drive to the Hamptons--how bad?
 

I'm getting off a cruise in Brooklyn and have to drive to a hotel for a wedding on Long Island. I have all day to kill, so I thought since I have to drive to LI, it would be fun to drive all the way down to the Hamptons. However, people are telling me to expect terrible traffic. I get in from the cruise on a Friday morning, approx. 8am. I would anticipate being on the road with my rental car by 10am. At this early hour on Fri. morning, wouldn't I miss the crush of traffic going to the Hamptons for the weekend?

Thanks for any info you can give me.

There should not be much traffic going east on Long Island at that time of the morning, even on a Friday. You do realize, though, that the Hamptons are pretty far from Brooklyn - probably close to a 2 hour drive. Plus, when you say "Hamptons," what do you mean - there is Westhampton, South Hampton, Hampton Bays, and East Hampton. You should probably have an idea of where you want to go and what you want to see.

Many companies in NYC close at 1 pm on Fridaysin the summer - just so employes can get ahead of the rush to their wekend houses. So now there's a 5 pm rush and a 1pm rush. And a lot of people - whoever can get away with "working at home" head out Thurs pm or early Fri am.

So - although the traffic won;t be so bad as at 5pm - at any timeon Fri you would run into extra traffic. Don;t know about rental cars near that new terminal - but if you're on the road by 10am you will miss the worst of the traffic TO the Hamptons.

However, IN the Hamptons ther are only a couple of main roads - and it will be crowded and slow moving when you get there. So once you reach the Hamptons you need to count on no more than 25 or 30 mph going most places.

Where is the wedding and what time do you have to be there? If fairly far out on the Island this is doable. If very close to the city - you will spend a lot of hours driving.

Also - not sure what you plan on doing in the Hamptons. Beaches are either private or town (with town sticker on your car) except for a couple of state parks quite far out. You can look at a couple of cute towns, visit a couple of museums and galleries and do some shopping. Is that what you had in mind?

Thanks for your replies. To answer some of your questions, the wedding isn't until Saturday, so I have all of Friday. I'm just interested in touring the quaint towns, do some window shopping, go somewhere nice for lunch/dinner. I was thinking of East Hampton, Arragansat (I'm sure I spelled that wrong!), and maybe Mauntak for the lighthouse (again, bad spelling!)
The wedding is in Seaford, so that's where my hotel is. How much farther is the Hamptons? I figured maybe 1 1/2 hours?

Thanks again for all of your help!!

Well, to go all the way out to Amagansett and Montauk from Manhattan on a Friday morning/early afternoon would take you *easily* 3+ hours (once you get out East, it's a two-lane "highway"). From Seaford, I would say it's about 2+ hours, with traffic.

If you do it, I would drive non-stop as far out as you plan to go, then visit places on the way back so you don't get caught in the afternoon rush.