Fire Island For the Ages, and For Families

There’s something spectacular about stepping ashore to an island that’s a world unto itself — with miles and miles of uninterrupted sand, dunes and ocean — especially one that’s only two hours from Manhattan. My affection for Fire Island is, undoubtedly, influenced because it’s my “home” beach, about eight miles across the bay from my backyard. As a Girl Scout, I slept on the sand (Cherry Grove) and when I missed the last ferry home from Ocean Beach. At 13, I attended Saturday morning services in Herman Wouk’s dune-side home; when my granddaughter was 13, she celebrated Bat Mitzvah in Seaview. It’s where I danced in hot pants, spent mid-week vacations at a hotel with a swimming pool (Fire Island Hotel, in Ocean Bay Park) and we docked our sailboat (Island Mermaid, Ocean Beach).

Fire Island is 32 miles long and a quarter-mile, 10-minute walk from Great South Bay to Atlantic Ocean. The narrow strip of beach runs parallel to the South Shore of Long Island, starting about 40 miles from Manhattan and stretches west from the Fire Island Inlet to Shinnecock Inlet. A few hikers drive to Robert Moses State Park, park at Field No. 5, and walk past the historic, 19^th-century Fire Island Lighthouse all the way to the Shinnecock Inlet, near Westhampton.

Fire Island

Each community has its unique seasonal identity: family-friendly or singles, straight or gay, low-key or posh, and members only. A few towns have active bayfronts, with shops, bars, restaurants and an after-the-last-ferry-leaves nightlife. Davis Park has the only ocean-front café.

Red wagons are the two words that best describe the destination: While passenger ferries (Fire Island Ferries, Sayville and Davis Park Ferry Services) transport most visitors to the island’s 17, mostly-residential, car-free communities, once there, pedestrians dominate. Board walks or paved sidewalks criss-cross each community; they’re almost wide enough for bike riders, the occasional deer or “permit”-bearing miniature commercial, safety or handicapped-only vehicles and pedestrians pulling omnipresent red wagons laden with luggage or groceries or children. (For Ocean Beach’s annual Fourth of July Baby Parade, the wagons are extravagantly and creatively decorated.)

It’s a haven for children. In villages like Saltaire, Ocean Beach and Seaview, little ones play in the sand at bay-front beaches and playgrounds with their folks or mother’s helpers. Seven-year-olds — even younger — ride bikes and go into “town” alone, hunt shells on the beach, fish from a pier, attend day camp, take sailing and tennis lessons, attend performances or perform in summer theater — even the Fire Island Shakespeare Festival. Each town offers options: Saltaire has a float in the bay for diving, lanes for lap swimming and tennis and sailing via the Saltaire Yacht Club, while the Seaview Association operates a bay beach with a kids’ wading pool, tennis courts and a baseball diamond. Most visitors find a community that’s the best fit and rent homes, stay at one of the few B&Bs or the rare hotel. But, be assured, it’s a low-cost, fabulously family-friendly, public beach daytrip destination. Families can even avoid the expense of a ferry and drive to Robert Moses State Park, on the west end, and Smith Point County Park, with its eight-mile nationally-protected wilderness preserve, on the east end.

Fire Island

Sunken Forest at The Fire Island National Seashore is the one must-see venue, no matter if the island visit lasts one day, a weekend or a month. Reached from Sayville by ferry to Sailor’s Haven (or a walk from Cherry Grove), it’s a magical, mysterious and hidden 36-acre verdant forest filled with American Holly, oak, pine cedar and sassafras, some 200 years old and most cut short by winter winds blowing over the dunes from the ocean. Kids will ogle the various birds, fox, raccoons, weasel and deer. Stepping out of the silence and darkness of the canopied space into the sunlit sky, with the roar of the waves. is simply a memorable and breathtaking experience. (One caveat: The beautiful, bright-green, jungle-like vines are poison ivy. So, wear long pants, socks and long sleeves over the bathing suits and stay on the raised wooden boardwalk to view this topographic wonder.)

Fire Island is easy to reach by car, plane, train and jitney. The Long Island Rail Road transports visitors from New York’s Pennsylvania Station via Jamaica (near JFK and LGA) to Bay Shore, Sayville or Patchogue, where folks walk or get a van to the ferries. And, Islip MacArthur airport is about a 30-minute drive from the three ferry terminals. (David’s Bros. Car Service provides seasonal jitney service between the city and the Bay Shore ferry terminal.)