Join us for Big Sky Country, a week-long journey into the wide-open spaces and rugged grandeur of the American West — where history, landscape, and legend come together on a scale that’s impossible to fully grasp until you’ve seen it for yourself. From sweeping mountain vistas to wide open ranges, this tour immerses you in the places that shaped frontier life and defined the spirit of American independence. Along the way, we’ll explore iconic landmarks, uncover stories of exploration and experience the kind of unspoiled natural beauty that still feels as wild and untamed as it did to Lewis and Clark. Like all Presidents & Patriots tours, Big Sky Country is designed for travelers who appreciate both comfort and depth. Each day offers a balance of discovery and relaxation, narrated by historian Richard Norton Smith, who has a way of humanizing the past – retracing pioneer footsteps or simply taking in the quiet majesty of the landscape.

It is said that good things come in small packages. Measured in square miles, Rhode Island is the smallest of American states. Forty-seven miles north to south. Thirty-seven east to west. This makes it easy for us to organize a week-long tour out of a single hotel – The Graduate (formerly the Biltmore), a gorgeous 1922 grand hotel designed in the Beaux-Arts style by the same architects behind New York’s iconic Grand Central Station. Situated in historic, booming Providence, the city Roger Williams founded as an expression of individual conscience and religious liberty. The same city renowned for the best pizza in New England; Benefit Street, lined by a mile of stunningly preserved colonial-era homes; the unique Water Fire celebration that turns downtown rivers into a blazing spectacle; Brown University and the world-famous Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

Providence compliments the opulence of Gilded Age Newport – where we’ll visit three sumptuous homes we’ve never set foot in before, including Doris Duke’s oceanside villa Rough Point. We’ll visit Truro Synagogue, where George Washington enshrined principles of religious pluralism synonymous with Rhode Island’s 17th century founders. Nearby, America’s industrial origins are vividly preserved in the Slater Mill complex in Pawtucket. Also on the itinerary: the birthplace of famed artist Gilbert Stuart (you see his work on every dollar bill); Dwight Eisenhower’s Summer White House; hurricane swept beaches and the Age of Sail recreated at magnificent Mystic Seaport.

Bristol on Narragansett Bay provides a stunning backdrop for Blithewold Manor and Gardens, the ultimate summer estate. It may be small, but Rhode Island is full of surprises. Its outsized part in the drama of America’s founding makes it the perfect place to commemorate our nation’s 250th birthday.