Jay and I were recently in Newport for his birthday. If you’ve been reading my newsletter all these years, you know that I stick pretty close to home. Newport is about as far away as I get, and I love it there. We try to go once a year, usually for two nights. We don’t always visit the mansions, and one mansion per visit is usually plenty. If you’ve never been, I couldn’t recommend it more. We love Newport and this time we decided to get a membership to the Preservation Society of Newport County, which manages the mansions. We didn’t get that just because we like the mansions, but because the membership offers a reciprocal opportunity with so many other museums throughout the country.
This most recent time we went, we did the free hop on/hop off trolley into the mansions area, the beaches, the visitor center, and the famous Cliff Walk. Our Airbnb was located directly above one of our favorite restaurants, Pasta Beach. It came with a coffee table book that was really a small paperback that Jay read while we were there, and even bought one for at home.
The reciprocal agreement is NARM, the North American Reciprocal Museum Association.
Here’s their headline: NARM Gives You the Freedom to Explore Museums and Cultural Institutions Across North America
How It Works
“The North American Reciprocal Museum (NARM) Association® network is a mosaic of 1,497 art museums and galleries, historical museums and societies, botanical gardens, children’s museums, zoos, and more. When you sign up with your favorite participating NARM institution, you can receive reciprocal membership benefits across the United States, Bermuda, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.”
FAQs about NARM
You can search by topic (architecture, hall of fame, historic site, zoo, etc.) or location.
There are 99 NARM institutions in Massachusetts! On our ‘next to visit’ list are the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, The Mount in Lenox, House of Seven Gables, Worcester Art Museum and Fruitlands Museum in Harvard.
Our NARM membership was about $100 for 2 people for a year. Since we bought specifically at The Preservation Society of Newport County, we’re able to bring guests when we visit that specific set of museums/mansions.
Check it out and let me know what museums you recommend we add to our list!
