A rainbow stretches over Newport Harbor in Newport, R.I. Newport and its neighboring communities are creating a trail of historic attractions, linking up notable sites with color-coded maps and eventually road signs to make it easier for tourists to navigate.

NEWPORT, R.I. — The Breakers in Newport is an opulent, oceanside mansion completed in 1895 as a summer “cottage” for the wealthy Vanderbilt family. Less than 15 minutes away, and across a bridge into nearby Bristol, stands the 45-room Blithewold mansion and its verdant 33-acre garden estate of trees, shrubs and lawns.


Both buildings are relics of America’s Gilded Age and monuments to unfettered wealth. Now, tourism officials want to make sure visitors to one site are also checking out the other.


Newport and its neighboring communities are creating a trail of historic attractions, linking up notable sites with color-coded maps and eventually road signs to make it easier for tourists to move from museum to mansion to Colonial-era farm. The goal of the initiative, known as the Newport Bristol Heritage Passage, is not to draw more tourists but to encourage those who already come to extend their stays by steering them to attractions they may not have thought to visit.


“We’re going after the quality visitor, and the quality visitor has a particular interest in heritage tourism attractions and events,” said Keith Stokes, executive director of the Newport County Chamber of Commerce, which is spearheading the trail.


The project’s intent is similar to Boston’s Freedom Trail, a 2.