Undiscovered New York: Top 5 Beaches

The USA has some fantastic urban beaches. In the Summer, Chicagoans are spoiled by happening North Avenue Beach on Lake Michigan. Miami has South Beach, littered with plenty of palm trees, fake tans and toned bodies. In L.A. there’s Santa Monica and Malibu. But what about New York City? For a metropolis surrounded on all sides by water, you’d think there would be some more obvious beach options, right? The truth is New York does have surprisingly decent sun, sand and surf – you just need to know where to look.

Believe it or not, New York has enough sandy, swimmable beach options to make your head spin. From happening urban beach parties and hidden unspoiled sands within the limits of the Five Boroughs, to some truly great wild beaches within an easy day trip of Manhattan, there’s enough oceanfront out there to please even some of the most die-hard of beach-lovers.

With Summer weather in full swing, there’s no better time for Undiscovered New York to count down the city’s top 5 best beaches, all either within city limits or close enough for a day trip. Think you’re a New York beach veteran? We bet there’s at least one great waterfront on this list you’ve never visited. Click below for our picks!
Beach #5 – Water Taxi Beach(es)

A trip to the New York City beach might seem like it involves trains or boats, but did you know there are beaches you can get to with no more than a taxi ride? We’re talking about New York’s three Water Taxi Beaches, which feature over 1,000 tons of sand, food, frequent live music and some killer views of New York City (see left).

Want to check it out? Just hop in a taxi, get on the subway or grab a water taxi and head one of their three locations at Long Island City, South Street Seaport or Governor’s Island.

Beach #4 – Long Beach
Just an hour from New York on the Long Island Railroad is Long Beach, a surprisingly happening Summer beach town and favorite beach day trip for claustrophobic New Yorkers looking to beat the heat. Grab one of the daily express trains from Manhattan’s Penn Station and you’ll be laying on a towel near the ocean in no time. Play some frisbee or volleyball, have a swim and then be back in the city in time for happy hour cocktails.

Beach #3 – Sandy Hook
We first mentioned Sandy Hook during our exploration of New Jersey back in April, and in terms of New York area beaches, it’s one of the best. Just a 30 minute ferry ride from Manhattan’s South Street Seaport is one of the more unspoiled stretches of sand in the Tri-State Region boasting wild beach grasses and some interesting history to boot. When you arrive at the Sandy Hook landing, be sure to check out historic Fort Hancock, which at one time played an important role in the defense of New York Harbor.

Beach #2 – Robert Moses State Park
Finding the best spots in New York sometimes takes effort, and the beaches at Robert Moses State Park are no exception. Although this pristine sandy stretch along New York’s Fire Island is not really accessible by public transportation, it’s worth the car trip to get here. And because Robert Moses is located on a barrier island well off Long Island proper, it’s home to some coastline that could hold its own with some of the best beaches anywhere in the U.S. All within about an hour’s drive of New York.

Beach #1 – Fort Tilden
As far as “undiscovered” New York City finds, Fort Tilden’s unspoiled beach has to be one of the best. This little-known beach, located near the site of an abandoned military installation in the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, is one of the more remote and serene stretches of sand you’ll find anywhere in the city limits.

Forget Coney Island – on Fort Tilden’s beach you’ll have plenty of sand all to yourself. The hard part is getting there – you’ll either need to take a car or 12 mile bike ride from Manhattan. Check out this piece for advice. Good luck!

Times Square becomes a pedestrian zone

New York City’s famous Times Square became free of cars this Monday.

This is the latest in two decades of radical changes to what used to be a dirty, dangerous, but uniquely vibrant part of one of the world’s greatest cities. City officials have blocked traffic from 42nd to 47th Streets at Times Square and between 33rd and 35th Streets at Herald Square in a much-anticipated move we first reported on back in February.

The traffic jams are being replaced by pedestrian plazas and more shops. The hope is to attract even more visitors to New York City’s iconic square by getting rid of noise, pollution, and frequent accidents. New Yorkers celebrated Monday with a big block party and setting up lawn chairs in the middle of the road. The city plans to have various events and street performers every night in the coming weeks to attract more people to Times Square.

Old-time New Yorkers like yours truly have fond memories of the old Times Square, full of seedy bars, seedier adult shops, and crumbling movie houses where you could watch a double feature of martial arts films for two bucks. I saw my first Jackie Chan film in Times Square, my first zombie picture, not to mention countless Z-list action flicks. Ah, the Eighties!

