Amagansett to East Hampton Bike Ride or Drive: The Jerry Seinfeld and Jackie O

Sights: This gorgeous ride begins on magnificent Further Lane and takes you from Amagansett to the village of East Hampton and back again. Celebrities who live on this route include Jerry Seinfeld and Robert Downey, Jr. You will see some of the most expensive real estate in the country, as well as the home where Jackie Kennedy Onassis spent her childhood summers. Sprinkled along the route are lovely East Hampton ocean beaches, beautiful vistas, charming historic houses, the exclusive Maidstone Club and more. A word of caution: In the summer, Further Lane can be heavily trafficked and there is no shoulder, so ride with care.

DIstance: 10. 3 miles

Starting point: Indian Wells Beach parking lot in Amagansett. Note: to park here, you need an East Hampton town permit. If you do not have a permit, look for parking at the Amagansett train station or in town.

Directions: Exit the parking lot. You will be on Indian Wells Highway. Make your first left onto Further Lane. In 1.2 miles you will reach…

Jerry Seinfeld’s house

330 Further Lane

The comedian bought this estate from Billy Joel for $32 million back in 2000. Seinfeld, a native Long Islander, liked the fact that it was set further back from the beach than the house he had been living in in Lloyd Neck, Long Island. There, people would gawk at his house from the water. Here, we can only gawk at his gates. But you can take a rare look inside by clicking here. 

There is a main house, a five-bedroom guest house, two pools, and a baseball diamond Seinfeld (a Mets fan) had installed near the front of the property. There is also a 22 car garage and a $14,000 coffee maker. Only fitting for a star who has one of the world’s largest private collection of Porsches (most of which he keeps in Manhattan) and whose other successful foray into television was the show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.

Just after Seinfeld’s house, turn left onto Tyson Lane. Follow Tyson Lane as it make a U, and brings you back to Further Lane. Turn left onto Further Lane.

In 0.9 miles, turn right onto Cross Highway and make your first left onto Middle Lane. In 1 mile, Middle Lane will end in a T at Egypt Lane. Turn left onto Egypt Lane and make your first right onto Pondview Lane. In 0.9 miles, Pondview will end in a T at East Hampton’s Main Street. You are now in the heart of the East Hampton Historic District. To your left, is Guild Hall, the town’s cultural center housing a museum and a theater where various artistic and literary performances are staged. Across the street, you will see Clinton Academy (a 1784 school house), and the 1770 House Inn. Turn right onto Main Street. In less than a minute, you will reach…

First Presbyterian Church

120 Main St.

This church traces its roots all the way back to 1648, the year East Hampton was founded. Robert Downey Jr. (star of Ironman and the Avengers) owns a 19-century home known as the DeRose Windmill House directly across the street. In this tour of his home he gave to Architectural Digest, the actor states that the house is located where it is because the original owners wanted to be able to see the church spire.

Robert Downey Jr.’s house

121-123 Main St.

Downey’s house is across the street from the First Presbyterian Church. The photo, left, shows his driveway. This is what that driveway leads to…

Photo courtesy of Brown Harris Stevens, via HouseBeautiful.com

Click here for more photos of the grounds and to see what the interior looked like before Downey and his wife redid it.

From First Presbyterian Church, continue heading east on Main St. for just a few seconds, until you reach the corner. Turn right onto David’s Lane. In half a mile, you will reach…

The Duck Pond

This beloved pond is part of the 24 acre East Hampton Village Nature Trail and Wildlife Sanctuary. After you check out the ducks and swans, you can hike along the lovely paths stretching behind the pond. It’s an easy walk along greenspace and over water on 25 charming wooden bridges.

Here is a link to a map.

These are probably the only ducks and swans in the world that regularly use a crosswalk.

Continue to the corner, where David’s Lane will end in a T at Egypt Lane. On the right-hand corner, stands…

The original “Rowdy Hall”

111 Egypt Lane

The popular burger place in town, Rowdy Hall, was named for this historic house. Built in the 1750s, the house originally stood next to the First Presbyterian Church and in the late 1895 was moved to Gay Lane near where the post office now stands. On Gay Lane, it served a boardinghouse for East Hampton’s artist colony. Locals heading to church on Sunday morning would see the place still full of partying guests and dubbed it a “Rowdy Hall.” In 1924, the house was moved to this location by Mrs. Harry Hamlin, an East Hampton summer resident who was very active in the community and involved with various preservation efforts. (Try as I might, I couldn’t find any reference to Mrs. Harry Hamlin that used her first name. She remains a mystery and a reminder of how different things used to be for women!) The house is typical of saltboxes built in East Hampton between 1700 and 1775. Despite undergoing renovation, the house still has its distinctive, asymmetrical saltbox roof and large center chimney. It has retained enough of its original character to be part of the three houses that make up…

The Egypt Lane Historic District

111, 117, and 129 Egypt Lane

Gansett House stands next door to the infamous “Rowdy Hall.” Both are now private homes.

