The gazetteer of the East End.

Westhampton Beach is the western threshold of the South Fork and the quickest of the nine to reach from the city. A compact Main Street, the performing-arts center and a long run of ocean dune make it the fastest way to stand on a genuine Hamptons beach. Gabreski Airport just inland gives it a helicopter landing the smaller villages lack.

Quogue is Westhampton’s quiet neighbor — a small, tree-shaded village of understated estates, a nature refuge and a beach-club culture that keeps the volume down on purpose. It has no station of its own; the train leaves you a few minutes west at Westhampton.

Hampton Bays sits right at the Shinnecock Canal, the hinge between the western and eastern Hamptons. It is the down-to-earth one — fishing docks, casual seafood shacks and the long sweep of Ponquogue Beach — and the last village before the canal toll on a summer Friday turns the road to syrup.

Southampton is the oldest English settlement in New York and the most established of the Hamptons: clipped hedgerows, the boutiques of Jobs Lane, and Coopers Beach, regularly ranked among the best in the country. It is the marquee western village and a common helicopter set-down.

Bridgehampton is the agricultural middle of the South Fork — potato fields turned vineyards and horse farms, the summer polo scene off Scuttlehole Road, and a short, high-end Main Street sitting exactly between Southampton and East Hampton.

Sag Harbor faces north onto the bay rather than the ocean — a former whaling capital with a deep harbor, a windmill-era Main Street and a writerly, bohemian streak the ocean villages lack. It is the natural end of the ferry crossing, just across the water from North Haven.

East Hampton is the name most people mean by "the Hamptons" — the village pond and windmill, Main Beach, and the busiest seasonal airport and heliport on the East End. It is the headline destination for air arrivals and the hinge of the eastern villages.

Amagansett is the low-slung, surf-leaning village just east of East Hampton — clam bars, a historic Main Street, and some of the most coveted ocean stretches on the South Fork before the road thins out toward Montauk.

Montauk is the literal end of the line — "The End," where Long Island runs out at the lighthouse. It is the furthest, wildest and most independent of the nine: a fishing and surf town that became a scene without losing its docks. From Manhattan it is the longest haul by every passage, which is exactly why the air routes earn their fare here.