The Best Beaches in Boston's North Shore

Ipswich

Four miles of white sand backed by protected dunes: the North Shore’s marquee beach, and the lot routinely fills and closes by late morning on hot weekends.

Manchester

Famous for sand that squeaks underfoot; nonresident parking is essentially nil, so most visitors ride the commuter rail from Boston and walk the half-mile down.

Gloucester

A big, dune-fringed beach with a tidal island you can walk to at low tide. The lot is the catch, so it’s the textbook “check parking first” beach.

Gloucester

Calm, kid-friendly water with sandbars and a lighthouse view across the Annisquam, popular with families, which means the lot caps before noon.

Revere

America’s first public beach (1896), a three-mile crescent reachable on the MBTA Blue Line, the rare Boston-area beach you don’t need a car for.

Parker River NWR

Wild barrier-island beach inside a national wildlife refuge: limited lots that close once full, and seasonal piping-plover closures, so check before you go.