For a rugged slice of Canada's west coast, look no further than Bonanza Beach in Haida Gwaii, which enjoys a staggering view of the Queen Charlotte Mountains. Bonanza Beach is located towards the mouth of Rennell Sound and is about a 15-minute walk from the nearest road. With no landmass between the island and the vastness of the Pacific, it's a great beach for beachcombing – glass floats from Japanese fishing nets and bleached whale bones are just some of the interesting debris that washes ashore.
There’s plenty of water to play in at this beautiful beach in Cape Breton Highlands National Park, with the ocean, a freshwater brook, and a pretty waterfall all within the immediate vicinity, providing both salt and freshwater experiences. The beach itself is sandy with some dramatic rock formations on the shore. Part of the famed Cabot Trail, it’s a popular stop for visitors exploring the natural beauty of Cape Breton Island.
Even though Saskatchewan is landlocked, it does have some nice beaches, thanks to the province’s 100,000 or so lakes. Now, not all of them have sandy beaches, but Lake Waskesiu in Prince Albert National Park does. It has seven separate sand-laden beaches, including the popular Waskesiu Main Beach. The adjacent village has places to stay, water sport rentals, restaurants and, like any good beach town, ice cream shops.
Literally shaped like a crescent, this picturesque east coast beach is one of the best places to go swimming near the city of Halifax. Crystal Crescent Provincial Park is actually home to three separate beaches, known collectively a Crystal Crescent, at the mouth of Halifax Harbour. Each one has idyllic white sand and views across to the Sambro Island Lighthouse, the oldest surviving lighthouse in North America.
Officially designated in 1911 and located right in the middle of Vancouver Island, Strathcona Provincial Park is British Columbia’s oldest provincial park. And the sparkling Buttle Lake is one of its key attractions. The beach around the lake is a little rugged, but it provides a serene spot to swim from (buoys mark the designated swimming areas) or to just sit and relax by the water as recreational fishing boats and canoes float by.
The town of Gimli sits on a harbour on the southwest part of massive Lake Winnipeg — it’s the largest harbour between Ontario and the Pacific coast, which makes for a lovely sandy beach. While it's not one of Canada’s famous beach destinations, it’s also not completely unknown and is a popular spot for swimmers and lakeside strollers, many of who arrive from Winnipeg. Gimli Beach has a boardwalk as well as bathroom and shower facilities.
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Sitting on the shores of Lake Huron, Pinery Provincial Park features six miles (10km) of gorgeous natural sandy beach. The astonishingly diverse natural area is home to rarely found oak savanna and coastal dune ecosystems. This biodiversity makes the beach area a haven for bird watchers and other nature lovers, but it’s also just a fun place to splash around in the water or to hop on a bike and explore nearby trails.
When somewhere is nicknamed “Little Hawaii", you can bet it’s going to have some nice beaches. Hornby is one of the Gulf Islands, sitting west of the mainland and east of Vancouver Island in the Salish Sea. Tribune Bay is home to around half a mile (1km) of white sand beaches with safe, shallow waters that make it one of the warmest saltwater swimming areas along the otherwise frigid Canadian Pacific coast.
Sandbanks Provincial Park lays claim to the world’s largest bay mouth barrier dune formation, which means the beaches here are incredibly soft and sandy. There are three sandy beaches in the Prince Edward County park, all of which sit on the shores of Lake Ontario and have stunning dunes. Dunes Beach has the most dramatic drop-off, which makes it incredibly majestic to look at, but not as safe for swimmers.
Claiming to have the warmest saltwater swimming in all of Canada, Parlee Beach and its surrounding provincial park is one of the most beautiful recreational areas in New Brunswick. In addition to enjoying the lovely soft-sand beach and warm waters, visitors can take in a network of nearby hiking trails, go shopping in nearby Pointe-du-Chêne or spend the night camping just 10 minutes away from the sands.
Lake Superior Provincial Park is a wonderland for naturalists and anyone who likes to spend time canoeing, birdwatching, fishing or hiking. Set on the shore of Lake Superior, the park has plenty of enticing beaches too, including the coveted sandy stretch at Katherine Cove. A highlight of a trip to this beach is a wallow in Bathtub Island, an enclosed warm water basin formed by rocks.
Newfoundland also has a Sandbanks Provincial Park, located in the southwest part of the province near the town of Burgeo. As the name would suggest, the park has long expanses of beach: there is a stretch of over four miles (7km) of white sand that is perfect for a barefoot stroll. While the beaches are impressive enough in their own right, visitors can also try to spot endangered piping plovers, which nest along the sands.
A forest-clad Gulf Island that lies between the shores of Vancouver Island and Canada’s mainland, Galiano is a place for peace and relaxation. It also boasts unique white shell beaches at its Mongague Harbour Provincial Park. The crushed shells that make up the beach’s “sand” have formed from the discarded shells harvested over the centuries by indigenous peoples from the ocean. These shell middens are protected under British Columbia law and shells cannot be removed or destroyed.
Bennett Lake straddles the border between northern British Columbia and southern Yukon territory — it’s a large lake and its beach is in the town of Carcross. The volume of the lake fluctuates throughout the year, making the shore area larger in the spring when the water level is low. The water next to the beach is shallow enough to swim in throughout the summer but can be quite cold, although plenty of people still hop in for a quick dip on hot days.
Nicknamed “Singing Sands Beach”, the sand at this beach near the eastern tip of Prince Edward Island famously “sings” as people walk along it on a hot and sunny day. The extraordinary sound is due to the sand’s high silica content, which is also responsible for its white colour. Basin Head is also home to a rare kind of Irish moss that is only found in the area. As well as being a Marine Protected Area, the beach is supervised due to its fast-moving tidal waters.
