Chicago's lakefront beaches the Park District runs

Chicago has 26 miles of free lakefront and a single agency running the beaches along it, with one set of rules that applies everywhere: swimming only where lifeguards sit, 11am to 7pm daily between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and a flag system that can change through the day. What separates one beach from the next is everything else: which ones allow surfing or dog swimming or kayak launches, which have a beach wheelchair waiting at the lifeguard office, and which of the Rogers Park segments still hold sand after the high-water years turned their neighbours into boulder fields. Each entry gives the address the Park District itself prints, what is underfoot, and how you get in.

Places in this collection

  • Osterman Beach — Long known as Hollywood Beach, at the 5800 North block where Lake Shore Drive ends and curves into Sheridan Road, forming a crescent in Edg…
  • Ohio Street Beach — A small beach, also called Olive Beach, set in a pocket just north of Lake Point Tower that faces north rather than east: the only Chicago…
  • Oak Street Beach — About 1.5 miles of shoreline from the North Avenue Hook Pier south to Ohio Street Beach, holding the largest area of deep water swimming in…
  • North Shore Beach — At 6700 North, between Albion Avenue and North Shore Avenue, running straight into Hartigan Beach with no break in the sand. It is a neighb…
  • North Avenue Beach — The busiest beach in the city and the centre stage for the Chicago Air and Water Show and the annual AVP Chicago Open. The beach house is b…
  • Montrose Beach — The lakefront's most equipped beach: the largest parking supply of any in the city, one of the few places where non-motorized craft such as…
  • Marion Mahony Griffin Beach — Three blocks of shoreline between Jarvis at 7400 North and Fargo at 7432 North, still widely called Jarvis Beach. Offshore riprap takes the…
  • Loyola Beach — Fieldhouse, restrooms and a playground, with parkland running four blocks south to Pratt Avenue. A half-mile bike and pedestrian path conne…
  • Leone Beach — Eight blocks of shoreline off North Sheridan Road, described by Wikipedia as the city's largest, with a park that runs south to abut Loyola…
  • Lane Beach — Formerly Thorndale Beach, at about 5932 North where Sheridan Road meets Thorndale Avenue in Edgewater. It stood alone as recently as the 19…
  • Juneway Beach — The northernmost beach in Chicago, at 7800 North against the Evanston border, and mapped as mixed sand and rock rather than clean sand. A s…
  • Howard Beach — About 213 feet of shoreline, one short block south of Howard Street, making it one of the smallest segments the Park District lists. Erosio…
  • Helen Doria Beach — Known for years as Columbia Beach and still signed that way in places, at roughly 6726 North between Columbia Avenue and Pratt Boulevard. A…
  • Hartigan Beach — Also called Albion Beach, sitting at about 6600 North and ending just north of Loyola Avenue, contiguous with North Shore Beach so the two…
  • Foster Beach — A wide Edgewater stretch on the accessible list, with a beach wheelchair available free from the lifeguard office at the beach house on pro…
  • Fargo Beach — Listed as closed on the Park District's own beach roster, and mapped as no public access. It is the northernmost stretch on that roster sti…
  • Calumet Beach — The far southeast corner of the city's beach system, at 100th Street and Avenue G, close enough to the Indiana line that most lakefront vis…
  • 63rd Street Beach — The Jackson Park beach house, with its courtyard fountain, is the landmark here, and the swim area between 59th and 63rd is one of the desi…
  • 57th Street Beach — One of only two Park District beaches where surfing is permitted in season, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and never inside an active swim…
  • 12th Street Beach — A pocket of sand on the north end of Northerly Island, immediately south of the Adler Planetarium, running from roughly 1300 S to 1450 S de…

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