4 retro Long Island motels to explore on the North Fork

Long Island's full-throttle embrace of car excursions post-WWII led travelers to eschew hotels — places with lodging and food — in favor of motels, places with lodging and parking. The typically one-story structures, in which guests could drive up to the doors of their rooms, sprouted up all over the East End in the 1950s and ’60s, only to fall into disfavor — and, in some cases, disrepair — as the century wore on.

Over the past decade, a few on the North Fork have sprung back to spectacular life thanks to new ownership, tasteful renovations and incentives provided by the area’s ongoing transformation from a modest to high-end destination. At least four midcentury motels occupying enviable waterfront real estate have been completely overhauled and now cost a lot more than they used to. But each has also maintained some of the postwar spirit, easy vibe and comfortable coziness it was born with, vividly recalling a time when trips to serenity were just a car ride away.

Aqua Beach Hotel (b. 1964, Dreamer’s Cove Inn)

15 Bay Ave., Aquebogue

The 2018 morphing of this property into an adults-only resort may seem at odds with its 18-room, unassuming beginnings, and it is in a way. You won’t see children on the grounds, but you will find an intimate sauna just steps from the hotel’s private Peconic Bay beach, along with a large Jacuzzi and several smaller two-person ones parked on the private decks of eight of its rooms.  Aqua Beach — like Greenport’s American Beech hotel, a sister property — is selling a restorative experience, offering everything from in-room massages to a healthy wine list and well-stocked minibars in its rooms.

The latter are especially helpful because there are no bars or restaurants on site (and never have been), although guests wake to picnic baskets of bagels and other breakfast fare waiting outside their doors. And while the clientele may differ these days, the new owners scrupulously kept the bones of the place, adding only a narrow interior hallway to separate the parking lot and rooms, as well as feather-soft king beds within. These decisions, and many more, have turned Aqua Beach into a mecca for those who dream of escape, a Dreamer’s Inn indeed.

Rates  Start at $329 in June. 

More info 631-722-3212, aquahotelbeachclub.com

Sound View (b. 1953, Sound Shore Motel)

58775 County Rd 48, Greenport

There are hotels on the water, and then there’s this marvel improbably propped up by stilts in the sand, its 55 rooms so close to Long Island Sound guests could well surfcast from their private decks. Also waterside are a large pool and snack bar known as Jack’s Shack, an homage to the concession stand that Jack Levin and his wife Donna opened on the site in 1935. Encouraged by its popularity, the Levins got bigger ideas, opening a motel, the Sound Shore, there in the ’50s. The property stayed in the family till nearly a decade ago, reopening in 2019 after a dramatic update that brought a more modern, luxurious and airy look to its public areas and cedar paneling to its rooms (a couple of suites even have private hot tubs).

There’s nightly music at the piano bar and fancy fare at the on-site restaurant The Halyard, its menu loaded with seasonal and locally sourced offerings. And while the clientele and price point may have changed, the Sound View’s essence has not. It’s still the spiritual home for barefoot and sandy seekers of placidity, still the place for brief escapes from the Island, even if it’s only by stilts.

Rates  Start at $421 in June.

More info 631-477-1910, soundviewgreenport.com

Silver Sands Motel & Beach Bungalows (b. 1957, Silver Sands)

1400 Silvermere Rd., Greenport

Given that the midcentury represented a high-water mark for both motels and counter-service diners, it’s surprising how few properties contained both. But the Silver Sands’ redesign — which debuted last summer — is exceptional in many ways, not least in its seamless blend of past and present, as exhibited by the motel’s revamped diner, Nookies.

Period sea foam green banquettes and bar stools, opaline glass lamps and ’50s crockery make it a perfect place for short-stack pancakes, BLTs and root beer floats, but also steak frites, aubergine melts and Pipes Cove oysters on the half-shell harvested from the motel’s own underwater Peconic Bay farm.

A similarly inspired mix is echoed in the motel’s 20 rooms and 13 bungalows and shacks (if a place with private gardens and outdoor showers can be called a shack), and one wishes that the Sands’ original owners, Florence and Thomas Jurzenia — whose motel itself was inspired by a cross-country skiing driving trip — had lived to see what’s changed, as well as what hasn’t. The 1,400-square-foot private beach has been wonderfully maintained, as has the Jurzenias’ commitment to homey, effortless charm.

Rates  Start at $445 in June. 

More info 631-997-1957, silversandsmotel.com

Hotel Moraine (b. 1960, Sunset Motel)

62005 County Rd. 48 in Greenport

“The fabulous North Fork resort area! L.I.’s most desirable fun spot,” reads an old Newsday ad for the Silver Sands, Dreamer’s Inn and this midcentury motel, another Levin family property just up the road from the Sound View. In this case, the motel itself did not survive the transition to new ownership, but its vibe, along with dramatic views of Long Island Sound inspired both the original name — Sunset — and the new one (the hotel sits atop a moraine, i.e., a high ridge left behind by a receding glacier).

Proof that luxury need not preclude family friendliness, the 20-room property reopened last year with plenty of amenities that adults crave — private terraces and fireplaces in some rooms — and children live for, from ice cream socials to games and activities. Both will appreciate what is perhaps the Moraine’s most attractive addition, a heated saltwater Gunite pool, not to mention the private beach and well-landscaped three-acre grounds. The location makes it ideal for beach-winery trips, including Southold’s Croteaux Vineyards, which is partly run by the Moraine’s owners and is five miles away in one direction, yet provides easy access to Greenport village, a few miles the other way and easily accessible via the hotel’s bicycles. And while the old motel is but a memory, the ambience that attracted vacationers for decades — a marriage of elegance and simplicity — is very much in evidence, a marriage that makes the entire North Fork fabulous and desirable to this day.

Rates  Start at $475 in June. 

More info 631-477-1776, hotelmoraine.com

By Scott Vogel

scott.vogel@newsday.com

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.