In addition to Rowdy Hall, two other neighboring houses retain enough of their original form to have earned this street a listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Gansett House (117) was built in the 1700s in Amagansett and relocated here in 1930, again by Mrs. Harry Hamlin. Dickerson House (129) was built in the early 1800s and moved here from its original location on Pantigo Road in the early 1900s. For more information on these historic houses, click here.

Continue on Egypt Lane for about a minute until it ends in a T at Dunemere Lane. In front of you, you will see…

Maidstone Club

50 Old Beach Lane

Named for the original name for East Hampton, which was Maidstone, after the town of Maidstone in England , this club is considered the most prestigious and hard-to-get-into country club in the Hamptons. People turned down for membership range from Groucho Marx to Donald Trump, who was a temporary member in the early 1980s, but rejected as a permanent member. Also rejected were George Plimpton and Diana Ross.

Turn right onto Dunemere Lane, then make the first left onto Highway Behind the Pond. (See view from the “highway,” left.) You will be on a quiet country road lined with lovely homes and vistas that ends in beautiful Wiborg Beach.

Wiborg Beach

74 Highway Behind the Pond

Wiborg Beach is named after Frank Bestow Wiborg, who made millions manufacturing ink. He and his family lived in Manhattan and were one of the earliest wealthy families to summer in the Hamptons. In 1912, Wiborg built the largest mansion in the Hamptons at the time, located just west of the Maidstone Club. His wife was the niece of Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman. Their daughter, Sara Sherman Wiborg, married Gerald Murphy (heir to the Marc Cross leather goods company). Both families were against the marriage and, to get away from them, the couple moved to the French Riviera, where they threw great parties and befriended a large circle of artists and writers, including Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, who based his characters Nicole and Dick Diver in Tender is the Night on them.

Parking is restricted to East Hampton Village residents, but anyone can use the beach. There is a bike rack here, but no facilities.

When you are done at the beach, take Highway Behind the Pond back to Dunemere Lane and turn right. Bike past the Maidstone Club and make your first right onto Old Beach Lane, which will being you to Egypt Beach.

Egypt Beach

55 Old Beach Lane

The parking lot for East Hampton Village residents is tiny since most of the parking is taken up by the parking lot for the Maidstone Club, and there are no bike racks. The beach is worth visiting if you want to see how the Hamptons’ 1 percent frolics on its practically private beach.

After you exit the beach, turn right onto Dunemere Lane. At this corner, Dunemere Lane turns into Further Lane.

The house that Billions made famous

52 Further Lane

Soon after Mets owner Steve Cohen bought this property in 2013, his hedge fund, SACCapital Advisors, pleaded guilty to insider trading and closed. If you watched the Showtime series Billions, you saw how Cohen’s purchase of this property, for $62.5 million, egged on the investigation into his firm’s practices. (Showtime used another mansion to film the series, not the real one.) Cohen knocked down his new house (without ever living in it) and built a new one. At the time of the purchase, Cohen also owned another home on Further Lane, which he’d purchased for $18 million. According to the New York Post, he traded up to this one because the view of the ocean at the less expensive home was blocked by another mansion in front of it. As they say — you get what you pay for.

One of the most expensive home sales in the U.S.

60 Further Lane

Purchased for $137 million in 2014 by hedge fund manager Barry Rosenstein, this 18-acre property held the record for the most expensive home sale in the US until 2019. The property is now #4 on Business Insider’s list of the priciest US residences.

Lasata: Jackie Kennedy Onassis’s childhood summer home

121 Further Lane

This estate belonged to Jackie Kennedy Onassis’s paternal grandparents. Her parents were married at East Hampton’s Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church. Jackie was born in Southampton Hospital and she spent her childhood summers at her grandparents summer house until she was 12. Lasata is the Native American word for “place of peace,” and Jackie clearly loved it here. According to Wikipedia, she wrote the following poem at age 10:

When I go down to the sandy shore

I can think of nothing I want more

Than to live by the booming blue sea

As the seagulls flutter around about me

I can run about when the tide is out

With the wind and the sea all about

And the seagulls are swirling and diving for fish

Oh-to live by the sea is my only wish

And when her father died, she adorned St. Patrick’s Cathedral with daisies and bachelor's buttons in white wicker baskets to make it look "like Lasata in August."
In 0.4 miles, turn right on Two Mile Hollow Road. This will bring you to…

Two Mile Hollow Beach

50 Two Mile Hollow Road

This is another gorgeous beach, with a large bathroom facility and a bike rack. Parking is restricted to those with East Hampton Village permits.

Head back to Further Lane and turn right. Take this back to Indian Wells Highway. Turn right and you will soon be at Indian Wells Beach where this ride began. You can enjoy the beach, or pick up the Sarah Jessica Parker ride here.

Text and photos by Irene Daria, unless otherwise noted.