Plan Your Visit to Crane Beach

Planning a Crane Beach day comes down to three things: buy an advance pass if you're going on a weekend or a summer holiday, pick your time around greenheads and the tide, and know that the bathhouse, lifeguards and snack bar run only from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Everything else is a four-mile beach run by The Trustees, open 8 a.m. to sunset every day.

This page walks through the decisions in order and points to the page that has the detail.

1. Pick Your Day

• Peak summer (July to August): warmest air and water, full services, and the biggest crowds. Weekends need a pass.
• June: services running, cooler water, before greenhead season.
• Late August and September: warm water, fewer people, greenheads gone; lifeguards end at Labor Day.
• October to March: quiet beach, cheap entry, dogs and horses allowed in set areas.

Detail: weather, water temperature, greenhead season.

2. Get a Pass

Summer passes go on sale at noon on Monday for Tuesday to Thursday, and at noon on Thursday for Friday to Monday. Members get a 11:30 a.m. presale and lower prices. If you can't get a main-lot pass, Baker's Pasture opens on summer weekends with its own passes. See parking and passes and rates.

3. Check the Tide and the Weather

Low tide gives you the widest beach. The tide range here is about 9 feet, so it makes a real difference. Look up NOAA's Plum Island Sound station on our tides page, and call 978-356-4354 on the morning of your trip for The Trustees' live updates on parking, greenheads and water conditions.

4. Know What's Open

From Memorial Day to Labor Day you get lifeguards and EMTs (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.), rangers, bathhouses with changing areas, outdoor showers, drinking fountains, the Crane Beach Store, the Snack Shack, picnic tables, bike racks, umbrella and chair rentals, Mobi Mats and an information kiosk. The rest of the year, family restrooms stay open but there's no running water, and the store and snack bar are closed.

5. Pack Right

• Water, a hat and sunscreen, which The Trustees specifically recommend for the dune trails.
• A layer: the water is cold even in August.
• Food, or money for the Snack Shack in summer.
• A portable gas grill only if you want to cook; charcoal is banned.
• Trash bags: it's carry in, carry out.

Leave at home: inflatable floats, kites (April to September), drones, alcohol you didn't buy on site, and, from April to September, the dog. See rules.

6. Accessibility

The main lot has 25 accessible spaces, first come, first served. Rangers give rides from the lot to the beachfront for visitors with mobility challenges, and a waterproof beach wheelchair is available; ask at the beach store in summer or the gate otherwise. Restrooms and the bathhouse are wheelchair accessible. Floating beach wheelchairs are available in the off-season too. Allow extra time: The Trustees say the ride service can be delayed when staff is short, so tell a ranger your planned departure time.

7. Add Castle Hill

Castle Hill, the Crane family's mansion and gardens, is on the same road. It needs its own grounds pass or tour ticket, and you drive between the two; The Trustees don't permit beach access from Castle Hill. Plan the Great House for the morning and the beach for the afternoon, or the reverse. See Castle Hill and tours and tickets.

8. Go Further

• The 5.5 miles of dune trails on Castle Neck (map).
• A guided kayak trip or hike to Choate Island (Choate Island).
• The Ada K. Damon shipwreck on Steep Hill Beach (history).