Start with the four facts that shape every beach day
The water is cold. Southern Maine peaks in the mid-sixties in August. North of Portland it runs colder, and inside Acadia's Sand Beach it sits around the mid-fifties all summer. That is bracing rather than pleasant, and it is why most people go in to the waist, shout, and come out.
The tide runs nine to eleven feet. On the flat southern beaches that means the sand doubles and halves through the day. At Popham it means whole sandbars and islands appear and then close off. Look at a tide chart before you drive anywhere, because a beach at high water can be a strip you cannot walk.
The season is short and sharply peaked. Lifeguards, bathhouses and beach parking generally run from around the start of summer to Labor Day. Before and after, the beaches are still there and still free to walk. You just get no services and a lot more room.
Parking is the actual constraint. Almost every beach in this guide has fewer spaces than it needs in July. Town lots and state park gates run on daily fees that change, so check the town or state site for current rates. The reliable strategy is arriving before nine or after three.
The best Maine beaches, by the numbers
Sorted by rating with review volume as the tiebreak, these are the strongest performers in our data. They are also, not coincidentally, the ones that fill first. A note on method: we rank on rating weighted by how many people left one, because a 5.0 from nine visitors tells you nothing about a beach that four hundred people park at every Saturday. Where a state park and the beach inside it are recorded separately, we use the park entry, since that is what people rate.
| Beach | Town | Rating | Reviews | Type |
|---|
| Popham Beach State Park | Phippsburg | 4.8 | 2,104 | Wide sand, sandbars, state park |
| Reid State Park | Georgetown | 4.8 | 1,563 | Dunes and a warm tidal lagoon |
| Sand Beach, Acadia | Bar Harbor | 4.8 | 970 | Cold cove between headlands |
| Kettle Cove State Park | Cape Elizabeth | 4.8 | 801 | Small, rocky, low-key |
| Footbridge Beach | Ogunquit | 4.8 | 742 | The quiet end of Ogunquit's sand |
| Long Sands Beach | York | 4.7 | 1,281 | Nearly two miles, surfable |
| Wells Beach | Wells | 4.7 | 1,079 | Long, flat, family-oriented |
| Ferry Beach State Park | Saco | 4.7 | 757 | Sand plus a rare tupelo swamp trail |
| Roque Bluffs State Park | Roque Bluffs | 4.7 | 628 | Downeast pebble beach and a warm pond |
| Short Sands Beach | York | 4.6 | 1,343 | Small, walkable to shops and Nubble |
| Crescent Beach State Park | Cape Elizabeth | 4.6 | 1,110 | Portland's best proper swimming beach |
| Scarborough Beach | Scarborough | 4.6 | 601 | Real surf, strong currents |
Southern coast: the only long sand in Maine
The forty miles from Kittery to Old Orchard hold nearly all of Maine's continuous sand. These beaches are wide, shallow-shelving and lined with houses. Geologically this is the exception rather than the rule: glaciers left the rest of the state's shoreline as bedrock and cobble, and sand only accumulates where a river mouth and a sheltered bay conspire. That is why 42 of our 101 mapped beaches sit in this one southern strip.
Kittery and the state line
Maine's first beaches are small. Kittery is more about the rocky point at Fort Foster and the tidepools below Fort McClary than about swimming, and Seapoint Beach nearby is a short, pretty crescent with parking restricted to residents through the summer. Most visitors coming up I-95 push on another twenty minutes to York.
York
Long Sands Beach (4.7 from 1,281 reviews) runs almost two miles between York Harbor and Nubble Light, with roadside parking the whole way and consistent enough waves that surf schools work here. Short Sands (4.6 from 1,343) is a much smaller pocket in York Beach village, which makes it the better choice with small children. You can walk to food, arcades and the lighthouse. York Harbor Beach (4.7 from 218) is the quietest of the three and the hardest to park at.
Ogunquit
Ogunquit has one beach with three entrances, and choosing correctly matters more here than anywhere in the state. Main Beach (4.7 from 260) is the village end: closest to shops, first to fill, and the one every day-tripper heads for. Footbridge Beach (4.8 from 742) is a mile north across the tidal river and noticeably calmer. Ogunquit Beach proper (4.7 from 560) covers the middle stretch. All three sit on the same three-mile arc of sand; only the crowd changes.
