Fishers Island Belongs to New York, but You Can Only Reach It From Connecticut, and Its Old Money Likes It That Way

Fishers Island sits in Long Island Sound just off the Connecticut coast, yet it belongs, administratively and culturally, to New York, part of the town of Southold at the eastern tip of Long Island's North Fork. There is no bridge and no car ferry from the New York mainland; almost everyone arrives via a passenger ferry from New London, Connecticut, or a small plane to the island's own airstrip. That geographic awkwardness has done more than anything else to keep Fishers Island one of the East Coast's least visible old-money retreats, a summer colony that has operated quietly since the 1920s without ever needing to court outside attention.

Built around a golf club, not a beach scene

The island's social centre is the Fishers Island Club, founded in 1926, with a golf course designed by Seth Raynor that is regularly ranked among the finest in the United States by golf publications. Where enclaves like the Hamptons built their reputation on beach clubs and restaurants, Fishers Island organised itself around the country club model, membership, a golf course, modest shingled cottages, which by design keeps commercial development and casual visitors to a minimum.

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No traffic lights, no chain stores

Fishers Island has fewer than a thousand year-round residents, and its small commercial strip has no fast food or chain retail of any kind. The absence of a bridge means the island never developed the day-tripper traffic that reshaped parts of the Hamptons and coastal Connecticut, and much of its 19th and early 20th-century summer-cottage architecture remains largely unchanged.

A retreat that stayed a retreat

Unlike some old-money enclaves that have gradually opened to wider tourism, Fishers Island's ferry-only access and limited lodging have kept it functioning much as it did a century ago, a private summer community rather than a destination built for visitors. Most of the island beyond the small village centre remains residential land held by longstanding families rather than developed for public use.

Traveller tips

• The Fishers Island Ferry runs from New London, Connecticut; there is no vehicle ferry from the New York side of the Sound.
• Public lodging on the island is very limited; most visitors come as guests of residents or Fishers Island Club members.
• Elizabeth Field, the island's small airstrip, handles private aircraft for those not taking the ferry.
• The island has minimal commercial infrastructure, so plan meals and essentials around New London or bring provisions across on the ferry.