Long Island
The ideal coastal addition to a trip to New York City
Salty air that’s warm. Cute towns with white picket fences, small shops, and people riding bikes. In the east, there are farms, wineries, lighthouses, and the homes of some of the world’s most famous people. To the north, symbols from the American Revolution. On either side, there are beaches and coastlines with golf courses and boardwalks. The whole 193 km of Long Island is only a stone’s throw away from New York City. Long Island used to be a place where industrialists, writers, artists, and weirdos went to get away from it all. Now, trendy city dwellers, families, and people looking for fun go there instead.
A lot of fun and beaches Plan your trip
Start at Long Beach, where there are lots of things to do, like surfing lessons and a trapeze right on the beach. You can eat and swim at Jones Beach State Park, or you can see a show at the beach’s venue, Northwell Health. Start your fishing trip from Captree State Park with your rod and reel. Don’t miss Fire Island, which is 50 kilometers long and can only be reached by boat. Take a walk through the 300-year-old Sunken Forest, which is right behind the waves on the beach. Cherry Grove, Fire Island’s fun town, has been a safe place for LGBT people for a long time.
Hot Spots for Culture
Long Island was home to and the work of some of the best artists and thinkers in the United States. Jackson Pollock lived and worked in the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center. The studio floor, which used to be a barn, is covered in paint. Before you go to the “Summer Whitehouse” of President Theodore Roosevelt, you should see the home of America’s first “Poet of Democracy” at the Walt Whitman Birthplace State Historic Site. Go along the Washington Spy Trail instead. It tells the story of a group of brave people who put their lives at risk to give George Washington the knowledge he needed to win the American Revolutionary War.
Food and drink in the area
Long Island Wine Country has more than 30 wineries. You can rent a bike and go to some of them, or you can sign up for a vineyard trip. Along the way, you’ll find organic farm stands, farms where you can pick your own apples and pumpkins, and farm-to-table restaurants that use the area’s rich land and mild weather to grow their food. Walk through towns by the water that are full of maritime history and along country roads that wind through acres of farmland and vineyards. Plan your trip to coincide with fairs and events that honor wine, craft beer, harvests, and seafood.
Gold-plated homes
You can’t leave Long Island without taking a Gold Coast Mansions Tour, which takes you right into the Gilded Age of “The Great Gatsby,” which was based on these huge homes. The public can visit Old Westbury Gardens and Oheka Castle. Other sites can be seen from the road. At Stony Brook Village, you can go even further back in time and learn about the Washington Spy Trail and the part the area played in the Revolutionary War. You can see what life was like here before the Roaring Twenties by going to Old Bethpage town Restoration, a town that has been rebuilt from the middle of the 1800s.