City Island is the quirkiest part, a mile-and-a-half-long island with a single main street, a shipbuilding history and a fleet of small boats bobbing in its harbours.
For much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries City Island's yards built racing yachts, including some that defended the America's Cup, and the island still has a nautical air, with sail lofts, marine suppliers and seafood restaurants along City Island Avenue. The restaurants are casual, with big plates of fried clams, shrimp and lobster, and you eat looking out at the water. On a warm evening the whole street fills with people, and the wait for a table can be long, so arrive early.
Next to it, Pelham Bay Park is the largest park in New York City, more than twice the size of Central Park, with salt marshes, woods, bridle paths, a golf course and Orchard Beach, a crescent of imported sand built in the 1930s. It is a bird-watcher's park too, with herons, egrets and ospreys, and the sunsets across the marsh are good.
Riding here is busy and urban. The Hutchinson River Parkway runs nearby, a curving, old-style parkway with low stone bridges where trucks are banned, and the roads near the sound flood during storms. A single bridge connects City Island to the mainland, and it backs up on summer weekends. The Throgs Neck Bridge nearby, with its toll, takes traffic to Queens and Long Island.
Fuel stations are on the main roads around Pelham and the Bronx, though not on City Island itself, so top up before crossing. The best time to visit is a clear evening in late spring or early autumn, when the light is warm on the water and the temperature is pleasant. Winter wind off the sound is raw, and gusts can be strong on the bridge, so keep a firm hold on the bars.