fire island

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It can depend on what kind of trip you're looking for. Ocean Beach has much going on in terms of restaurants and bars, thus attracting the younger crowd. Kismet is quieter and has a couple of places to hang out, it's also near the lighthouse which is kind of cool to check out. And there's other towns that are more family-focused. Pines and Cherry Grove are popular with the gay community.

It's probably too late to find a place for that weekend. Are you at all familiar with what Fire Island is? It's a string of little socio-economic enclaves on a quarter-mile wide sandbar, almost all houses. If you were able to find a place to stay, you'd need to decide who/what you're looking for first.

Starting from the westernmost community, there's the ex-trashy-young-LongIslanders-but-now-hipsterish one, then the historically-rich-Catholic one, then on and on, including two historically-gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered ones, a psycho-racist-religious-enclave-homeowners-association-don't-even-think-of-having-your-black-nanny-stay-with-you one, a family-friendly-quite-a-few-retail-businesses one, some laidback-family ones, some laidback-singles ones, etc.

My favorite, although I haven't been there for many many years, so it might have changed, is Davis Park -- superlaidback.

A good daytrip (this Saturday is looking nice) is LIRR to Patchogue and a short walk to the ferry to Watch Hill National Park, which has the daytripper facilities you won't find in Davis Park. Davis Park is a short walk west of Watch Hill

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=109344714996900751439.000001134b9721d0d3087

http://www.watchhillfi.com/

Or just stay with Steve.

There are very few places to overnight. Almost all in Ocean Beach. One in Ocean Bay Park. They will be booked. Tequila Jacks in Robin's Rest has bare bone rooms to rent over the bar/restaurant. Slight chance. Try a local realty firm and perhaps you can get a house to rent. There is also limited camping at Watch Hill. Fire Island is all about the beach and no pretensions, no cars, scavenging deer everywhere. It is one of the most unique places in the whole country. Seriously. I personally like the vibe in Fair Harbor.

Stay at the "Weasel Boy Inn." Tell em' Malraux sent ya'.

"Weasel Boy Inn", where is costs $200 a night but is only worth $120. Make sure you check out the tea dance.

You could also check on craigslist. There are share houses that may have an extra room or two for that weekend.

Can Stevejhx tell us why he felt Fire Island was such a great real estate investemnt. Afterall he could of rented there and saved a ton of money. What is the buy to rent ratio on Fire Island.

"Weasel Boy Inn."

Ah, JuiceMan, malraux - you can't win the real estate argument, so you resort to insults.

Sorry, but I'm booked for Labor Day with a friend from LA. After that, major renovations over the winter. New kitchen, new loft area, new bedroom, new staircase.

houser, stevejhx never buys residential owner-occupied real estate as an investment, because it's a crappy one. stevejhx buys residential owner-occupied real estate to live in it, which is what I do. It happens that I got a good deal on where I live, and I view it as capitalized rent. Alas, most "rentals" on Fire Island are shares, and I work there when I'm there, so a share is out of the question. That's why I bought an apartment.

JuiceMan, do contact if you want to come over for Tea.

I go to FI every summer, each year I stay in a different place.

Kismet is full of old hippies. They are cranky, and I advise staying away from them.

Ocean Beach is full of frat boys. It skews very young and is for those who like to drink until they vomit. If that's your scene, OB is for you.

Fair Harbour is the most mixed and most laid back. It's my personal favorate, the local custom is to have a sunset happy hour on the Bay, all you have to do is clad yourself in some fashion, bring a beverage and walk north.

Cherry Grove has a funky reputation, but I mostly found it overpriced. Ditto for the Pines -- it's very status conscious and has lost its old art colony vibe completely. If you want to show off your newest designer duds go to the Pines, otherwise hang west of there.

As the other posters have noted, it is one of the most unique places in the country and is all about the beach, which is breathtakingly beautiful. I think your best shot is Craigslist. If you don't see any ads there for what you want , post your own. Something along the lines of, "Sociable, laid back person seeks simple accomodations for Labor Day weekend, a spot in a share house is okay. I have a budget to work with of about $100 per night."

