The city is your gym again — and starting Saturday, May 23, the 14 miles of NYC public beach are back in your fitness rotation. Memorial Day weekend marks the official opening of beach season across all five boroughs, with lifeguards stationed daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through September 13, 2026. Every beach is free, every beach is open to the public, and every beach is reachable by subway, bus, or ferry. For New Yorkers looking to trade a treadmill for a salt-air sprint, this is the week your routine changes.

What Opens This Weekend

NYC Parks operates eight public beaches across four boroughs, and all of them come online with lifeguard protection starting Saturday, May 23, 2026. Swimming is only permitted when lifeguards are on duty and in open sections — closed areas are marked with signs and red flags, and entering the water outside those zones is prohibited regardless of conditions.

• Rockaway Beach and Boardwalk — Beach 9th Street, Far Rockaway, to Beach 149th Street, Neponsit, Queens. Phone: (718) 318-4000.
• Coney Island and Brighton Beach — On the Atlantic Ocean from West 37th Street to Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn. Phone: (718) 946-1350.
• Manhattan Beach — Oriental Boulevard from Ocean Avenue to Mackenzie Street, Brooklyn. Phone: (718) 946-1373.
• Orchard Beach and Promenade — Long Island Sound in Pelham Bay Park, Bronx. Phone: (718) 885-2275. The 115-acre, 1.1-mile crescent is the Bronx’s only public beach.
• South Beach and Midland Beach — On Lower New York Bay, Fort Wadsworth to Miller Field, Staten Island. Midland Beach phone: (718) 987-0709.
• Cedar Grove Beach — Ebbitts Street and Cedar Grove Avenue, Staten Island. Phone: (718) 987-2060. A converted oceanfront bungalow colony — smaller and quieter than neighboring Midland and South.
• Wolfe’s Pond Beach — Raritan Bay and Prince’s Bay, Holton to Cornelia Avenues, Staten Island. Phone: (718) 984-8266. The city’s best-kept secret — a small, calm, secluded retreat.

Turn the Boardwalk Into Your Gym

The beach is more than a place to swim. The boardwalks at Rockaway, Coney Island, and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Boardwalk on Staten Island give you miles of flat, traffic-free running and walking surface — the kind of uninterrupted route that’s almost impossible to find anywhere else in the five boroughs. Rockaway’s boardwalk runs the length of the peninsula, and the FDR Boardwalk on Staten Island shares its 2.5-mile length between South Beach and Midland Beach with cyclists, joggers, and walkers.

Sand running, even at an easy pace, recruits stabilizing muscles your sidewalk runs never touch. Twenty minutes of soft-sand effort at Orchard Beach or Rockaway delivers a workout that your knees will thank you for — the give of the sand absorbs impact your usual Central Park loop does not.

How to Get There Without a Car

Every NYC public beach is reachable on transit. Plan accordingly — summer weekend trains run on slower schedules, and the Rockaway line in particular can take 90 minutes from Manhattan.

• Rockaway Beach: A train to Far Rockaway-Mott Avenue, or A/S Rockaway Park Shuttle to Beach 90th, 98th, 105th, or 116th Street stations. The NYC Ferry Rockaway route from Pier 11/Wall Street is the scenic option — about an hour, with bike racks onboard.
• Coney Island and Brighton Beach: D, F, N, or Q to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue, or Q/B to Brighton Beach.
• Orchard Beach: 6 train to Pelham Bay Park, then the Bx12 bus directly to the beach (summer service).
• Manhattan Beach: B or Q to Sheepshead Bay, then a short walk or the B1 bus.
• Staten Island beaches: Staten Island Ferry to St. George, then S51 to South Beach/Midland or S78 toward Cedar Grove and Wolfe’s Pond.

What to Bring

• Sunscreen — or use the free dispensers. NYC Parks continues its free sunscreen program at all eight beaches this season, providing SPF 30 at on-beach stations. Apply before you arrive and reapply every two hours.
• Water and electrolytes. The boardwalks have concessions, but they fill up. Bring more than you think you’ll need.
• A light cover-up for the train ride home. Wet swimsuits and air-conditioned subway cars are a long, cold combination.
• A small bag for trash. Pack it in, pack it out — the beaches stay nice because we keep them that way.

Safety Notes for the Season Opener

Water in mid-to-late May is still cold — surface temperatures around 60°F are common, and cold-shock response is a real risk for anyone planning a long swim. Stay close to shore, stay in lifeguarded zones, and respect red flags even on a sunny day. Rip currents are most dangerous in the first weeks of the season before sandbars stabilize.

For real-time beach status — closures for water quality or weather — sign up for Notify NYC and opt in to beach notifications, or check the NYC Department of Health beach page before you head out.

The Bottom Line

You don’t need a gym membership in New York City. You need a MetroCard and a willingness to use the 14 miles of free, lifeguarded coastline the city maintains every summer. Memorial Day weekend is when that resource turns back on. Pick a beach, pick a workout — swim, run the boardwalk, walk the soft sand, or just stretch out in the sun — and reset your week the way the city was designed for.

Primary sources for this article: NYC Parks — Beaches.