Hamptons Verified

Traveling with a Dog

Which beaches allow dogs and when, the parking permit each one needs, and the trails and inns that are actually pet friendly. Beach by beach, not by rumor.

Dog beach rules, by town

Set beach by beach, not townwide, and most change with the season. Parking is a separate permit, listed below each beach or in the parking checker.

East Hampton

Southampton

Shelter Island

Southold

Riverhead

Dog-friendly places

Trails whose own manager allows dogs, and stays whose own listing says pet friendly. No restaurant patio yet, that field doesn’t exist here, so nothing is guessed.

Trails

South Fork

  • Wolf Swamp Preserve· Bridgehampton

    Peconic Land Trust preserve of oak-hickory woods and a quiet swamp. Part of the Long Pond Greenbelt corridor. Excellent early-spring wildflowers and a complete absence of crowds.

  • Barcelona Neck· East Hampton

    Quiet woodland with a network of fire roads and footpaths ending at Barcelona Beach on Northwest Harbor. Bird-rich in spring and fall migration. The DEC-managed section connects to the town Northwest Path.

  • Buckskill Trail· East Hampton

    Quiet East Hampton town connector through oak-pine woods between Buckskill Road and Stephen Hands Path. Mostly flat, good for a fast dog walk or an easy mountain-bike loop.

  • Cedar Point County Park — Lighthouse Trail· East Hampton

    Flat trail from the campground to the 1860 Cedar Point Lighthouse on Gardiners Bay. The lighthouse was on an island until the 1938 Hurricane filled in the channel. Great family walk with a clear destination.

  • Maidstone Park Trails· East Hampton

    East Hampton town park on Gardiners Bay. Loop through pitch pine woods to a narrow beach on Three Mile Harbor. Kids, dogs, and a picnic at the end is the classic Sunday.

  • Munns Pond County Park· East Hampton

    Short loop around a coastal plain pond in a Suffolk County nature preserve. Spring peepers in April, swamp azalea in May, and the rare Plymouth gentian in late summer.

  • Northwest Path· East Hampton

    Five miles of East Hampton Town trails through the Northwest Woods, ending at Northwest Harbor. Quiet even on summer weekends. Easy mountain biking; connects to Barcelona Neck at the north end.

  • Two Mile Hollow Beach Trail· East Hampton

    A short dune walk from the Two Mile Hollow lot out over the primary dune and down the beach. Dogs allowed off-leash before 9 a.m. and after 6 p.m. in summer. The locals' dog-walking beach.

  • Atlantic Double Dunes Preserve· Amagansett

    A Nature Conservancy preserve running between the primary and secondary dune lines. Beach plum, bayberry, prickly pear cactus, and migratory songbirds in spring. Boardwalk sections over the frailest dune faces.

  • Cranberry Hole Preserve· Amagansett

    Small Amagansett preserve named for the historic cranberry bogs that once dotted Napeague. The loop passes a quiet pond and a pitch pine stand. Near-zero crowds.

  • Big Reed Pond Trail (Theodore Roosevelt County Park)· Montauk

    Quiet loop around a freshwater pond on the Montauk moors. Beavers, wood ducks, and a stand of hardwoods that burn gold in October. Part of the county's Third House Nature Center complex.

  • Camp Hero — Battery Osborne Loop· Montauk

    Cold War radar base converted to state park. The SAGE radar tower still looms over the trail. Loop passes coastal gun batteries, oak scrub, and a bluff-edge view straight at the Montauk Lighthouse.

  • Hither Woods Loop· Montauk

    Blue-blazed loop through oak and pitch pine, kettle ponds, and the Serpent's Back ridge. Flip-flopped clockwise gets the climb out of the way early. Deer, box turtles, and more ticks than you want — full pants are the move.

  • Montauk Point State Park Trails· Montauk

    The easternmost tip of Long Island. Trail loops around the 1796 lighthouse, past Oyster Pond, and down to a pebble beach where harbor seals haul out in winter. This is where the Paumanok Path ends.

  • Paumanok Path (Hither Woods section)· Montauk

    The long-distance trail of Long Island, 125 miles from Rocky Point east to Montauk Point. Most people day-hike a section, and the Hither Woods segment is the classic — oak and pine forest, kettle ponds, a ridge-line view over Napeague Harbor, the Atlantic on the south side.

  • Shadmoor State Park Bluff Trail· Montauk

    A short loop on the high bluffs east of Montauk village. World War II concrete bunkers sit right at the cliff edge. Fenced overlooks, Atlantic horizon, and a stair path down to Shadmoor Beach at low tide.

