Which end of that road you sleep on changes the trip more than the room does. Here's how to choose, and how early you actually need to book.
Start Here
Almost everyone books Montauk backwards. They pick a hotel they like the look of, then discover it's four miles from anything and there's no parking at the beach they wanted. Decide where in town first and what kind of place second. Price sorts itself out after that, because the two decisions above largely determine it.
The other thing worth knowing before you open a booking site: Montauk is part of the Town of East Hampton, and the town limits lodging inventory hard. There is no new supply coming. That's why a plain motel room here costs what a decent hotel costs elsewhere, and why the booking calendar behaves the way it does.
Decision One
Five distinct areas. They are not interchangeable, and in July the drive between them takes twice as long as it looks like it should.
The compact downtown around the green. You can walk to the LIRR station, the IGA, most restaurants, and Kirk Park Beach without ever getting in a car. Rooms here are rarely the nicest in town, but the trip is the easiest.
East of the village, on the ocean side. A residential pocket of cottages and small motels within walking distance of the break. If you intend to surf at dawn every day, nothing else makes sense.
North side, on Lake Montauk. The charter fleet, the party boats and the commercial docks are all here, along with Gin Beach on the calmer Sound water. If your day starts on a boat at 5am, sleep within sight of it.
The narrow strip west of town where the highway runs between ocean and bay. A line of old oceanfront motels, the state park campground, and very little else. You will need a car for everything, which is the point.
The high ground east and above the village, where the larger resorts sit on the cliff with the ocean below. Old Montauk Highway is the slower, prettier parallel road — take it instead of Route 27 and you'll understand why people keep coming back.
Decision Two
Montauk's lodging stock is unusual. There is very little in the middle: a handful of large resorts, a lot of 1950s motels that have been renovated to varying degrees, one campground people plan their year around, and a rental market that gets strange above a certain price.
A short list. Gurney's on the ocean bluff is the best known and one of the very few properties with direct private beach access. Montauk Manor — the Tudor pile on Signal Hill, built in the twenties — is a condo-hotel with a pool and a view over the whole town.
Book these for the amenities, not the location. You're paying for the spa, the pool and the beach, and you'll drive to dinner.
Low-slung, single-storey, built when Montauk was a fishing town that happened to have beaches. Some have been renovated into something stylish; some have been renovated into something expensive; a few are exactly what they were in 1962, which is not always a bad thing.
A cluster of properties that function as much as bars and music venues as places to sleep. They are genuinely fun and they are genuinely loud. If you are here to surf at 6am, do not book a room above a deck that has a DJ until midnight.
Most of them close for the winter entirely.
Houses and cottages, listed on the usual platforms and through local brokers. In peak summer many owners want a full week or a full month rather than a weekend, and East Hampton's rental registry rules mean short stays are more restricted here than in most beach towns.
Worth it for groups and for anyone staying more than four nights. Not worth the friction for a weekend.
The state park campground at Hither Hills puts tents and RVs on a wide ocean beach, and it is the single best-value place to sleep in Montauk by a wide margin. Which is exactly why the beachfront sites are almost impossible to get.
The Booking Clock
Montauk's calendar is steeper than most beach towns' because the inventory is capped. These are the lead times locals assume. Your current month is highlighted.
We don't run a booking engine. This opens the search we'd run ourselves.
Before You Book
For July and August weekends, most visitors book between January and March. Hither Hills beachfront campsites are the hardest reservation in Montauk and go within minutes of the window opening. September and early October can often be booked four to six weeks out. November through April is usually available on short notice, though far fewer places are open.
In peak summer, two-night minimums on weekends are typical and three-night minimums over holiday weekends are common. They usually disappear after Columbus Day. If a two-night stay is all you have, look at Sunday through Tuesday rather than fighting for a Saturday.
Yes, if you stay in the village. The LIRR station, the grocery store, most restaurants and Kirk Park Beach are all walkable, and a bike covers the rest. Staying at Ditch Plains, near Montauk Harbor, or out on the Napeague strip without a car is difficult and, in the off-season, unwise. See the getting there guide for the LIRR and Jitney details.
A small number of hotels and inns stay open year round, along with a handful of restaurants. The scene hotels and most seasonal motels close from roughly November through April. Call ahead rather than trusting a listing — websites are not always updated when a kitchen closes for the season.
Sometimes, in peak season. But the drive on Route 27 in July can take forty-five minutes each way for what looks like a fifteen-minute trip, and you'll spend the savings on parking and time. If you're coming for the beaches and the water, sleep in Montauk.
Depends entirely on what you're doing. Surfing means Ditch Plains. Small children mean the calm Sound water at Gin Beach. A wide, guarded, uncomplicated beach day means Hither Hills. Our beach guide breaks each one down.
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