Built in 1933, the 350-seat Art Deco theater was hailed as “the Radio City Music Hall of Long Island,” but fell into disrepair in the late 1980s. It was renovated in 2013, with a new LED marquee that lights up Main Street in Riverhead and a performance space that can be set up cabaret-style or more traditionally, and now hosts the most popular touring acts that come to the area.

The speed limit on Dune Road is 30 mph, which is all the better for taking in the views of the ocean, sand, and massive beach houses on the two-lane strip. Those homes are often occupied by celebrities; New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, soap opera star Susan Lucci, and magazine editor Tina Brown have all resided there.

Take a ferry over the bay to the North Fork of Long Island, a more rustic area that’s been called the “un-Hamptons,” and tour its dozens of vineyards, wineries, and tasting rooms. At many of them, you can work your way through a flight of wines while taking in prime views of the Long Island Sound. Two we like are Croteaux and Corey Creek, or check out our map for more. (Or, if you want to limit your wine-tasting to the South Fork, try Duck Walk or Channing Daughters.)

Seven miles of trails run through this network of forests, ponds, and a pine grove of rare short-and-squat dwarf pines. The refuge also houses native New York animals that can no longer be outdoors due to injury, including a bobcat, a bald eagle, owls, falcons, and hawks.  

Revelers wait in line for hours to get into this tent-draped bar that’s open only on Sundays from around 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and has been called “the happiest place on earth.” Inside, bartenders hand out smiley-face stickers, patrons sing along to golden oldies-heavy playlists, and beer ends up sprayed or spilled on just about everything and everyone.

This American Indian-owned and -operated nonprofit center, built from Adirondack white pine, educates visitors about the 10,000-year history the Shinnecock tribe has in the area—and the hunting-and-fishing culture its people created.

The community center, which was constructed in 1897 out of wood—and had no heating system until it was updated in 1954—hosts art exhibitions, films, literary readings, and workshops for children. Plus, there’s a courtyard with a stage for concerts, outdoor movies, and occasional yoga classes.  

The museum was originally built in 1987 in Southampton as a home for prominent Quaker Samuel Parrish’s growing collection of Italian Renaissance art and reproductions of classical Greek and Roman statuary. But its holdings expanded so much—in part thanks to a local resident’s gift of her extensive collection of American art—that in 2012, the museum moved to 14 acres in Water Mill, into a Herzog & de Meuron-designed building with a stunning white corrugated metal roof.

Greenport, a centuries-old fishing village, is the most bustling town in the North Fork, the more low-key area across the bay from the Hamptons. There you can eat local oysters at Claudio’s Clambar, stroll or bike along the country roads, ride the village’s 100-year-old carousel, or browse the antiques at Beale & Bell or the model ships and other nautical gear at Preston’s.

The eastern end of Long Island may have the largest concentration of windmills in the U.S.—most were built between 1795 and 1820 and used by early residents to help grind their grain into flour. Plot out a windmill tour using our map here.  

The must-hit cluster of antique shops in Sag Harbor includes Black Swan (26 Main Street) for nautical wares such as ship paintings and wooden mermaids; Sage Street Antiques (114 Division Street), which is open only on weekends, but worth the wait; La Maisonette (34 Bay Street) for its stock of French and Belgian antiques; and Ruby Beets (25 Washington Street), which is set up in a former silent movie theater.

In total, the Wölffer Estate includes 470 acres, but only 52 of them are in the Hamptons (the rest is spread around Mendoza, Argentina; Mallorca, Spain; and Long Island’s North Fork). In Sagaponack, New York, you can reserve a tour of the vineyard and the wine cellar, which includes a four-wine tasting. Plus, Wölffer also makes dry cider and gin. On Fridays and Saturdays in the summer, the estate’s Wine Stand is open, and it’s become a popular post-beach spot for drinking wine and watching the sun sink behind the vineyard.

The 36-acre refuge has a unique double-dunes, which have become rare in the Hamptons due to development, and several rare plants, including a few kinds of orchids. The birds in the refuge change with the season, but in the summer, you’ll see protected shorebirds, such as piping plovers and least terns.

Come upon the dunes and you’ll wonder how it’s possible the Hamptons just turned into the Sahara. The sand hills here were formed 100 years ago and are constantly shifting (which is why they’re called “walking” dunes). They’re massive—they can get up to 80 feet tall—but worth the climb so you can get a better view of nearby Napeague Harbor.  

Getting into Gurney’s Spa requires booking an $85 treatment (at minimum) and a $30 facility fee, but doing so will also get you access to all of its European amenities, including a Roman bath, Finnish rock sauna, Russian steam room, Swiss shower, and—the best part—an indoor, ocean-fed seawater pool with panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean, the only one of its kind in North America.  

The mysterious former military base, which inspired Netflix’s Stranger Things, is marked by an enormous, fenced-off 126-foot radar dish built in 1958. As a working base, it featured concrete bunkers that hid coastal defense artillery and was rumored to be involved in several secret government experiments. Today it’s a heavily wooded state park, with a long expanse of beachfront, that leads to the Montauk Point Lighthouse, the oldest lighthouse in New York. Climb the 137 steps to the top to get 360-degree views of Block Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean.

These 60 acres of woodlands, grasslands, and salt march are home to the few blue-winged and prairie warblers on Long Island, who make their nests in the bluestem and switchgrass found here. In the spring and summer, you’ll also see wading birds and osprey.

This bar on Main Street in Amagansett, in an old house with an American flag draped over the entrance, is also a tiny music venue that has hosted big names, such as Jimmy Buffett, Billy Joel, and Bon Jovi, as well as beloved hometown acts. All styles of music are welcome, from reggae to electronica to pop, and the party goes until 3:30 a.m.

In 1976, artist Robert Dash created this garden on almost two acres in Sagaponack so he could paint in peace—madoo means “my dove” in Scottish—and opened it to the public in 1994, with painting classes, storytelling hours for children, and free admission.

There are five trails throughout these 2,039 acres of interlacing tidal creeks, woodlands, fields and coastline, in distances ranging from one mile to 12. In the summer, look for birds like towhees, scarlet tanagers, Baltimore orioles, and red-tailed hawks. Plus, smaller creatures abound, such as monarch and swallowtail butterflies, and, in the water, clams, blue claw crabs, and a variety of fishes.