| Hi folks, it’s Chris Rovzar, your Bloomberg Pursuits editor, and I’m thinking about summer. My family and I rent a house in Litchfield County, Connecticut, every summer, which we cited in the print edition of our Places to Go in 2025 list since it’s a great pairing with the Upper East Side. We like it there because it’s calm and quiet, without all the buzz of parties and social obligations that you can encounter elsewhere. I can’t wait to get there and sit by the lake and relax and read the pile of books that’s been mounting by my bedside table in Brooklyn. But for much of New York’s tonier set, the place to be in the summer months is absolutely the Hamptons—and their affiliates Shelter Island, Sag Harbor and Montauk. And I’m hearing that this summer, in particularly, will be hopping out there. Earlier this week I got a call from my friend Rob Wiesenthal, who runs Blade Urban Air Mobility Inc., an air transport company that flies seaplanes and helicopters to the Hamptons and other swank places. He told me that for the first time ever, he is offering an unlimited pass called “Blade Limitless.” For $18,900 you can fly from Manhattan to the Hamptons, JFK or Newark as often as you want between Memorial Day and Labor Day. He’s been “shocked” at the number of people taking him up on it, he says: “A normal seat is $1,200, so you have to know you’ll be back and forth a lot.” The company has to cap off the offering at 100 passes, which they’ll probably hit next week. Better give them a call now!  I am always wary of wearing white sneakers because they get so easily scuffed. I now realize the solution is to take a helicopter everywhere, rather than walking. I don’t know how I didn’t think of it sooner. Source: Blade According to Rob, thanks to the uncertain economic climate, a lot of folks with second homes are jettisoning other summer vacation plans and will be staying put in the second homes that they already own. “It’s an ultra-wealthy kind of thing we see,” he says. “When you hit a recession or bonuses are down, what tends to happen is people who own second homes, they skip the kind of typical two-week summer vacation, like Greece or Ibiza or Venice or Como.” Oh man, I can relate. “When things are going good, at Blade we tend to see a bit of a lull,” he continues. Regardless, the remote work economy has made this kind of zig-zagging across the skies over Long Island more appealing for a lot of execs. “What happens is, it’s funny, you get these big shots trying to get their people to work five days a week. What they do is, they’ll go to the Hamptons and then on a Wednesday they come in in the morning at around 11, they get to the office,” Rob says. “They kind of just do laps around the office and talk to people and get a lunch, and then they leave at 3 o’clock. And they do it on random days of the week so nobody knows when the boss will be in.” Sounds really fun for everyone. Plus, the weather has been nice in the Hamptons over recent summers, as opposed to an increasingly hot Europe, says Michaela Keszler, a broker with Sotheby’s International Realty. “Rental inventory is very low for August because a lot of Americans aren’t traveling, and didn’t put their houses on the market,” she explains. “I think a lot of people had that experience being in Italy or Spain or France in August, and it was really hot over the last couple of years, and they’re not equipped with AC the way we are.” The same phenomenon is making itself felt over in London, where city folks are increasingly planning to retreat to the the Cotswolds and other bucolic regions for long stretches of the summer. “Just as New Yorkers tend to spend entire summers in the Hamptons, it’s truly becoming the norm for London second home owners to de-camp to the Cotswolds,” says Lindsay Cuthill, the co-founder of the Blue Book Agency. “Last year we saw an uplift in those wanting to dip their toe in via the ‘try before you buy’ route. This represented a 50% increase over 2023.” Of those, all bought, says Cuthill. “Europe is stifling heat wise in the summer and for many the thought of being in one place and not having to deal with busy airports is extremely appealing,” he explains. If you can’t find a rental in the Hamptons, meanwhile, I’ve been drooling over the pictures of the renovated Montauk Yacht Club with its superyacht-sized marina and 107 fancy rooms. I’ll meet you at the helicopter pad, and we’ll go out for drinks?  I always love a pool where I can see fancy boats. Source: Montauk Yacht Club |
