Old Westbury Gardens, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is the former home of John S. Phipps, his wife, Margarita Grace Phipps and their four children. Completed in 1906 by the English designer, George A. Crawley, the magnificent Charles II-style mansion is nestled amid 200 acres of formal gardens, landscaped grounds, woodlands, ponds and lakes. Westbury House is furnished with fine English antiques and decorative arts from the more than fifty years of the family’s residence.
A century ago, financier and philanthropist Otto Hermann Kahn built OHEKA CASTLE in the middle of a 443-acre plot on the highest point on Long Island in Cold Spring Harbor for an estimated cost of $11 million ($158 million in today’s currency). At the time of its construction, the French-style chateau was—and still is today—the second-largest private residence ever built in America. During the Gilded Age of the 1920s, Kahn used the 109,000-square-foot, 127-room estate as a summer home where he hosted lavish parties and regularly entertained royalty, heads of state, and Hollywood stars.
Today Oheka Castle is used to host events, is a hotel and offers tours of the grounds and chateau.
The park is comprised of 40 acres of hilly terrain that offer scenic vistas of the Cold Spring Harbor. It features a mixed hardwood forest with notable large oak specimens that measure three feet in diameter, as well as thickets of wild mountain laurel.
The area is ideal for observing spring and fall migrations of a variety of songbirds, and is home to great horned owls and red-tailed hawks. The park serves as the northern trail head of the Nassau Suffolk Greenbelt Trail that extends to Bethpage State Park and eventually the south shore of Nassau County.
World famous Jones Beach State Park, home of 6.5 miles of beautiful white-sand beach on the Atlantic Ocean, is made up of more than 2,400-acres of maritime environment on the south shore of Long Island. Among the 8 million visitors to the park each year, families enjoy their own piece of the beach for a day, with many returning dozens of times through the summer. Designed on the theme of an ocean liner, Jones Beach offers many activities to those who visit the park. They swim in the ocean, stroll the boardwalk, fish, get a bite to eat at one of the many concession stands, visit the Boardwalk Cafe, Dine-in a the Gatsby on the Ocean Restaurant, Enjoy the WildPlay Adventure Park, play miniature golf, shuffleboard, basketball, corn hole, paddle tennis, table tennis and pickleball. Other activities that take place in the park include learning about the marine environment at the Jones Beach Energy & Nature Center, pool swimming, sunbathing, bicycling, surfing, and visiting the playgrounds.
If you're getting in early or just have some extra time, we invite you to explore the many wineries that Long Island has to offer. One of the Pickus family favorites is Suhru & Lieb Vineyards (https://suhruliebvineyards.com/).
There are many places to hike and go on walks around the hotel and venue. West Hills County Park is close by with beautiful hiking trails and great views, but there are many others not far.