Long Island Beach getaway?

June 18, 2017 4:12 PM

We want to go to the beach for a weekend. We live in Brooklyn and we don't drive, so we are looking on Long Island- maybe Jones Beach? We want to stay within 3 hours of Brooklyn. Give us your recommendations for hotels, beaches, transport- give us all of it!
posted by Blisterlips to Travel & Transportation around New York (6 answers total)

I used to do this. LIRR to Patchogue, then walk to the Davis Park ferry, and over to the fire island side. Almost never crowded and a groovy little bar and snack bar, a wee store, restrooms and a little ecological exhibit. You can do it in a day. Convince friends with a car to join you and you'll have more flexibility as to timing trains to get home. It is a wonderful beach.

Okay, realizied you're looking for a weekend. I'm sure Patchogue has affordable motels, then walk to the ferries and enjoy!
posted by vrakatar at 4:25 PM on June 18, 2017

Kismet has a small hotel (LIRR to Bayshore, cab to ferry), but I gather it is fairly booked. There may be house rentals available there, too. Davis Park is all houses, not sure about availability, you may have better luck looking at mid-week accommodations.
posted by kellyblah at 4:34 PM on June 18, 2017

Weirdly this is actually pretty hard to do. Your best bet is going to be to find something for the weekend in one of the fire island towns. That would be train + ferry and then walkable. Your other option is a hotel out further east but that will mostly require a car. Long Beach is also viable w/o a car.

Jersey Shore might work better.
posted by JPD at 4:36 PM on June 18, 2017

For something closer, Long Beach is an easy LIRR and there do seem to be hotels. You wouldn't have to cab really; it's all an easy walk from the train. If you're willing to go far, of course, you could head out to Eastern Connecticut or even take Amtrak + commuter to Cape Ann.
posted by dame at 4:46 PM on June 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

Here's an MTA link that lays out some beach options.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 8:22 PM on June 18, 2017

There are some hotels in Long Beach, though I'm not sure of the quality there. There also appear to be some house rentals available on VRBO for Long Beach. You have to pay to get on the beach (unless you rent a house that comes with residence beach passes), but that's not bad, and the LIRR goes right to Long Beach (you would have to switch at Jamaica for the Long Beach train if you're coming out of the Brooklyn LIRR stations). There are also bars and restaurants in Long Beach - more so down in the West End (where the side streets are named after states). However, the West End is further from the LIRR station, though there are generally cabs. I personally like Long Beach better than Jones Beach for public transit, though others may disagree.

Fire Island is also great, though much further out. There are a bunch of different communities, and the main thing is making sure you get on the correct ferry. A number of the ferries come out of Bay Shore and there are shuttles at the Bay Shore LIRR that go right to the ferry. The shuttles are $5 or $10 per person. I've only done house rentals on Fire Island, but they are (1) difficult to get for just a weekend because most require a week or longer during the main season and (2) largely booked already. There are some hotels on the island as well, though I believe they can be expensive.

There are also options on Long Island north shore beaches, including house rentals, though I would be very careful there in considering distance from a LIRR station. (Also, the north shore beaches are generally very rocky - if you go there, seriously consider water shoes!).

I have also taken the NJ Transit Jersey Coast line down to some of the beach towns in Jersey. This would require you to get to Penn Station of course, but it would give you more options. Though, my recollection is that it is a long and local train ride.
posted by Caz721 at 7:16 AM on June 19, 2017