The only thing better than dashing off to the Hamptons for a summer weekend is arriving there — and party-hopping between hamlets — in high style. Here are three chic ways to escape the city and book it to the beach like the cool kids do.
Looking to slice the price of your summer commute? Blade has four new seasonal passes running from May 22 to Sept. 2. For frequent fliers, the summer steal is the Limitless pass — it gives you unlimited flights between Manhattan and the East End (as well as NYC-area airports) aboard one of the company’s amphibious seaplanes or Bell 407 helicopters for $18,000.
That means you can drop the family off at the beach in the morning, hit the office in Manhattan and be back for sunset cocktails with no added costs, no blackout dates and absolutely zero stress. Blade is also introducing a $4,450 Summer Pass that locks in the price of flights between NYC and the Hamptons at $795.
You’ll fly on the company’s Xcel helicopter or Aqua seaplane to any of their six Hamptons drop-off destinations. But if you swoon for Southampton or must be in Montauk, Blade has additional deals specifically for those airports. Upward and onward.
Once you’re in the Hamptons, the fun shouldn’t stop. For trips to Orient, Greenport, Block Island,
head to Yacht Hampton in Sag Harbor, where Joe Ialacci has an outrageous assortment of bobbing
beauties.
There’s a 16-foot floating Fiat (yes, as in the car) for tubing (from $799). He’s got a brand-new 22-foot pink “Barbie” boat, perfect, according to Ialacci, for popping the question, bachelorette parties or a day out with the gal pals (from $799). And don’t worry, boys, there’s a blue “Ken” boat, too. He’s added 10 new models just this season. He’s also creating a “water kingdom” of floating toys to splash with this summer.
“I’m making all the colors match so that it looks like Palm Beach, like you are off the coast from the Breakers.” Or choose from dozens of yachts, big and small: “Some people will rent a boat for $5,000 or $6,000 just to go to lunch.”
Not so long ago, you might have kept your yacht in Greenwich and sailed to the East End on the weekends — or better still, caught a ride on your friend’s big bad boat. But the sails in the marina are disappearing, says James Knight, the captain of Royal Yacht Charter. “We’ve seen families become tax exiles and take their planes and the yachts to Florida,” he says. “They come back and they want a boat, so we act like their boat, coming to their dock at their house.”
A truly under-the-radar service for those in the know, Royal Yacht Charter is one of the only charters left in the game sailing regular routes from NYC or Greenwich to the Hamptons ($4,000 from Connecticut and $4,850 from NYC).
Knight operates a 12-passenger Hinckley Talaria 44 jet boat as his flagship vessel (retailing for about $3.6 million) as well as a picnic boat for smaller groups. The trip takes about three hours (but do stop somewhere scenic for lunch) and docks where you like — say Sag Harbor or Sunset Beach on Shelter Island.
Real high fliers don’t copter-pool, they charter their own chopper.
For three decades, HeliFlite has been shuttling Manhattan VIPs to and from the East End (and more recently from Miami to Palm Beach and even the Bahamas) with the largest fleet of twin engine helicopters on the East Coast. Think: eight-passenger Sikorsky S-76s and nine-passenger Leonardo AW139s.
Now curious commuters can try out the service with an introductory HeliCard package. It offers prepaid flight time at lower, locked-in rates, and guarantees a chopper will be waiting to whisk you to Southampton, East Hampton or Montauk.
Instead of springing for 25 hours of flight time, first-timers can buy as little as five — about enough to get you to and fro the Hamptons over two weekends. The plan starts at $89,500 (roughly $2,500 per passenger per trip on a nine-seater). But getting there in 35 minutes? Priceless.