Nonstop flights from Long Island MacArthur Airport for a spring escape
Plan your spring or summer escape to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Credit: Getty Images/Chansak Joe
Despite its ease, convenience and — sometimes — rock-bottom prices, many Long Islanders have yet to experience the wonder that is Islip’s MacArthur Airport. Here are just three fun spots where you can fly nonstop for a spring or summer escape.
Orlando
An escape to Orlando (featuring above, travel writer Scott Vogel) may include a trip to Disney, or at least a stay at its nearby resorts. Credit: Randee Daddona
No fewer than three airlines — Frontier, JetBlue and Southwest — offer nonstop flights to this perennially popular destination and its ever-expanding entertainment options. Case in point: Universal Epic Universe, the resort’s fourth theme park that opens May 22, a $6 billion effort built around five immersive worlds dedicated to everything from "Harry Potter" to Super Nintendo.
Concomitantly, Universal opened three jaw-dropping resort hotels, among them its 750-room Terra Luna resort adjacent to the park. Otherwise, summer in the Magic Kingdom will see the debut of Disney Starlight, a new nighttime parade, and a few additions to Disney Springs, a sprawling outdoor mall with lots of surprisingly good food and drink options.
New Orlando area restaurants of note include the very popular pan-Asian Mills Market and The Drake, a wildly successful food truck turned eclectic brick-and-mortar eatery.
Myrtle Beach
Frontier Airlines flies nonstop to this South Carolina playcation spot. (Southwest operates many direct flights as well that involve a stop at Baltimore’s BWI airport but no change of planes.)
Just a two-hour flight from Islip, this Atlantic coast destination’s draws include 60 miles of beaches and Broadway at the Beach, a shopping, eating and entertainment complex with rides, including some for small children and Myrtle Beach’s first board game cafe, the newly opened Space @ Kaleidoscope. New hotels include two oceanfront properties, the 238-room Ellie Beach Resort, a Hilton property, and the 152-room Holiday Inn Club Vacations hotel. New places to eat include the area’s first conveyor belt restaurant, the Asian fusion Mura, and Uptown Bistro & Bakery, an all-day eatery specializing in everything from pancakes to steak.
Explore the Brookgreen Gardens while visiting Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. Credit: Getty Images / iStockphoto
Boston
Explore the Old State House or take a stroll by the harbor in Boston. Credit: Getty Images / DenisTangneyJr; Ken Wiedemann
For most Long Islanders, a trip to Bean Town usually involves no less than four hours of driving on one of the country’s busiest interstates. Islip’s newest arrival, JetBlue, begins daily flights to and from Boston on April 30.
Spring and summer bring some of the area’s biggest events, including June’s Boston Pride and one of the country’s largest Fourth of July celebrations. New places to stay include the 112-room Pennyweight Hotel downtown and the 65-room Whitney in Beacon Hill, while food and drink hot spots include Black Ruby in Cambridge, a cunning mix of burgers and Thai, and D16, a speakeasy carved out of an old Back Bay police station.
Newsday writer and restaurant critic Scott Vogel aims for a refreshing, gimlet-eyed take on the Long Island food scene, often while drinking a refreshing gimlet.
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