Long Island Welcome Center — Attraction in Town of Huntington

This unassuming low-rise building on the south side of the Long Island Expressway (I-495) (located on the east-bound side between exits 51 and 52) is GREAT Resource for visitors to learn all about Long Island, New York.

It is so good at its job that I believe even long-term Long Island residents can benefit from coming here.

Everything about this place is designed to make you fall in love with Long Island. So beware to any residents who are thinking about moving off the island. You are going to rethink your plans to leave.

There is a huge (50 foot?) long scaled map on the floor visible on the floor as you walk in. Every large notable NY State park and nature preserve is marked on this floor map. Even though we have lived on Long Island for over 40 years, there are several interesting places on this map that we have not visited. I noted them here in my Google Maps with a green flag ("Want to go") so that we can visit them this year!

There is a self service kiosk where you can apply for hunting and fishing licenses. This island is an incredible outdoor paradise, for those of you who have never visited, so naturally you might want to hunt or fish here...

The only thing that is less than accurate is the portrayal of "locally branded" delicacies in the gift shop. The brands on sale here today are not representative of the most popular brands here. I can't speak to the quality of the goods for sale because I did not recognize any. They might be great, and because they are esconsed in this beautiful curated building, they are also expensive. That's all I'm saying, be prepared to spend top dollar on the bottled dried pasta, clover blossom honey, chocolate candies, and other assorted Long Island goodies.

I did not see much staff in the building on my two visits here but there are security cameras unobtrusively positioned, so I don't worry about people walking out with anything of value that they did not pay for.

There is something for everyone here so do stop in and become acquainted with it. You will appreciate Long Island even more than you already did and will find a reason to stay here longer than you...

This was my first time at the NY Welcome Center. I’ve been to the one on the NY State Thruway which has a similar feel. This one is about nine years old but feels newer. There is a small playground outside the main entrance. Inside you are greeted with a large map of Long Island on the floor that highlights some key LI locations. Lots of tables with outlets to charge a phone or work on your laptop. The USB plugs are type A, not type C so bring in your charger or an A to C cable. The bathrooms are large, modern and clean. Five foot tall touch screens give you visitor information and work well. You can also pick up NY State Travel brochures.

There is a NY State store that sells food made in NY and some crafts and gifts about NY. We picked up two sandwiches (grilled chicken with broccoli rabe and fresh mozzarella and tomato) and a cup of coffee. You pay for everything at a kiosk. It worked great. Everything including the coffee cup had a barcode on it. We used Google Pay to check out.

The parking lot is large and you are allowed to park for 3 hours if you need a nap. The lights in the parking lot are solar powered. Two EV chargers are in the back of the parking lot. Each charger has one CCS and one CHAdeMO plug. A car was charging at one and the other one was out of service. This is disappointing. NY needs to have working fast chargers at any of their welcome centers. These are 50kW Tritium chargers and use EVconnect but are free. We didn’t need a charge so it wasn’t an issue. I hope there are plans to put in a few fast (150kW) chargers sometime soon. It’s a great location for fast chargers. It doesn’t need to be free but needs enough that you know one will be working and available...

At a cost to the taxpayer of around 20.2 million dollars and countless hours of traffic and lane closure this building stands as a testament to NY governmental values of inefficiency. Long Islanders waited months and months as this building slowly came to rise only to find a small cafeteria with extremely limited hours and an equally limited menu at the finish line. And if that is NY enough for you it also cost an arm and a leg to buy something there. In addition at has become nothing more than a place for cops to try to nab travelers on their way home.(although I support the police giving tickets to break those who break the law we didn't need a $20 million lot for them to sit in. Nothing against the the cops to be clear.) To make matters worse the only thing you can get here after hours is some potato chips (and only potato) and some hippie juice from a fancy vending machine. We on long Island are plagued with high taxes and an overly pushy government agenda and this place is certainly well representative of that. If there goal was to serve the people they failed but if there he goal was to show off our New york/Long Island values they hit the nail on the head. Wasteful and inefficient. At the very least get a gas station and a convenience so try open. Until at least midnight...