Thelife- A New Yorker went viral with a TikTok video about how much her weekend trip to Montauk cost.
- Grace Hagan, 27, told Insider she spent around $1,500 during the long Fourth of July weekend.
The Hamptons has long been the "it" place for New Yorkers in the summer, but one woman is going viral on TikTok for calling the destination a "scam."
Grace Hagan, a 27-year-old PR professional and content creator living in Manhattan, posted a TikTok video to her page @greyzindacity on July 4 to her audience of over 64,100 followers, outlining the reasons she thinks Montauk is overrated.
In the video, which has over 402,700 views as of Wednesday, Hagan appears to be in her hotel room and opens by saying "something that no one talks about is that Montauk is an actual scam."
@greyzindacity and i forgot to mention that no one goes to the beach #montauk #montaukbeach #hamptons #nyc #fourthofjuly ♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys - Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey
She goes on to say that, when she visited over the Fourth of July weekend — a peak time to visit the Hamptons — there was barely any phone service in the area, most food places closed at 8 p.m., and the queues to get into "cheugy" bars left her waiting for an hour and a half.
In the same video, she said her hotel cost around $1,000 per night, a vodka soda at one bar set her back $30, and the price to secure a table at the popular hotel and bar, The Surf Lodge, was $15,000. (The cost of a table isn't listed on The Surf Lodge's website, and the establishment did not immediately provide comment to Insider when reached for this story.)
"That's just pretty much where everyone tries to go and it's super exclusive," Hagan told Insider, speaking of The Surf Lodge. "I feel like such a loser when I get in line."
Grace Hagan said the Hamptons didn't live up to her expectations
Hagan told Insider she thought the Hamptons would be a "magical place," like Disneyland for young adults, where she would see celebrities and there'd be parties in mansions. She added that she imagined the Hamptons would be as they were depicted in a season two episode of "Sex and The City," where Carrie Bradshaw and friends partied and enjoyed bonfires on the beach.
But for Hagan, that wasn't the reality. And she said her issues with the Hamptons began before she even arrived.
"The traffic is awful. Most of the time, the route takes you through Queens, where LaGuardia Airport is," she said, adding that further traffic can build up near Montauk Highway, as it consists of a single lane. As Insider previously reported, some rich New Yorkers have been getting bladder surgery to avoid bathroom breaks on the drive.
According to Hagan, getting there via train isn't much easier. While it's relatively inexpensive to take a Long Island Rail Road train from New York City's Penn Station to Montauk — a one-way ticket typically costs around $30.50 during peak hours, 0r $22.35 off-peak — Hagan said that in her experience the cars are often so packed that passengers need to stand for the 3.5-hour journey. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority did not respond to Insider's request for comment.
The accommodation was also pricey, according to Hagan. She told Insider she stayed in a twin room at the Royal Atlantic motel with three friends and that the total cost for three nights was around $3,000. According to Hagan, this was one of the more affordable options she could find in Montauk when she booked three weeks in advance. Insider was unable to verify the price of Hagan's accommodation as Hagan could not provide proof of the cost (she said she split the cost of the room with friends). According to the motel's website, prices for a four-night stay during the Fourth of July weekend start at $2,096.
"We had paid so much money, they weren't even bringing us fresh towels or changing our sheets," she told Insider of the hotel. "At one point I found blood on the wall and I was like, 'okay, I'm ready to go home.'" Royal Atlantic did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment regarding Hagan's claims.
Hagan said her time was mostly spent at house parties to avoid extortionate cover charges at bars, but, according to receipts shown to Insider, she paid $242 for the Montauk Beach House and $50 on a SoulCycle class. She added that she found prices were often double what she experiences in New York City. Calculating her total costs for a four-day, three-night stay, Hagan said she spent an "absurd" $1,500.
"That is money that could have gone towards a European trip. I could have gone to Italy or I could have gone to London," Hagan noted, adding that she's "never going back" on the Fourth of July. "I'll go back for any other off-weekend," she said.
Increasing interest in the Hamptons has accelerated prices
In 2021, the Financial Times reported that a surge in people moving to the Hamptons has driven up prices in the area. The publication found that in the three months prior to September 2020, 826 homes were sold in the Hamptons — almost twice as many as the 422 sold in 2019.
The increasing year-round population has driven local workers out to cheaper areas such as Patchogue, Shirley, and Yaphank, and caused issues with local WiFi, which was already stretched before the pandemic, according to the Financial Times.
Montauk has been a popular party destination for years. The New York Times reported that in July 2015 hundreds of citizens arrived at an East Hampton town meeting to ask local officials to take action against the chaos caused by Montauk's party scene. The same summer, the Times reported, the Federal Railroad Administration cautioned the Long Island Rail Road about crowding.
Years later, it seems Montauk summers aren't getting any quieter — or cheaper.