Day trip: Long Beach fun along the boardwalk
A little more than two miles in length, the Long Beach boardwalk is a free and easy way to stroll along the beach without getting sand in your shoes. You'd need to buy a pass to actually enter the beach ($15, children 12 and under are free; weekends May 25-June 23, daily June 27-Sept. 2, 2019 from 9 a.m.- 6 p.m.), but parking is always free. Be sure and keep an eye out for art shows, vendor markets and other opportunities that pop up throughout the summer season. ( longbeachny.gov) Credit: Yvonne Albinowski
This “City by the Sea” boasts three-and-a-half miles of beach and more than two miles of boardwalk with a veritable buffet of concession stands.
Surf, swim, stroll or snack at the Shoregasboard — a food truck market that serves lunch and dinner daily from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and breakfast on the weekend beginning at 9:30 a.m. Shoregasboard is located where Riverside Boulevard meets the beach.
An I.Fly Trapeze instructor in Long Beach. Credit: Barry Sloan
As you peruse, there’s ample opportunity to be active — whether by sand, sea or sky. I.FLY Trapeze (516-640-1579, iflytrapeze.com) is a recreational flying trapeze and circus arts school that offers lessons at all skill levels for adventurers as young as 4.
Take a stand on a paddleboard provided by Skudin Surf (516-318-3993, skudinsurf.com). The surf school offers instruction on stand-up paddleboarding and surfing, board rentals and surf camp for children and adults. Surf2Live (516-236-1070, surf2livelb.com) also runs weekly surf camps from June through August for children and adults, as well as parties and private lessons.
Steve Magliano mixes cocktails at Lost at Sea in Long Beach. Credit: Daniel Brennan
All this activity is sure to work up an appetite that can be satisfied by any number of eateries, including Lost At Sea — a 26-seat cash-only restaurant open Wednesday through Sunday that is as innovative with its seafood dishes as it is with its cocktails. (516-632-5263) You can throw one back at Speakeasy — a Prohibition era-themed spot that serves lunch and dinner to locals and out-of-towners alike. There's live music at night. (516-889-3279, speakeasylb.com).
Dough Hut in Long Beach sells doughnuts in such varieties as maple-bacon, French toast and vanilla cake. Credit: Newsday/Erica Marcus
Dough Hut, which is open daily from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., is a tiny shop packing homemade novelty doughnut varieties by the dozens. Among the most popular is Fruity Pebbles, which as its moniker suggests, is topped with the popular breakfast cereal of the same name (516-432-1400).
