The Best Beaches
in The Hamptons

The Hamptons are a string of villages along the South Fork of Long Island, a couple of hours east of New York City, where some of the finest beaches in the country run in an almost unbroken white line along the Atlantic. The sand is wide and pale and the surf rolls in with real Atlantic muscle, and two of these beaches, Coopers in Southampton and Main Beach in East Hampton, have each been crowned the best in America by Dr. Beach in different years. For a beachgoer the quality is not in doubt. What separates a good Hamptons day from a frustrating one is rarely the sand and almost always the question of how you get onto it.

That question is parking, and it is the honest heart of any Hamptons beach guide. Through the summer most of the ocean beaches require a resident or seasonal non resident permit, strictly enforced, with no casual daily fee, so a visitor who simply drives out and expects to park at Main Beach on an August Saturday will be turned away. The two reliable ways in are Coopers Beach in Southampton, which sells daily parking to anyone and is therefore the most accessible of the great beaches, and Montauk at the far eastern end, where some beaches are walkable from town and the whole mood is looser. Read the parking before you fall for the sand, and the day comes together.

This is also a place where the beach is one course of a longer, slower meal of a day. The villages behind the dunes, Southampton, East Hampton, Sag Harbor, Amagansett and Montauk, hold the farm stands heavy with corn and tomatoes, the lobster and clam shacks, the wineries of the North Fork a short hop away, and out east the Montauk harbour seafood scene and the lighthouse on the point. The rhythm that locals know is to take the beach in the cooler ends of the day and the table in between, a lobster roll after the morning sand, oysters at dusk. The beaches below are ranked for what they actually deliver, honest about the surf, the crowds and above all the parking, with the villages and their food never far from the thought.

The Hamptons reward the traveller who plans the parking before the picnic. If you hold a village or town permit, or are renting a house that comes with one, the whole coast opens up and the village ocean beaches, Main Beach, Georgica, Two Mile Hollow and Wiborg, are yours at their genteel best. If you are a day tripper without a permit, do not fight the system. Make for Coopers Beach in Southampton, where anyone can pay for daily parking onto a top rated shore, or head out to Montauk, where Ditch Plains and Kirk Park sit within reach of town and the mood is the most relaxed on the South Fork. The single most common mistake is driving to a famous village beach on a peak Saturday and being turned away from a permit only lot.

Be honest about the sea, too. This is the open Atlantic, cold well into the summer and only properly warm by July and August, with surf and rip currents that demand respect. The main beaches are well lifeguarded in season, so swim near the flags and keep children in the shallows, and treat the calmer bay beaches on the north side of the fork as the gentler option for small ones. The crowds and prices peak fiercely in July and August, when the population swells and a sunbed, a table and a parking space all become a competition, so June and early September are the quieter, kinder windows. Conditions are typical and never guaranteed, and the parking and lifeguard rules change by village and season, so always check the current local rules before you set out.

For a traveller who treats the beach as part of a wider day, the Hamptons are made for exactly that. A morning on the sand at Coopers or Ditch Plains, a lobster roll and a farm stand haul in the middle of the day, an afternoon in Sag Harbor or among the North Fork vineyards, and oysters in Montauk as the light goes is the honest shape of the best of it. The beaches are the anchor, but the villages, the farm country and the harbour seafood around them are what turn a Hamptons beach trip into something richer than a day in the sun.

The Hamptons beach season runs from Memorial Day at the end of May to Labor Day in early September, built around the long, warm days of an Atlantic summer. July and August are the warm, crowded, expensive peak, when the ocean is at its most swimmable but every beach, table and parking space is in demand. June and early September are the sweet spots, with warm enough water, thinner crowds and softer prices either side of the rush. Spring and autumn are beautiful for a walk but the Atlantic is cold, so the swimming window is firmly the heart of summer. Our Hamptons season guide lays out the month by month picture, the sea temperatures and the parking and crowd notes.

In the Hamptons the phrase beach club means two very different things. The historic clubs around Southampton and East Hampton are private membership institutions with long waiting lists that a visitor cannot simply book, however famous the name. The accessible scene sits out east in Montauk, where the resort beach club at Gurney's sells daybed and cabana access by the day, and where casual spots welcome anyone for seafood and a sundowner by the water. For most travellers the bookable Hamptons beach club map points firmly to Montauk.

Day fees, daybed rates and any minimums move with the day and the season and we never invent them, so tell us your dates and party size and we will help you plan the right Montauk room and confirm any cost. See our Hamptons beach clubs guide for the honest directory of who is open, who is members only, and exactly how you get in.