For the Hamptons International Film Festival 2026, from October 2 through October 12, the best way to get around is with a private chauffeured car, booked around your itinerary and timed to the line. The festival screens films in East Hampton, Sag Harbor and Southampton, so book a private car in advance to ferry you between screenings and afterparties, and if you want to be efficient, make the reservation based on arriving early enough to stand in line for tickets, not when the movie actually starts.
A typical day at the Hamptons film festival can mean getting up for a morning talk, a different theater in the afternoon, an evening premiere in East Hampton, an afterparty in the opposite direction — in theory, it’s one day. Driving yourself, taking your own car and relying on yourself as a chauffeur means that you will have to deal with the same traffic, the same waiting in line, and the same problems with parking that other attendees are faced with.
There are cheaper options: Show your film festival badge or movie ticket and ride any scheduled Hampton Jitney coach between Southampton and Montauk free of charge. East Hampton also runs a free shuttle loop on Saturday and Sunday of both weekends. The Reutershan lot, off Main Street, gives two free hours in the daytime, then charges beyond that.
Size of Vehicle
For a couple, sedan service is practical and fine. For a large party, the navigation challenge is thinking about space: if you’re arriving in groups, or carpooling with people, renting a sedan just won’t cut it. You would need to rent an SUV or a Sprinter. A sedan will suit one or two guests on a short trip: executives shuttling to meetings and award dinners, filmmakers coming into town for an intimate premiere screening. A larger SUV suits small groups on an extended stay, or families looking to make a week of the festival. Go up a size of vehicle for enough room to lay garment bags flat, to hold a tripod or to stretch out.
Reserving a Sprinter or van allows a small group to travel together under a single reservation, with one point of contact. Any larger groups might need to mix Sprinters and sedans. Assign members to specific cars so the lead passenger knows who should be in each. Whatever the vehicle, be sure to update the reservation with accurate passenger and bag counts.
Ground Transport in the Hamptons
Whether coming in from Brooklyn or Manhattan, a Hamptons car and driver can meet you at the door and transport you all the way out to the festival. Give as precise an address for pick-up as you can, and for drop-off too. Even with real-time traffic monitoring, it’s hard to promise an exact arrival time. Instead of booking by departure time, advise your driver or dispatcher of the ideal arrival time and be ready to go a little earlier or later to get the smoothest ride. For flying in, both JFK and LaGuardia work, and international arrivals should figure in more time for immigration and baggage collection. Specify which airline and flight number. You could look at using Long Island MacArthur airport too.
The festival’s seven venues spread from Guild Hall at 158 Main Street in East Hampton all the way to the Southampton Playhouse at 43 Hill Street in Southampton. Pack extra time if your itinerary puts you in Sag Harbor Cinema on Main Street one hour and in East Hampton for the next. When you book, allow more time on each leg than you think you need: queuing to get in may be its own challenge. The film festival requests that ticket holders arrive at least thirty minutes before the screening to line up for a seat, so synchronize transfers by line time rather than screen time.
Before asking for a quote for ground transport in the Hamptons, have a map of addresses ready: a full itinerary with all stops and times for morning talks, midday screenings, dinner and late-night awards shows. Work out a passenger count per trip; as well as full names, headcounts and addresses, a rental dispatch manager needs to know how many bags they’re packing per leg. Then pick one member of the party to be a lead passenger, with a mobile number where that person can be reached day and night.
Reserve hourly or as-directed service, where available, if your Hamptons Film Festival travels won’t follow a tidy schedule, or if you’d just feel more comfortable having someone on call. Share as much of your itinerary as you can, so the dispatcher can be clear about when a vehicle or driver is or isn’t at the ready. Share planned stops or waiting times, when you’re likeliest to need a driver, as well as your last screening of the festival.
Make sure the vehicle is legal. When booking with a New York company, check whether its cars or limos can make ground transportation journeys within the Hamptons. Suffolk County has generally required for-hire cars and limos to be registered with the county, but a car licensed in New York City, making trips between jurisdictions, is exempt. In the Hamptons, companies and drivers that don’t need a county license may still need a town license. The license to operate a for-hire vehicle within East Hampton can be obtained from the Town Clerk. Pick-ups and drop-offs in East Hampton are unaffected if your trip begins or ends outside town limits.
Book transportation as far ahead as you can to avoid busy spots. Awards nights and high-profile screenings can cause bunching, driving up demand on specific dates. Highlights include the East Coast premiere on Friday October 2 of I Play Rocky, directed by Peter Farrelly, with Anthony Ippolito as the young Sylvester Stallone. Bob Balaban, the actor, director and producer, will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award on Sunday October 11.
Never count on last-minute capacity. Venues and times may change, so reconfirm that you have the correct address and times for your event before confirming a pick-up.
