A royal Rhode Island resort

The town of Newport, Rhode Island is among the most venerable of the "A-list boltholes" scattered along the Atlantic coast of New England, says Joanna Symons in the Daily Telegraph.

From the mid-1800s, families such as the Vanderbilts and the Astors "vied to build ever-more ostentatious mansions" – or "cottages", as they called them – by the seaside here, 50 miles to the south of Boston. Today, you can visit many of these "fantasy homes", including Belcourt Castle, where "even the horses once slept in white linen sheets".

The surrounding coast, with its many "woody islets", is "largely unspoiled"; and Newport itself is "a good-natured, laid-back place", with "attractive streets of colonial houses" and a "lively harbour".

BA Holidays (0844 493 0758) has a seven-night fly-drive package to Boston from £354pp. ·