Mix it with big money in ‘Wall Street on Sea’
NINETY miles east of New York is a rarefied beach enclave on Long Island where Wall Street millionaires go to relax; where gossip columnists hang out waiting for a glimpse of the rich and famous; and where maps are sold showing where the likes of Ralph Lauren and Steven Spielberg live.
Welcome to The Hamptons, which in the summer season becomes Manhattan-on-Sea.
Some weekenders just chill out beside their pools, or lounge on the miles of sandy beaches, but most who can afford to decamp for the whole summer seem to be involved in a ceaseless round of activity – exercising and shopping during the day, and partying hard at night.
The villages that make up The Hamptons – such as swanky Montauk, Southampton and Bridgehampton – were colonised in the 17th Century as whaling and farming communities. Carefully preserved windmills and quaint streets of sea captains’ houses testify to that past.
But while the villages are still separated by dense woods and potato fields, the original houses have long been outnumbered by luxury Georgian and Victorian ‘Revival’ mansions in treelined avenues overlooking golf courses as immaculately manicured as the members who use them.
But despite the development by well-heeled New Yorkers, The Hamptons retains its charm. Most villages have historic centres even if, behind the original white clapboard facades, there are now very upmarket boutiques.
I particularly liked wooded Shelter Island, located between the twin fingers of Long Island. It feels like an old Devon sailing harbour.
All this comes at a price, of course. One property built overlooking the Atlantic for the reclusive billionaire Ira Rennert has 84 rooms and is valued at £160million. Neighbours who have been inside claim they were given a satnav to find their way back from the bathroom to the dining room.
That property is not for sale, but another, Briar Patch, with a third of a mile of coastal frontage, is on the market for £112 million. They might take an offer…
Not all the waterside properties are anything like that expensive. Paul McCartney has a cottage in the quiet hamlet of Amagansett, while his daughter Stella is reported to have bought one for £1.9 million in the next village.
For tourists, a pretty clapboard bungalow on the wrong side of East Hampton for two couples costs about £2,500 for a week, while a millionaire’s lifestyle in a five-bedroom house with pool, sea views and staff will cost many times that.
But you can find rooms below £80 a night on Airbnb, and have a £10 lobster roll in a cafe…
Alternatively you could stay at a resort hotel on the ocean with your own cooking facilities for about £330 a night.
Further from the beach, room rates are cheaper, but check they will provide a parking pass to the beach car parks, because the number of spaces for visitors is very limited.
If you can’t afford to stay overnight, take a day coach trip from Manhattan and get a guided tour of this very expensive piece of paradise.