Wells and Kennebunk
Wells Beach (4.7 from 1,079) is flat, broad and built for families, with a long jetty at the harbor end. Drakes Island Beach (4.7 from 190) is the local alternative a couple of miles north with a fraction of the traffic and a very small lot. In Kennebunk, Gooch's Beach (4.6 from 579) is the main sand, Mother's Beach (4.6 from 477) is the sheltered corner with a playground that families default to, and Parson's Beach (4.6 from 291) is a beautiful, deliberately under-serviced stretch with almost no parking. Treat it as a walk-in.
Old Orchard and Biddeford
Old Orchard Beach is seven miles of sand attached to a pier and an amusement park; the pier itself pulls 4.5 from 581 reviews. It is a genuinely good beach with a fairground in front of it, and visitors who came to Maine for pine trees and quiet often leave disappointed. Go for the boardwalk energy or do not go. Just south, Fortunes Rocks Beach in Biddeford (4.6 from 108) is the opposite: two miles of sand, residential road behind it, very limited parking.
Greater Portland: swimming close to the city
Portland's own beaches are small. East End Beach (4.5 from 781 reviews) sits below the Eastern Promenade and is the only sanctioned swimming beach in the city; Willard Beach in South Portland (4.5 from 445) is a neighborhood cove with a view of two lighthouses. Both are perfectly pleasant and neither is why you drove to Maine.
Twenty minutes south is where Portland actually swims. Crescent Beach State Park in Cape Elizabeth (4.6 from 1,110) is a mile of sand with a bathhouse and a gentle slope. Kettle Cove (4.8 from 801) next door is smaller, rockier, and better for tidepools than for swimming. Scarborough Beach (4.6 from 601) has the biggest surf in the region and, with it, currents strong enough that the lifeguards matter. Ferry Beach in Scarborough (4.7 from 339) is the calmer, family-scale option nearby.
Ferry Beach State Park in Saco (4.7 from 757) deserves a specific mention: behind the sand is a boardwalk trail through a stand of tupelo trees at the far northern edge of their range, which is a genuinely unusual thing to have next to a swimming beach.
Midcoast: the dramatic ones
Between Bath and Rockland the coast turns to rock, and the few sand beaches that survive are the best in the state.
Popham Beach State Park (4.8 from 2,104 reviews) is the one to plan a day around. At low tide a sandbar opens to Fox Island and the beach doubles in width; at high tide much of it disappears. People walk out to the island and get their return cut off every summer, so time it deliberately. The lot fills by mid-morning on any warm weekend, and once it is full the gate closes.
Reid State Park in Georgetown (4.8 from 1,563) is the smarter choice with young children. Behind the dunes, a tidal lagoon warms through the day into water that is genuinely swimmable, while the open beach faces the full cold Atlantic.
Seawall Beach, reached only by the two-mile walk over Morse Mountain (4.9 from 107 reviews for the trail), is an undeveloped barrier beach with no facilities, no lifeguards and severely restricted parking. It is the most beautiful beach in southern Maine and the least convenient, which is the whole arrangement.
Further up: Pemaquid Beach (4.6 from 348) is a compact, protected crescent near the lighthouse; Bailey Island Beach (4.8 from 200) is a small local spot out on the Harpswell peninsulas; Winslow Memorial Park in Freeport (4.6 from 604) combines a tidal beach with camping and a view across Casco Bay. In Penobscot Bay, Birch Point State Park near Owls Head (4.6 from 477) is a sheltered sand cove most visitors drive straight past, and Lincolnville Beach (4.6 from 621) is a pebble beach that mostly functions as the Islesboro ferry landing with restaurants attached.
Acadia and Downeast: cold, rocky and worth it
Sand Beach in Acadia National Park (4.8 from 970 reviews) is 290 yards of sand made largely of crushed shell, wedged between granite headlands, and about as cold as swimming gets in the lower forty-eight. Almost nobody stays in past their knees. The lot fills early enough that the park shuttle is often the better approach.
For actual swimming on Mount Desert Island, go inland: Echo Lake Beach (4.7 from 193) is fresh water, sheltered, and ten to fifteen degrees warmer than the ocean. Little Hunters Beach (4.8 from 100) off the Park Loop Road is a cobble beach at the bottom of a wooden staircase. No swimming, but the sound of surf moving those stones is worth the stop.
East of Acadia the beaches thin out and improve in solitude. Lamoine Beach Park (4.7 from 468) looks straight across to the mountains of MDI. Roque Bluffs State Park (4.7 from 628) pairs a cold pebble ocean beach with a freshwater pond behind it, and on most days you will have a good share of it to yourself. Sandy Point Beach in Stockton Springs (4.6 from 563) is a Penobscot River beach with a shallow warm flat at low tide.
