Helicopter · Manhattan to the Hamptons (BLADE)

The Long Island Expressway on a July Friday is the reason BLADE exists. The forty-minute hop from East 34th Street puts you on the East Hampton tarmac before the car you would have driven has cleared Queens — and the difference is not just the time, it is the start of the weekend. For wedding weekends, EVJF and EVG arrivals, and significant birthdays, I book the helicopter both directions and the SUV transfer from the airport to the hotel is part of the package.

By-the-seat pricing on the Sikorsky and Bell 407 runs $795 in the Summer Pass; for groups of four to six the private charter is the better math. Book by the previous Tuesday for Friday afternoon departures; weather cancellations happen and BLADE rebooks onto seaplane or the next available flight.

The only way to start a Hamptons weekend.