US travel: A holiday from New York in Long Island

History, culture and great food – there’s much more to Long Island than TV sitcoms show us, writes Stephanie Holmes

Where:

At the southern tip of New York State, east of New York City. Long Island is divided into four counties – Queens and Kings (Brooklyn), which fall under New York City’s jurisdiction, and Nassau and Suffolk. The east end of the island in Suffolk County is made up of the North and South Forks.

Why go:

It takes barely any time at all to get from the cacophonic chaos of New York City to the peace and calm of Long Island. The Long Island Rail Road provides easy access to many of the most desirable towns on the map, so you can go for a day trip or a short getaway from the city that never sleeps.

Long Island is perhaps best known to Kiwis as the home of the Hamptons, the beach playground of Manhattan’s rich and famous. If, like me, you get most of your New York knowledge from re-runs of Sex and the City, you’ll know the Hamptons as the location Carrie and the girls go to for their summer holidays.

However, there’s much more to Long Island than location episodes of your favourite comedy-drama. You’ll also find fishing ports, farms, vineyards, harbour towns, lighthouses, and a rich history dating back thousands of years, from indigenous Native American history, to colonisation by Dutch and English settlers, to its booming whaling, shipbuilding and…