  • Long Pond Greenbelt· Sag Harbor

    A 6.5-mile corridor of interconnected ponds from Sag Harbor south to Sagaponack, one of the largest contiguous coastal plain pond systems in the state. Rare sedges, globally uncommon plants, and a lot of quiet.

  • Accabonac Harbor Trails· Springs

    Nature Conservancy preserve on the east side of Accabonac Harbor. Salt marsh, osprey platforms, diamondback terrapin in the tidal creeks. Great dawn walk for birders. Flat and short.

  • Walking Dunes Trail (Napeague State Park)· Napeague

    The famous migrating parabolic dunes on Napeague. Climb a 40-foot sand wall, walk the cranberry bog, pass the phantom forest where the advancing dune is slowly burying a stand of pitch pines. Best at low sun.

  • Sears-Bellows County Park· Hampton Bays

    Classic pine barrens loop around Sears and Bellows Ponds. Pitch pine, scrub oak, fishing, and a short spur to a small beach. Part of the larger Hampton Bays trail complex connecting to Hubbard County Park.

  • Cupsogue Beach County Park Outer Beach Trail· Westhampton

    Outer-beach walk from the Cupsogue parking lot west along the dune line toward Moriches Inlet. Piping plovers and least terns in summer (ropes off nest zones), shorebird mecca in fall migration.

North Fork

  • Wildwood State Park Bluff Loop· Wading River

    Oak-hickory upland with an eroding bluff high above Long Island Sound. Steep trail descent to the Sound beach, and a long upland trail network that stays quiet even on Labor Day. Connects to the Suffolk Greenway.

  • Hallock State Park Preserve· Riverhead

    The newest state park on Long Island. 225 acres of oak forest, coastal ponds, and a bluff trail that drops to a quiet Long Island Sound beach. Kiosk and nature center at the lot. No swimming.

  • Indian Island County Park — Peconic River Trails· Riverhead

    A Peconic River estuary park where the river meets Flanders Bay. Flat loop with a view of the narrows, a campground, and a shoreline of reeds and osprey platforms.

  • Laurel Lake Preserve· Laurel

    Peconic Land Trust property around Laurel Lake, the largest freshwater lake on the North Fork. Short loop through oak woods with a lake overlook. Early-morning for bird song.

  • Goldsmith Inlet County Park· Peconic

    Short beach walk at the mouth of Goldsmith Inlet, a tidal pond on the Long Island Sound. Harbor seals in winter, osprey in summer, and a rarely crowded stretch of Sound beach.

  • Peconic Dunes County Park· Peconic

    A Suffolk County park on the Long Island Sound bluffs. Woods trail loops down to a pebbly Sound beach. Traditionally the 4-H camp; quiet during the school year.

  • Arshamomaque Preserve· Southold

    Southold Town preserve with a boardwalk through a freshwater swamp and a short upland loop. Excellent spring migration birding. Quiet even in July.

  • Cedar Beach Point Trails· Southold

    Southold town park at the tip of a narrow peninsula in Hog Neck Bay. Short trail through dune and salt marsh to a quiet bay beach. Osprey platform and a wide view across to Shelter Island.

  • Inlet Pond County Park· Greenport

    Short loop around a coastal pond between NY-48 and the Long Island Sound. Salt marsh viewing deck, glacial erratics, and a spur to the Sound beach. Lots of birders in spring migration.

  • Orient Beach State Park Trail· Orient

    Long narrow barrier on Gardiners Bay. Trail runs the length of the park past a globally rare maritime red cedar forest to the Long Beach Bar Lighthouse (the 'Bug Light'). Osprey, marsh hawks, and piping plovers.

Shelter Island

  • Sylvester Manor Educational Farm· Shelter Island

    A 243-acre working historic farm on Shelter Island, the oldest surviving provisioning plantation in the northeastern US. The trail network crosses pasture, woodland, and a salt marsh, with interpretive signs about the Manhansett people and the 1652 manor house.

See all 32 dog-friendly trails on the map (each trail’s manager and source are on its own page)

Stays

More stays, filtered to pet friendly

One thing to know: ticks

Lyme and babesiosis are endemic on the East End. Use repellent and check for ticks after any outdoor time. Check the dog too. Full guidance is on Health & Safety.

Source: Suffolk County Dept of Health Services — Tick Pathogen Surveillance Program ↗

Goes straight to a human. Not a public comment.