A favourite of hardy surfers, this sand-and-stone beach offers visitors a taste of Canada's wild Atlantic Ocean coastline. It's not a calm and sandy beach by any measure: the waves can be fierce and caution is advised. The beach is also open for swimming during the summer with lifeguards on duty. Part of Lawrencetown Beach Provincial Park, there are also plenty of hiking and bird watching opportunities nearby.
Part of Newfoundland’s famed Irish Loop, St Vincent’s is notable for its dark stony surface and ominous look. The drop from the beach into the water is unusually steep and gets very deep very quickly. While it might not appeal for swimming or sunbathing, the rugged beach is a prime space for whale watching. Every summer, humpback whales appear amazingly close to the shore to feed on spawning capelin, drawing tourists and nature photographers to the brooding beach.
The patch of beach at the Elora Quarry might be small, but its little sandy shore draws its share of visitors who come for a dip in the cool and clean swimming hole. A designated conservation area, located just an hour away from Toronto, the old limestone quarry is surrounded by tall cliffs and forested parkland. Reservations are now required to avoid overcrowding in the quarry's waters.
With its location on the west coast of southern Vancouver Island, overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca, French Beach is all about its stunning views of the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. The ocean here is cold (but a swim can be refreshing on a hot day) so the sand-and-pebble beach is best used for picnicking or paddling in the waves. It’s a good spot for wildlife watching too, with a good chance of spotting Pacific gray and killer whales, as well as sea lions, otters and bald eagles.
The remote Inuvialuit town of Tuktoyaktuk is nearly completely surrounded by the biting waters of the Beaufort Sea. In what is Canada’s northernmost community that is accessible by road, there is a surprising amount of beachfront that, in summer and spring at least, is just warm enough for visitors to dip their toes in the water. Only the truly brave will go for full-body immersion. Unique cone-shaped hills with cores of ice, known as pingos, can also be viewed from the shore.
The summer village of Mewatha Beach sits on the western shore of Skeleton Lake in central Alberta, northeast of Edmonton and near the town of Boyle. A popular spot for weekends away and summer jaunts, the village formed as holiday homes were built near a long curved sandy beach on the freshwater lake. Skeleton Lake is good for swimming and is also popular with anglers. The pretty lake gets its somewhat sinister name from a translation of a Cree phrase that makes reference to a chief who is said to be buried nearby.
Only a 45-minute drive from the city of Victoria and a short hike from a roadside trailhead, Sombrio Beach is part of the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail within the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park. Parts of the beach are fairly rocky, but it’s well-suited for exploring, picnics or as a place to sit and watch the crashing waves. The water can be quite rough on this end of the island, which makes the beach a hot spot for surfers. There are also wilderness camping areas nearby.
If visitors want to see the beach at the awe-inspiring Hopewell Rocks, they have to get their timing right. As the tide of the Bay of Fundy comes in, the beach completely disappears, leaving the bay's giant rock formations to appear as if they’re floating. The Bay of Fundy’s tidal cycles are infamously extreme — in fact, it has the highest tides in the world. When the beach is accessible, it’s possible to walk along it for about six hours a day, but it’s important to plan in advance since the timing of the tides changes.
The urban beaches on the east side of Toronto are fairly well known, but there is also beach fun to be had on the slightly further afield Toronto Island, which is a short ferry ride through Lake Ontario from the city’s mainland. There are four swimming beaches on Toronto Island Park, including Centre Island Beach. This supervised family-friendly beach is easy to get to and close to the island’s Centreville amusement park.
Another beach on Vancouver Island's scenic Juan de Fuca Trail, Mystic Beach is made special by the waterfall that streams down the cliff that backs the sands. Sandy, but also spectacularly rugged, Mystic Beach is also home to the first campsite from the eastern entrance of the trail, making it a popular stop for long-distance hikers setting off. Beach lovers may also want to visit China Beach, another sandy stretch that isn’t too far away.
Both the name of the beach and the quaint town on the south shore of the St Lawrence River east of Québec City, Berthier-sur-Mer is in the Montmagny region of the province. The beach is quite striking to look at, thanks to the eroded red shale that’s been exposed along the shoreline of the river. With its marina, Berthier-sur-Mer is a popular site for river cruising, boating and other outdoor pursuits.
Canada’s most northern shores have their share of coastal gems too, athough they tend to look markedly different than those in the southern part of the country. Cambridge Bay on the southeast coast of Victoria Island, Nunavut, is the island's largest community with a striking rocky beach overlooking the Dease Strait. The Inuinnaqtun word for the area is Iqaluktuuttiaq, which means “good fishing place”. It is an important site for the Copper Inuit people.
Alberta's Waterton Lakes National Park blends across the US border into Montana's Glacier National Park. This natural beach on Middle Waterton Lake can be seen from the historic Prince of Wales Hotel, which overlooks the lake. It gets its name from the driftwood that washes up on its shore and is routinely turned into art by hikers. Visitors are asked to return the beach to the state in which they found it before moving on.
The charming town of Baie St-Paul is picture-perfect Québec with its quaint shops and heritage buildings. Its plage (beach) is on the St Lawrence River and is equally pretty with its rocky shores and mountain views – it's a particularly wonderful place to be at sunset. Visitors can make the most of the area’s natural beauty on hiking, kayaking and whale-watching excursions.
The Magdalens are an archipelago in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, just north of Prince Edward Island, and are known for their white sand beaches and dramatic red cliffs. The island of Havre aux Maisons’ Dune de Sud (South Dunes) is a particularly spectacular beach, with red-cliff caves that can be explored at low tide and calm waters suitable for family swimming. There are also lighthouses and brightly coloured houses to admire while strolling along the waterfront.