Luxury Hamptons Car Service by Sedan, Sprinter or Coach

The premium run out of the city

The Hamptons sit at the eastern end of Long Island's South Fork, about a hundred miles from Midtown. There is no fast way there. Most trips take the Long Island Expressway out to Exit 70 at Manorville and then Route 27, known locally as Sunrise Highway and then Montauk Highway, past the Shinnecock Canal and through the villages one by one. Once past the canal, a single road carries almost everyone.

That is why the car matters on this trip in a way it does not across town. Two to three hours in a well-kept S550 or Escalade, with a chauffeur who knows when to leave the expressway early and which back roads move on a Friday, is a different journey from the same distance in a crowded train or a shared shuttle. The fare is flat and agreed before you go, so the traffic changes the arrival time, not the price.

The summer season

Demand follows the calendar. From Memorial Day to Labor Day the roads east fill on Friday afternoons and the roads west fill on Sunday afternoons, and the holiday weekends around the Fourth of July and the end of August are the busiest of all. A Friday that leaves Manhattan at two can take far longer than one that leaves at eleven or after eight.

We plan summer pickups around that. Book early for holiday weekends, when the best vehicles go first; tell us whether the priority is arriving by a set time or avoiding the worst of the traffic; and the chauffeur will suggest a departure that fits. Outside the season the same trip is usually close to its typical time, and the villages are quiet enough for a pickup almost anywhere.

Summer shares, estate events and groups

Groups in the Hamptons are rarely commuters. A summer share house sends a dozen friends out on a Friday with a weekend's luggage, which suits a 14-passenger Mercedes Sprinter with room for 14 bags better than three separate cars. For a smaller party that wants the trip to feel like part of the weekend, the Jet Sprinter seats 7 in a lounge cabin, from $1,750 as a flat fare from the city.

Estate events are the other group trip. Guests arrive at an estate in Southampton or East Hampton from a hotel, a station or the city, and a mini bus seating up to 38, a 40-passenger charter bus or a 55-passenger motor coach can shuttle them between a parking area and the house so the lanes are not lined with cars. Company retreats booked into the East End use the same vehicles for the arrival day and the return.

Large vehicles need a plan out east. Many estate drives are gravel lanes behind hedgerows, and village streets and beach roads are narrow and busy in summer, so a mini bus or coach is given a loading point agreed with the host in advance, with smaller vehicles running the last stretch where needed.

Getting around once you are out east

Once in the Hamptons, the distances are short but the summer roads are slow. From the middle of the South Fork, Southampton and East Hampton are each typically 15 to 25 minutes away, Sag Harbor 10 to 20 minutes and Montauk 35 to 55 minutes. A car kept by the hour, an executive sedan from $85 or an Escalade from $95, covers a day of beach, village and dinner stops without anyone having to find parking.

Pickups in the Hamptons are far outside Manhattan's congestion relief zone. The charge only enters a trip when it ends inside the zone in Manhattan, and in that case we confirm what applies at booking.

Hamptons car service from NYC, by borough and airport

A Hamptons car service from NYC usually starts in Manhattan, and the fares above are priced from there, but the same flat fare applies to a pickup in Brooklyn, Queens or the Bronx: the run simply joins the Long Island Expressway or Sunrise Highway from the far side of the East River instead of crossing it first. Staten Island, Nassau and Suffolk, Westchester, Connecticut and northern New Jersey are served as well, quoted on the exact address when you book, and Brooklyn has a route page of its own.

From the airports, JFK is the natural start: typically 105 to 150 minutes by the Belt Parkway and Sunrise Highway, with the flight tracked and the chauffeur waiting at arrivals. LaGuardia is 2 to 3 hours by the Long Island Expressway, and Newark Liberty and Teterboro are longer, typically 150 to 210 minutes from either, because the run crosses the whole of the city before it reaches Long Island. JFK, LaGuardia and Newark each carry a flat Hamptons fare of their own on the booking page; a Teterboro pickup is quoted on the trip.

Car service to the Hamptons: how booking works

A car service to the Hamptons is quoted online in about a minute. The booking page asks for the pickup address, the house or hotel out east, the date and the time, and answers with a fare for every vehicle in the fleet: the flat Hamptons and Montauk fares above for a sedan, an Escalade, the Jet Sprinter and a Sprinter, and flat fares of their own for the mini buses and the coach.

Choose the vehicle, add the passenger details and a card, and the booking is made. The card reserves the date rather than paying for it: the fare is only charged 24 to 48 hours before pickup; a trip booked inside 24 hours is the one case where the card is charged at once. Flight details go on an airport pickup so the chauffeur tracks the arrival, the gate code and the driveway go on an estate pickup, and a Monday return or a second pickup in the city is added by dispatch, which is staffed 24/7, 365 days a year on (718) 360-9383.

The flat fare is all-inclusive. Tolls, fees and tax are inside the number, so the figure on the booking page is the figure the card is charged. For a sedan or an Escalade collecting at JFK or LaGuardia, the chauffeur can also come inside the terminal to meet you at arrivals rather than waiting at the kerb; ask for the meet-and-greet when you book.