When the ocean is too cold: lake beaches
Maine's inland water in August runs seventy degrees and up. If you are traveling with children who actually want to swim, this is the answer.
- Sebago Lake State Park (4.6 from 1,592 reviews): the big one, an hour from Portland, with sand beaches on both the Naples and Casco sides.
- Range Pond State Park in Poland (4.7 from 1,082): shallow, warm, and the easiest lake day from Portland or Lewiston.
- Damariscotta Lake State Park (4.6 from 442), a good pairing with a Midcoast trip when the ocean has beaten everyone down.
- Barrett's Cove on Megunticook Lake near Camden (4.5 from 256): small town beach with a raft, twenty minutes from the harbor.
Choosing by what you actually need
| If you want | Go to | Why |
|---|
| Miles of walkable sand | Long Sands, Wells, Old Orchard | The only genuinely long beaches in the state |
| Small children | Reid State Park, Mother's Beach, Range Pond | Warm shallow water and facilities |
| Drama and photographs | Popham, Sand Beach, Seawall | Sandbars, granite, dunes |
| Surf | Scarborough Beach, Long Sands | Consistent break, lifeguards in season |
| Solitude | Roque Bluffs, Seawall, Birch Point | Few facilities, long approach, no crowds |
| Warm water | Echo Lake, Sebago, Damariscotta Lake | Fresh water runs 15 degrees warmer |
Where to base yourself for a beach week
The beach itself is rarely the deciding factor. Walkability is. Four towns get this right in different ways.
- York puts three beaches, a lighthouse and a compact village within a couple of miles of each other, and you can leave the car parked for a day.
- Ogunquit is the most walkable of all: village, three-mile beach, the Marginal Way cliff path and Perkins Cove all connect on foot or by trolley.
- Wells trades charm for square footage. More rentals, more parking, more space on the sand, and everything else is a short drive.
- Old Orchard Beach is the budget-and-boardwalk option, and the only Maine beach town with a train station a short walk from the sand.
For a Midcoast beach trip there is no equivalent. Popham, Reid and Seawall are 30 to 45 minutes apart with no town between them, so you base in Bath or Brunswick and drive.
Beaches out of season
The most underrated beach months in Maine are September and October. The water is at its annual warmest right after Labor Day, the crowds are gone within a week, and the light gets long and low. Parking enforcement relaxes, dog restrictions lift in most towns, and the beaches at Popham and Reid (impossible on an August Saturday) are half empty.
Winter beach walking is its own thing. Storm surf at Higgins Beach and Long Sands is genuinely dramatic, the sand at Popham reshapes completely between November and April, and sea smoke sits over the water on the coldest mornings. Dress for wind chill off the water, which runs well below the air temperature inland, and stay off the wet rock at the ends of the beaches.
Rules worth knowing before you park
Dog rules are set town by town and change with the season. Most southern beach towns allow dogs only outside the middle of the day in summer, and Acadia's beaches have their own restrictions. Check the specific town's page before you load the car. Alcohol is prohibited on most public beaches. Fires require a permit almost everywhere. And on the state park beaches, the gate closes when the lot is full regardless of how far you have driven.
One last piece of local knowledge: the coast fogs in. A day forecast at 80 degrees inland can be 62 and grey at the water's edge, sometimes for the whole morning before it burns off around noon. Pack for a beach day and a hike, and keep the coast guide handy for the days when the fog wins.
FAQ
How cold is the water at Maine beaches in summer?
Southern beaches from Kittery to Old Orchard reach the mid-sixties in August, which most people can swim in for a while. North of Portland it drops, and Sand Beach in Acadia sits around the mid-fifties even at the peak of summer. Inland lakes run seventy and above, which is why families end up there.
Which Maine beach is best for families with young children?
Reid State Park in Georgetown (4.8 from 1,563 reviews) for the tidal lagoon that warms through the day, Mother's Beach in Kennebunk (4.6 from 477) for the sheltered corner and playground, and Range Pond State Park (4.7 from 1,082) if you want water warm enough that nobody complains.
Do you have to pay to park at Maine beaches?
Almost always, in season. Town beaches sell daily or weekly passes and state parks charge at the gate; rates change year to year, so check the town's or the state's own site. Off-season, most lots are free and empty. The larger problem is not cost but capacity. The popular lots fill by mid-morning on warm weekends.
What is the best beach in Maine?
By the data, Popham Beach State Park: 4.8 from 2,104 reviews, more than any other beach in our set, and the sandbars at low tide are unlike anything else on the coast. If you want long sand and services rather than drama, Long Sands in York or Wells Beach do that better.
