Weekend Life....The Surf Lodge, Montauk, for Grazia.it

Back in early September, just before NYFW, I travelled to Long Island, New York and stayed at The Surf Lodge in Montauk for a travel feature for Grazia.it.

You can find the article on Grazia here.

For those whose Italian isn't so great, here is the English version:

"Turning into the driveway of The Surf Lodge in Montauk in The Hamptons reminded me of arriving at school holiday camp back when I was a teenager…..except this time I was arriving by hire car rather than a bus filled with overexcited teens. And of course, no beach camp I ever stayed in was as remotely cool as this. A brightly coloured fleet of cruiser bicycles sit waiting for guests to take them for a spin to the local beaches, stand up paddle boards and canoes are housed next to a large wall painted with a giant caricature of a deep sea creature, an outdoor shower made from curved tree trunks is situated right next to the lake (The Surf Lodge is nestled right on the edge of Fort Pond) and the Surf Lodge’s jeep (emblazoned with “Kooks since 2008” *on the leather spare tyre cover) is parked in the car park ready to ferry guests to and from Ditch Plains beach, the surfer’s beach of choice in Montauk.

And then there are the guest rooms. Hidden behind a bank of trees just off the side of the car park, each room is denoted by a large black number painted on the door (ours was number 2) further adding to the beach camp feel. On opening the door however (via pincode, no keys to misplace here!) all thoughts of dormitories and bunk beds go out the window. A large, super comfortable bed fitted with luxurious white Frette sheets and stacked with a quartet of throw pillows dominates the airy room while large glass sliding doors offer expansive views across the pond. Each guest room has a private deck, complete with bright blue hammock, ideal for an afternoon nap or reading a month’s worth of glossy magazines. Unfortunately the weather was rather dreadful during our stay- grey, cold and rainy (so very London!)- so we weren’t able to enjoy the deck as much as we would have liked. Fortunately, the wicker hanging basket chair (kind of like an indoor hammock) dangling from the ceiling in a corner of the room proved perfect for curling up and perusing the stack of surf magazines and books provided in each room. A sliding door separates the beautiful, if slightly voyeuristic, bathroom from the main room. The pebble-lined shower is encased in glass which affords a great view of the pond while bathing as well as giving the neighbours a peek-a-boo view if they happen to be on their deck! Our bathroom featured a blond, bleached wood vanity basin, a turquoise bucket filled with rolled fluffy white towels and delicious smelling John Masters Organics toiletries to slather yourself in (loved the blood orange and vanilla body milk).

If you can convince yourself to leave your bed room and the view, the Surf Lodge has fantastic public areas where the surf camp theme really comes into play. There is a giant fire pit on the private beach, huge navy and white striped beach beds to relax on with a cocktail and watch the sunset over the pond, surf documentaries from the 1970’s play continuously on large screens in the chill-out lounge and during the summer season (late May to early September), the Surf Lodge hosts concerts featuring surf/skate/reggae bands every weekend. We stayed just after Labour Day weekend so the summer crowds had dispersed and the abysmal weather kept the other guests inside. I ventured out in the rain to take photos for this story but scurried back to my room after getting drenched!

There is a restaurant at the Surf Lodge but we headed to Navy Beach beachfront restaurant (about 5 minutes drive away) for dinner which was great (I can recommend the Navy Beach burger!). Again, had the weather been good, the view from the outdoor tables of the setting sun over the Atlantic ocean would have been amazing. Other places to eat are The Lobster Roll in Amagansett (a.k.a LUNCH because of the sign on the top of the restaurant) which was suitably nostalgic and as you would expect had excellent lobster rolls, as well as The Clam Bar at Napeague. A roadside joint, you can sit at the bar and watch while the cooks rustle up your clam chowder and fried whole clams. Delicious. If like me, you need your thrice daily caffeine fix, Coffee Tauk in Montauk is the place to go for your flat white or latte.

Breakfast at the Surf Lodge is a delicious medley of fresh summer fruits and berries, creamy yoghurt, croissants and coffee. Perfect fuel for a morning at the beach, bicycling around Montauk, climbing the 137 iron steps to the top of the Montauk Lighthouse, or in our case, driving back into Manhattan ready for the start of New York Fashion Week. Next season we will be back again to get our fix of beach camp, The Surf Lodge way!"

*Unless you are a surfer, you will need to google Kooks to find out what it means!

p.s. The guy in the photo is Joe Termini who lives at The Surf Lodge during the season and is an amazing photographer. He showed me some of his beautiful black and white surfing images- I was suitably jealous :) Thanks Joe for standing in the pouring rain for that photo!