morrismm, not sure about the rental. I would probably Uber, but one could get an Island tour and take the S74 bus direct from ferry to Rchmondtown.
Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Gardens is another closer Staten Island option. From the ferry take the S 40 bus
Over 3 hour train ride to Montauk, even longer by car (especially in summer). Great to see, or even to go fishing, but it’s not a day trip.
I have been out on Long Island…and can’t think of any good reason to take a day trip there. If you like to drive through suburbs…fine. But I can’t see the point in that.
There are some pretty areas with gorgeous houses on the ocean…but take a day trip for that? Not something I would do.
There are a lot of pretty towns on the north shore that the OP could visit for a sense of history. Maybe she just want a day away from the intensity of NYC for contrast and relaxation.
There are also some beautiful homes on the north shore of Nassau County and Western Suffolk. many great shops and restaurants. Agreed it is not a tourist attraction, But there are many appealing things to see.
I wouldn’t bother with a trip to Long Island unless I had a specific reason or person to visit. You can see suburbia pretty much anywhere and despite what they think, it looks pretty much the same as any “older” affluent suburban area.
You may want to consider the Hudson River valley. Trains from Grand Central. Towns like Tarrytown,( Sleepy Hollow, Lyndhurst, Sunnyside, Philipsbur Manor), Garrison, (Boscobel and Shakespeare festival),
I know you said you did not want a beach town, but honestly East Hampton is in my opinion the prettiest town on Long Island. Would be a bit of a stretch to do it as a day trip though - a car or the Hampton Jitney could get you there and back but it would be a “rushed” trip. Would be well worth staying over one night and enjoying the town - you won’t be disappointed.
I would avoid the week-ends in the summer and go mid week.
I hear you. Maybe its just a fantasy we’ve built, the way kids on the forum sometimes post about coming out West. But out here there is not that much that is pre-war; Calif really grew with the returning servicemen and the car culture. So I’ve built these pictures in my mind of people living in towns and able to ride a train into NYC for work or at least for a daytrip if they work out on LI. Even the suburban sprawl, the post-war places that sprung up after the war such as Levittown, still seem to be in striking distance of NYC. To me there is no equivalent out here; in a few hours you can feel like you’ve seen most of it and then its time to head to wine country or Carmel, and if you’ve been to LA you know there isn’t really much of a center comparable to NYC or Chicago or Boston.
So the thought of a train ride somewhere, a place to walk around and have a nice lunch, do a little sightseeing, we wanted to give it a shot as both a break from NYC and to see where some of the people working in NYC might be living.
The thought of the Hudson Valley someone suggested sounds interesting, too. Will have to look into that.
I have a friend who grew up in Levittown. Her family still lives there. I mentioned this to her, and she said she can’t think of any reason to visit there…except to see her family.
Really, these are suburban developments.
Some of the little towns mentioned have nice restaurants in the sound…but really…it’s a long train ride for a lunch on the sound in greater suburbia.
Really, badgolfer, if your NYC plans do not already include Staten Island, take your day trip to Richmondtown and/or Snug Harbor rather than Long Island. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.
I love LA, actually I think architecturally it’s fascinating. It’s very much a place of many downtowns. And it has some nice commuter suburbs too - think Pasadena for example with the Craftsman style houses and then later all the Spanish Colonial Revival stuff from the 20s then really cutting edge stuff in the 50s and again in the 80s.
Long Island was a few places to summer and potato fields for the longest time. And it’s flat as a pancake.
I get wanting to get away from the city for a day. I’ve never regretted daytrips from London or Paris.
Things that might appeal to you: Wave Hill a garden and small museum on the Hudson in Riverdale in the North Bronx https://www.wavehill.org/ , Lyndhurst, a Gothic Revival estate also on the Hudson in Tarrytown http://www.lyndhurst.org/. Phillipsburgh Manor in Sleepy Hollow. http://visitsleepyhollow.com/historic-sites/philipsburg-manor/ Or maybe Kykuit (needs reservations) the Rockefeller estate also in Sleepy Hollow https://www.wavehill.org/. Oh and Sleepy Hollow also has Sunnyside Washington Irving’s home.
Commuter trains do have a separate vibe of their own. I ended up on a MARC train once, going between Baltimore and DC. Very different in feel from either Amtrak, the Baltimore light rail, or the DC metro. The conductor still went around punching tickets and many people seemed to know each other. It was quite relaxing!
The LIRR is a huge system and many people commute on it. Back in the day there was even a bar car.
Then come up to Greenwich CT or Westport CT. Lovely places, both of them, and – IMO – much nicer than Long Island.
@badgolfer - There are quite a number of summer music festivals that MIGHT make it interesting to depart NYC for the day. This year The Great South Bay Music Festival is July 14th-17th. Other than that, rent a car and go up to the Hudson River Valley, tons to do.
What about going out to Poughkeepsie and Hyde Park – do the Walkway over the Hudson, a meal at the CIA, and see some of the other Hudson Valley highlights … could be a very nice day.
Make a reservation for the tour at CIA and dinner also–the Italian restaurant is supposed to be really good (they all are but I heard it was a favorite). The tour is really fun.
Also in the Huddon Valley is Storm King which lovely. Best way to tour is to rent bikes - which you can do there.
Long Island, at least the parts closer to NYC (Nassau, and western suffolk) are primarily suburban, with the typical suburban shopping areas. There are some downtowns with nice restaurants and such, but as a tourist you can see a lot more of that kind of thing in NYC. Long island is either going to be a suburb, or it is going to revolve around the beach and the sea as a resort area.
Oyster Bay is nice and not hard to get to (not sure from the train station how to get to Sagamore Hill, probably can use Uber), if you will be here in the summer you also can take a train to Belmont Park, one of the more famous horse tracks around (In June, they hold the Belmost stakes, which if a horse is going for the triple crown, is kind of crazy to go to).
Eastern Long Island has much of what you talked about, small seaside towns, Montauk was an old fishing town that now is part of the ‘beautiful people’ crowd that you see in the Hamptons as well. While it is fun to walk around those areas, main street in the Hamptons has a lot of toney stores, it isn’t a great day trip, it takes a while to get there and back to NYC (long Island I believe is 130 miles long). It isn’t a bad area to stay in for a few days, but if you are going to do that, you may want to rent a car and rent a place out there, Hampton Bays is the less expensive town to stay in:).
A neat day trip might be to find a way to go the US Military Academy at West Point, it is a beautiful campus and they have a really neat museum there. I know there is a rail stop on the Hudson line that serves it, but I don’t know about getting to the campus from the train.
Instead of a train, you also could potentially do something like rent a zip car, it opens up your options with day trips if you do that:)
Old Mystic Seaport might a nice option. It’s not Long Island, and it’s a pretty long train ride, but you can beat it for sightseeing, history, and quaint seaside port town.