Long Island Ice Cream Tour returns for 16th year

Local ice-cream enthusiasts look forward every year to the Long Island Ice Cream Tour. If you missed the first two legs of this three-leg itinerary, this is your final notice that the last one gets underway this Saturday. 

Now in its 16th year, LIICT is a movable feast that roams all over Long Island in search of the best shops that make ice cream on the premises. For its first nine years, co-founder Jeff Noreman tried to stuff all the stops into one belly-busting daylong itinerary but, in 2020 he split the tour into two legs, one covering western Long Island, the other, eastern. In 2024, overwhelmed with a glut of fine establishments, he expanded it into three parts.

After days focused on the South Shore and central Nassau, LIICT’s 2026 finale heads east on Saturday, beginning at Snowflake in Riverhead and pushing on to McNulty’s in Miller Place, first-timer 3 Sons in Kings Park, Northport Sweet Shop, Ice Cream Social in Commack and, finally, Sweet Treats by the Wharf in Port Washington. (Snowflake and Ice Cream Social were both featured in this Feed Me Magazine story.) 

LIICT provides the itinerary, and also warns all the shops that a crowd will be descending — there's always a discount, and many do demonstrations or create special treats just for the occasion. It’s up to participants to provide their own transportation, and to pay for what they eat. The cost for one tour is $36 a person; add a second tour for $20.

Tour prices include the official LIICT 2026 T-shirt (which all participants are required to wear) and a portion of the profits support research for brain cancer treatment and cures through the National Brain Tumor Society.

The registration deadline is 10 p.m. Aug. 4. To learn more or to sign up, go to liict.org.