But not everyone liked Times Square at its decadent best. It was too close to Broadway, where accountants from Omaha wanted to see musicals without being reminded that the world isn’t like it is in A Chorus Line.

First to go were the movie theaters, replaced one by one by adult video centers, as if the area didn’t have enough of those already. No more blaxplotation or ninja flicks, just hard core. Then the porn shops got shut down. Times Square began to look like Disneyland. Now the squalling, bumper-to-bumper traffic has gone the way of the dodo. The armpit of New York has been replaced with the outdoor equivalent of a shopping mall. Progress? Well, it’s certainly safer (how I survived my teen-aged trips to the old Times Square still amazes me) but I can’t help but think that by killing Times Square, New York City has lost something.

Every city has its grotty area. Amsterdam has its red light district, London has Elephant and Castle, and New York had Times Square. The thing is, these neighborhoods are often really interesting and alive. The red light district in Amsterdam has some of the city’s best architecture. Elephant and Castle has an amazing variety of African shops and restaurants. Times Square has. . .well, had. . .an exciting street life and a variety of movie houses for every taste. And no, I’m not talking about the adult stuff. Back in the day, all sorts of people went to Times Square, everyone from well-heeled businessmen up to no good, to curious teenagers like I was, all the way down to street hustlers and petty thieves. That’s what I liked about it. Now it’s tourists and the middle class. Aren’t there enough places like that?

Any other old-time New Yorkers out there have any thoughts on this?

Ladies Only Floor in Times Square hotel

The Premier Hotel in New York City’s Times Square has a fun new amentiy — if you’re a girl and you wanna have fun. It’s the Ladies Only Floor!

The exclusive Premier Hotel, sister of the Millennium Broadway, which has been host to guests such as Jordan Sparks, Mario Lopez, and even Barbara Walters, has dedicated one of their floors — seven rooms — to the ladies.

“The Premier Hotel’s Ladies Only Floor is an exclusive floor accessible through elevator key-card access only, and offers special amenities: luxurious LATHER bath products including a loofa and bath salts, a hair straighter, curling iron, and all other girl bathroom essentials you wont find in ordinary hotel rooms, O, The Oprah Magazine, Self and Cosmopolitan magazines and the best part, an in-room yoga mat!”

For a bachelorette weekend or other occasion, you can even book the whole floor! Staying on the Ladies Only Floor also grants guests access to the Premier Hotel’s private lounge. But if you pick up a man there, you’re gonna have to go to his room. Just sayin. No boys allowed.

Now through March, if you cite the “25% Off Premier Promotion,” if you book one room one night, you get 25% your second room or second night on the Ladies Only Floor. Rates start at $299/night.

Get desserted in New York

No it’s not a typo. Walking Tours Manhattan has dessert-themed walking tours. They guide you around, feed you, and walk you. It’s like you’re their dog — their sweet-toothed dog.

It’s called their Recessional Special: Free NYC Dessert Fest. And it is indeed free! They request a $1 donation or whatever you feel is appropriate, and the purchase of any desserts is additional, but all you have to do to participate is show up.

The next Free NYC Dessert Fest tour will be on Sunday, March 1st in Harlem.

Meet our tour guide with the red ball cap saying Walking Tours Manhattan on Sunday March 1, 2009 at 11:30am at Apollo Theater, 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. and Frederick Douglass Blvd. Then we?ll visit Sylvia’s Soul Food Restaurant, Lee Lee’s, and our last stop will be Make My Cake. Tour lasts 2 hours. Walking distance is 1 mile.

This is a great way to trek (safely) through historic Harlem and get sweetened up along the way! For more information, visit Walking Tours Manhattan. Their regular walking tours are just $25.

The Standard Hotel introduces their staff … on YouTube


Now this we have not seen before. The Standard Hotel New York, a new André Balazs hotel, has created the above video to introduce their staff.

This is clearly a well-done appeal to a younger, hipper generation. The mod-style, ironically-named Standard Hotels, with their upside-down logos, really are pretty cool. The one in New York offers gorgeous accommodations (with “insane” views) in the Meatpacking District on Washington Street between West 12th and West 13th Streets. The hotel is in previews right now, and has declared itself “Openish.” Because some parts of the hotel are still under construction, rooms are available for $195 – $495 per night, but those prices are expected to rise when the hotel is officially open.

Does the YouTube video make us want to stay there? Frankly, it makes us want to work there. But we already have a job. So, yeah.