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I'm thinking of moving to Long Island and as part of my research would love to visit and see the ENTIRE island...every nook and cranny
Is this possible for a long weekend, say Thursday night until Sunday night? I am not planning on any activities, just in and out of cities, towns etc, just to get a feel for the place and to see if I can figure out where I should hang my hat.
My plan is to get a car Friday morning and just tour tour tour
Any ideas for me and is it possible to see the whole place in such a short time? Where is a good spot to book my lodging and a starting point for this tour? TIA
To visit every section of every town/community in both Nassau and Suffolk counties? Including walking around the various towns and villages? Driving around multiple neighborhoods in each?
In a word: No.
Especially at this time of year when the sun sets at 4:30 pm. Maybe in midsummer when it doesn't get dark until 9 pm. But then you'd be crawling in tourist traffic on either of the Forks.
ETA: Let me use Bay Shore as a good example of why a cursory drive-through is not really helpful. Its 'footprint' is only 5.5 square miles but the northernmost section of Bay Shore (north of Sunrise Hwy/Rte 27) is as different from the southernmost section (south of Montauk Hwy/Rte 27a) as night and day. Simply driving down Bay Shore's main street wouldn't give you any real clue about either section.
Another example: If you drive around Westbury you'll find a similar disparities but if you cross over into adjacent Old Westbury you'd be in an entirely "different world" (extremely upscale). South shore and North shore are often different as far as weather, especially in winter when a 5 degree disparity can make the difference between rain and snow, as well as how much snow. South shore, especially south of Montauk Hwy, is often several degrees cooler in summer and warmer in winter (unless the Bay freezes over.) Traffic patterns/work destination factors in also. If you live on the South shore near Robert Moses Causeway you will have the option to take Ocean Parkway into Nassau if you want to (while watching out for radar traps.) If you're not in that area your east-west option is limited to either the Expressway or the Northern State, both of which are heavily congested. Ocean Parkway is a clear run during commuter hours in spring, fall and winter, though longer milewise.
Last edited by BBCjunkie; 01-04-2019 at 02:24 PM..
I'm thinking of moving to Long Island and as part of my research would love to visit and see the ENTIRE island...every nook and cranny
Is this possible for a long weekend, say Thursday night until Sunday night? I am not planning on any activities, just in and out of cities, towns etc, just to get a feel for the place and to see if I can figure out where I should hang my hat.
My plan is to get a car Friday morning and just tour tour tour
Any ideas for me and is it possible to see the whole place in such a short time? Where is a good spot to book my lodging and a starting point for this tour? TIA
IMHO that's definitely not enough time.
Nassau and Suffolk combined are about 100 miles long (23 miles at the widest point). And if you want to see every nook and cranny, including the North Fork and the South Fork (let's not forget Shelter Island), you will need much more time.
Long Island is made up of neighborhoods, even within a municipality; each can vary in their ethnic make-up as well as income levels, etc.
You could live on Long Island for your entire life and not see it all, except for maybe a cursory look.
And maybe not even a cursory look at that!! Perhaps the better place for you to start is with giving us a little info about you. Budget, purchase or rent, commute to NYC or work on Long Island, hobbies, beach important to you or not? This type info might help us suggest where to start your tour.
I'm thinking of moving to Long Island and as part of my research would love to visit and see the ENTIRE island...every nook and cranny
Is this possible for a long weekend, say Thursday night until Sunday night? I am not planning on any activities, just in and out of cities, towns etc, just to get a feel for the place and to see if I can figure out where I should hang my hat.
My plan is to get a car Friday morning and just tour tour tour
Any ideas for me and is it possible to see the whole place in such a short time? Where is a good spot to book my lodging and a starting point for this tour? TIA
Tell us a bit of what you would like out of your town, what your commute is (if you have one) and your price point. Remember that Long Island is a huge place with a larger population than even many states.
I would STRONGLY recommend taking the following actions in order to narrow things down a bit and even save on some gas before deciding to scope out each and every town!
- Use Google Maps (Streetview) or Bing Maps so you can get an idea of what housing styles are available in each town and a basic idea of the neighborhood feel so you can start ruling out some places.
- Check out some real estate listing websites to see what the price points are.
- If your curious about demographics (cultural, income, educational attainment, etc) then check out the town profiles on city-data.com or the US Census quickfacts. Also, there are some good sites that analyze school district data to show the quality of the local school systems.
- Put some town names into a search engine and start reading reviews on forums (like city-data) to see what people are saying. Of course take it with a grain of salt since perceptions don't always equal the reality and what happens on one block/part of town may not be what happens on another.
We're lucky to live in the age where we have such great access to information.
Last edited by MemoryMaker; 01-06-2019 at 09:58 AM..
Thank you all for responding to this thread. I guess I was way off on the size of LI. For some reason I thought it was smaller. For unrelated reason though I have decide on a different state. Thanks again guys!
Thank you all for responding to this thread. I guess I was way off on the size of LI. For some reason I thought it was smaller. For unrelated reason though I have decide on a different state. Thanks again guys!
If you don’t have a strong reason to move to LI (family, high paying career) I generally advise against it. Much better visiting for vacation.
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