow globe, the local explorer shares her finds with guests through ITT Wilson's Tours. By partnering with Wilson's Transportation, Barrow coordinates luxury bus tours to castles, lighthouses, botanical gardens, and wineries. With many of the tours, guests receive a midday meal such as rustic oven pizza served at an apple-orchard picnic site, or mutton legs aged to perfection in a castle's meat cellars.