Quiet beach within driving distance from NYC?
 

Are there any quiet beaches you'd recommend within about a four hour drive from NYC? It would have to be over July 4th, though, which I know makes it harder to find a quiet place on a holiday weekend. I'm in NYC for work that week and would just love to find a quiet beach area with hotel or camping for a couple nights at least. Able to leave the city Wednesday evening, flying home out of JFK Saturday evening.

Also...I guess we'd rent a car. (Any advice on getting out of the city on public transportation and renting a car outside of the city?)

Thanks for any ideas!

Dollar Car Rental has a few locations in the city that are open until 10pm Wednesday night. Book now, you can always cancel...but they will sell out that weekend. Addresses are on the dollar.com website, $65 per day for cars.

Or you could take the train to Mystic Connecticut and try Stonington Beach:
http://gonewengland.about.com/od/new...uboisbeach.htm
www.secondpenny.com

(Forgot to note that the Second Penny Inn is a couple of miles from the beach, but you can rent bicycles while there. And not sure if they have availability those nights).

How about The Breakers in Spring Lake, NJ?
Or Madison Beach Hotel in Madison, CT

The Ocean House Hotel in Watch Hill RI has a pretty beach with access only through the hotel path (or from the ocean) should be quiet.

I would take the LIRR Montauk line to Southhampton - easy walk to Hertz. From there, lots of options. Montauk is where I'd go.

Wherever you're gonna go, BOOK YOUR CAR NOW!

Oh and you can take the train back to Jamaica, then take the train to the plane to JFK. NO DRIVING in godawful messy hot stinking holiday traffic.

You may have problems over a busy holiday weekend if you don't plan to stay over on Saturday night. Many hotels don't allow arrivals on Saturday and expect people to stay over.

And renting a car from Manhattan in the summer may also prove both difficult and expensive. Leaving on Wednesday is definitely going to be to your advantage. Many hotels may also be booked for that weekend. You might look a bit further afield to Cape May, in far south New Jersey. It's about a three to four-hour drive from the city and is quieter than most of the Jersey Shore. But I like the idea of Watch Hill as well.

If you have to get there by public transit, then you'll be more limited, but I can't recommend Montauk, which has become quite the party scene in the summer. It's liable to be more raucous than you might expect. Beaches near NYC get VERY crowded over July 4 weekend, which is typically the busiest weekend of the entire summer.

<i>If you have to get there by public transit, then you'll be more limited</i>

I mentioned that there's a Hertz across the street from the Southhampton station stop.

People face the same problems renting from out-of-Manhattan car-rental outlets as they do from Manhattan on busy summer weekends. There are a lot of folks who go to the Hamptons or Montauk every weekend from Manhattan by train and rent there. Just as it's almost impossible to get a car at the Hertz outlet across from the train station in North White Plains on a busy summer weekend.

I agree. But you made it sound like my advice was *only* to take the train. And I said it in caps, book a car immediately. I just tried on Hertz. Still available.

Thanks, everyone! This is really helpful. I'm finding that if we stay over the 4th, we would need to stay four nights, which I can't do. I'm looking into several of the suggestions here and have found a couple good possibilities. Also thinking about maybe just doing a day trip and not staying the night...

If we were to do just a day trip and NOT rent a car, any advice on a beach that wouldn't be partying teenagers on the 3rd?

None close by that I can think of.

I was able to find availability in the Hamptons 7/3-7/5 via airbnb.

If you do not need to have an ocean beach, but would be ok with a bay or sound beach, you might consider the North Fork. I doubt if you will find any partying teenagers on the 3rd or any other day. There are some spectacular, boulder strewn beaches near the tip of the islalnd.

+1 Ekscrunchy. Meant to mention that and outskirts of Montauk.