The best day to drive in to the Hamptons is Thursday evening. Failing that, Friday before 11 am or after 8 pm is your next best bet. Friday between 2 and 8 pm is the absolute worst time to go. Sunday, if you have to go, try to get on the road early or wait until after 7 or 8 pm.
JFK to East Hampton off-peak is about two hours and 18 minutes door to door; in the summer, at the Friday or Sunday peak, add another 45 minutes to two hours. But much of that will depend on the timing.
Exit 70
Take the LIE east until you reach Exit 70. Get off on Exit 70 and continue on County Road 111 to Route 27. If you head out there on a Friday afternoon, all seems pretty clear up to Exit 70. It’s just after that that things bog down, and you start to creep along in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Everyone heading in or out of the Hamptons must pass through the Shinnecock Canal at some point. And this is the bottleneck. East of the canal, Route 27 narrows down to two lanes. If you get behind a pokey driver or there is an accident, you are trapped. There is no other route you can take to get through the area.
Leave on Friday
On Friday, your best bet is to try to miss the afternoon. Traffic going in starts to build up at 2 pm, and then stays backed up along Sunrise Highway until about 8 pm on most Fridays. The worst part of it can be between 4 and 6 pm, and the trip can get up to nearly four hours. That is a long time to spend in a car.
Let’s say you have to leave on Friday. There are ways to make the best of it. Your best bet here is to go early morning or stay late. If you can make it down early on Friday, say by 11 am, you will miss the worst of the traffic. Many people leave work early to go out to the Hamptons on Friday. Try to miss all of that. Another option is to leave Manhattan as early as possible. The farther you can get east before people start to stream out, the better.
If you are going to be ready to leave at 3 pm, don’t. Wait and leave after 8 pm, after the traffic has died down. If you are arriving at JFK in the afternoon, you can wait out the traffic in the terminal, with a long meal at the airport, and leave after 8 pm. It’s worth the wait.
On the Long Island Expressway, the HOV lane is now in effect on Mondays through Fridays from 3 to 8 pm. You will look at the HOV lane, for cars with two or more people, and say why can’t I use that? Well, that is a violation and can mean a $150 ticket.
Holiday weekends are their own separate beast.
The Worst of the Traffic Back
Going back on Sunday, you have two options. You can leave early, or stay late, say until around 7 or 8 pm. The worst of the traffic back is the middle of the afternoon. There is something about Sunday afternoon that transforms people. They all look at the clock at the same time and decide they must go back to the city. If you leave then, you will get stuck in terrible traffic.
Sure, you can use traffic apps like Waze. Those will help a bit. But there’s only one route in, and that is the same route everyone else is on, including the buses. I haven’t yet seen an app that can create a parallel route to the Hamptons. So, before you leave, check how much traffic there is, and see if the ETA is acceptable. If it isn’t, wait. Your time is better spent doing something else than sitting in traffic. Every now and then, there are accidents on Sunrise Highway. If you are going to be passing through that section, it’s a good idea to check the traffic reports first.
