Silver Sands Motel & Beach Bungalows

Character and identity

Set on 45 acres of North Fork shoreline with 1,400 feet of sand facing Shelter Island, Silver Sands is a 1957 motel taken back to the studs and reborn as a low-key beach retreat. The U-shaped motel holds 20 rooms around a courtyard, with private beach shacks, one- and two-bedroom bungalows, and larger beach houses arriving this autumn (33 keys in all). Design language is unfussy and organic: neutrals with pops of seafoam and red, screened porches, hand-painted room numbers, ceramic shell lamps. Eddie's, the al fresco restaurant from chef-owner Ryan Hardy, anchors the food programme with seafood and wood-fired pizza under a century-old oak.

Who's it for

Bottom line

The cooking and the setting are the reason to come: Hardy's seafood under the oak at Eddie's, paired with a stretch of bay beach you won't find replicated elsewhere on the North Fork. Spring for a corner-facing beach shack with bay views rather than a courtyard motel room, and consider autumn for crisp-air cookouts, fireside wine and easier rates.