Readers’ Choice: Favorite Long Island Beach

Long Islanders take their beaches very seriously. In many cases, it’s the biggest reason they wouldn’t consider calling any other place home.

But with all of the sandy shores from Long Beach to Montauk, or the serene rocky bluffs that line the North Shore from Sands Point to Orient, surely there has to be one beach that stands above them all, right? Let’s find out.

This week we’re taking our weekly Readers’ Choice poll and putting to the entire Long Island population to see if indeed there's one beach among jewels such as Jones Beach, Robert Moses and any pristine shore in the Hamptons that deserves top bragging rights for 2012.

If one thing is certain, then we expect this to be a close race, so tell your friends to vote.

Readers’ Choice is a weekly feature where we ask you – our readers – to tell us your top picks on the businesses and local attractions that get your loyalty.

While the poll is a big one this week, we tried to limit it to the most popular beaches on Long Island. If you think we left one off that needs to be included, tell us in the comments.

On Friday we’ll tabulate all of the poll votes and comments, and crown and fly a winner’s flag in the sand of one of these amazing beaches.

Don’t let your favorite spot lose, but please only vote once in the following poll. Any attempt to game the poll could result in your favorite spot being disqualified.

(Please see the accompanying PDF for the complete rules.)

And stay "tuned" for our Long Island Beach Guide, which launches on Wednesday.