That's about what you should pay for an empty bed in a share house over Labor Day. Don't let em squeeze you for much more than that.

weasel boy:

I've already won the real estate argument.

20 years or so of extremely successful investment history in Manhattan residential real estate buying and selling (mostly, but not all, in the Village) bears that out. Sure, a few deals have gone not as well as one expected (nobody bats 1000%), but I'd put my record both in terms of ROR and ROI against yours over the same period any day. In fact, I'd bet you on that, but I know you'd find a creative way to weasel out, like you always do.

Never confuse my disagreement with you over specific views you have regarding the methodology you apply to decide how and when to buy, and how you determine value, with 'who's won the real estate argument.' From what I know, you bought and sold one joint in Florida, and you own one joint in Fire Island. You're far from an expert. You just have opinion - and that's fine - many of your opinions are worthwhile, but I certainly don't agree with all of them. But opinion will never substitue for a few decades experience, particularly when that experience has yielded (if I may say so) pretty spectacular actual real world results.

Never kid yourself. I know lots of people who have terribly informed ideas about the stock market. They can go on all day long about the methodology they've developed to determine how and what to buy. But that's not the same as a person who puts their opinions on the line day after day, year after year, and has the results at the end that actually bear out those opinions. So opine on.

You are becoming overly sensitive steve. I thought "Weasel Boy Inn" was pretty creative and was good for a laugh. The steve of old would have come back with something funny instead of referring to it as an "insult". Lighten up.

Thanks for the helpful comments! We ultimately decided on Providence, RI. But maybe we'll do FI next year!

The new StreetEasy format seems to be:
1. OP asks for advice and never comes back
2. Thread quickly devolves to the usual

And on that note, GraffitiGrammarian: your username demands that I remind you of the correct use of "unique". The 'uni' part of it means one. Something can't be "the most one", so "very unique", "one of the most unique", etc. won't work, even though your point is absolutely correct. "It's a unique place."

Your communities descriptions surprise me, although it's been a very long time since I've been to FI.

Kismet was youngish, downscale South Shore locals with major LawnGawylin accents, almost all staying in share houses. The houses all had names!!! Last I heard, it was gentrifying to Wmsbgh hipster-types. Old hippies would surprise me. But not at Davis Park, where they very probably rule supreme.

Ocean Beach was so totally family-oriented that I can't see it going fratboy.

Fair Harbor was one of a few (Lonelyville the best-named) that had just the right laid-back vibe. I could see those falling victim to teardown transformation, which would be sad. Thank god for rising sea levels.

Cherry Grove was always supposed to be the funkier of the two gay communities -- visual sense of humor, lesbians and drag queens permitted.

The Pines was from the start developed to be prissy, showy and status-oriented (Steve notwithstanding, of course).

I wonder if Point O'Woods is any less creepy than it used to be . . . ?

I guess technically you are correct, Alan, something really can't be more or less unique.

If you are talking about a place, however -- which has lots of different attributes -- you could say that it has "more unique elements" than other places.

Anyway, how long since you were on the isle of fire? I don't know Davis Park but have been told it draws lots of middle-aged folks and that drinking is the most popular activity.

I am just back from 5 days on the island and the only bad thing, really is that I don't get enough exercise while there. Yoga yes but they didn't have classes every day. Usually I swim but this year the water was too cold, at least during my stay.

Providence is not one of the most unique places in the country. Have fun anyways. Take a ferry somewhere.

"20 years or so of extremely successful investment history in Manhattan residential real estate buying and selling (mostly, but not all, in the Village) bears that out. Sure, a few deals have gone not as well as one expected (nobody bats 1000%), but I'd put my record both in terms of ROR and ROI against yours over the same period any day."

First of all, I don't own investment property and never will. That said, I've made a few pretty good deals in my day in an upwardly spiraling real-estate market. Never had I purchased them for anything but a place to live, however.

When I say what my gains have been, you deride.

JuiceMan, when you say something creative I always note it. Like, "A member of the Obama election team!"

Recently, however, you've added nothing of note.

Should you two just exchange phone numbers. What do your self-serving rants have do with fire island?

I can add that to your, "it must be correct because a guy from the fed wrote it"