4 Bridgeport Beaches (Tips, Photos, and Guide from a Local)

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With Bridgeport’s fame as “Park City” and its location on the Connecticut shoreline, it must have some great beaches—right? Having lived in Bridgeport for four years, I’ve become pretty familiar with Seaside Beach. 

But I was curious whether there were any other Bridgeport beaches I might be missing. 

While Seaside Beach at Seaside Park is notably the star of Bridgeport, CT beaches, there are several others within city limits. These smaller beaches don’t have as many amenities, and they are not all suited for swimming, but they are nice spots for those looking for fewer crowds.

I headed out on a few beautiful summer days to scope each of these beaches out. Keep reading for all the details. 

Seaside Beach 

Seaside Beach is such a gem in Bridgeport. I was talking with a lifeguard recently who works at both Seaside and Pleasure Beaches, and he said he couldn’t believe how uncrowded Seaside Beach usually is compared to other beaches in CT.

A lot of people might overlook it, but this is a nice beach in western Connecticut.

Located in the western end of Seaside Park, this beach is always hopping with activity as soon as the weather warms up. On any given day, you’ll see families gathered around picnic tables with bachata music playing from a speaker, ice cream push carts and trucks, kids playing in the sand, seagulls fighting over scraps, and the occasional reggaeton from cars passing by. 

This beach is pretty large (¾ mile stretch, plus more with the small beach section).

When we lived across the street from Seaside, I walked there several times a week. Apart from weekends and holidays (especially Memorial Day and Fourth of July), it doesn’t usually feel super crowded the way that some beaches do.

There’s a small beach area with a lifeguard and some volleyball nets. Farther down, past a section of oceanside walkway, is a very long beach that stretches all the way out to the seawall leading to Fayerweather Island Light. 

Seaside Beach has:

• Playground
• Splash pad
• Bathrooms
• Numerous picnic tables

Note that the old bath house is not open, but the newer bathrooms are open during the summer season (and a bit beyond, depending on the weather and staffing). The bathrooms are located near the playground areas.

The last couple of years, there have also been food trucks allowed. We saw several of them throughout 2024, and when I spoke with someone from the Parks Department, they said there should be some food trucks in 2025.

We’ll try to report back on what we spot in 2025!

The food truck space is located towards the end of Barnum Drive on the Black Rock Harbor side. We’ve seen them in other places by the beach as well, so check around.

As with most Connecticut beaches, the water is usually gentle since it is located on Long Island Sound. It’s quite shallow here as well. At low tide, you can walk way out and enjoy the tide pools. 

Seaside Beach is a nice place to enjoy the beach in Connecticut’s Park City. Whether you’re looking for a lively spot for your kids to cool off in the height of summer, a place to take a beautiful sunrise jog, or a location for a serene winter walk on the beach, Seaside is overall the best beach in Bridgeport. 

***The price to enter with a vehicle depends on where you live and where your car is registered. See the Bridgeport Parks website for exact details. Note that you can enter the park on foot, bicycle, or scooter if you find legal street parking nearby, but you will have a fairly long walk to the beach. 

Looking for more fun things to do in Bridgeport? After living here for three years, I shared some top picks in my local’s guide to Bridgeport—from live music to outdoor yoga to a beautiful beach and lighthouse.

Pleasure Beach

This beach is closed for the 2025 season (details below). I have left the section here for informational purposes in case it reopens in a future year.

Pleasure Beach is a quiet beach with a surprising and tumultuous past that has almost all been swallowed up by nature. 

In 1892, an amusement park was built on what was then an island. In its heyday, Pleasure Beach (and the other names it took on) attracted tens of thousands of visitors daily. At various points throughout the 20th century, it had everything from a baseball stadium where the Chicago Cubs played an exhibition game, to a carousel, roller skating rink, ballroom, performances by Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra, a ballet, and a rollercoaster. 

A footbridge and later a drawbridge for cars were added, and in 1948, gravel was pumped in to expand the size and connect the island to Long Beach in Stratford, transforming it into a peninsula. 

Over the decades, it changed hands (and names) several times and closed for years at a time. Perhaps worst of all, there were quite a few fires that damaged buildings and even the bridge, which has never been rebuilt.

Thankfully, Pleasure Beach reopened in 2014, but the remnants of its past are mostly seen only through historic markers along the walking path from the pier to the beach. 

Visiting Pleasure Beach

Today, this quiet beach is technically on a peninsula but not accessible by car—from Bridgeport, you can only reach it by boat. It is part of the Bridgeport Parks Department, and they run a water taxi and employ lifeguards during the summer season. Both the water taxi and the beach itself are free. 

Note that while the water taxi listing on Google makes it seem that there is a parking lot designated for beachgoers, there isn’t. The only parking is street parking in a part commercial, part residential area in the East End at Central Avenue and Seaview Avenue. The water taxi is located at the end of Central Avenue.

Be careful to check parking signs, and don’t leave valuables in your vehicle. While I did not have any problems, this area is not the safest in Bridgeport. Compared to the other beaches on this list, parking in this area does not seem as secure since it’s tucked away in a corner of Bridgeport that doesn’t get a lot of through traffic or security monitoring.

When you arrive at Pleasure Beach Park, the water taxi will drop you off at the pier. You have the option to board a golf cart that will take you a half mile to the pavilion, where you will then walk along the boardwalk out to the beach.

Alternatively, you can skip the golf cart and walk the entire way on a paved path. There are signs along the way detailing the island’s history, as well as a view across the water of Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge in Stratford. On my walk, I spotted some osprey flying pretty low overhead.

The beach is somewhat sandy but has a lot of shells, so water shoes are recommended. It’s also a great spot to go birdwatching, and there are a number of areas that are protected for their nesting. Please keep an eye out for these signs and be respectful of wildlife and the sand dunes, so we can help preserve this beautiful place for future generations.

While Pleasure Beach doesn’t have the amenities of Seaside Beach nor is it as much of a destination, it’s a nice, affordable alternative, especially for those who want a quiet nature escape. 

***Check Bridgeport Parks & Recreation website for current details. I do not recommend the Google listing for the water taxi at this time, as the days and hours may not be updated.

Seabright Beach

This little sunbathing beach in the Black Rock neighborhood of Bridgeport is located in a residential neighborhood. It’s tucked away in Black Rock Harbor, so the water is very quiet, and you have a view of boats in the harbor and the Fayerweather Lighthouse in Seaside Park. You can’t really see Long Island as you can from Seaside Beach or Pleasure Beach. 

The beach itself is sandy, has a bit of seagrass, and is very small. While it’s probably not a destination for out-of-towners, this beach is a nice spot for locals who want something low-key and easy to get to. 

Note that many of the photos on the Google listing are of Seaside Park and St. Mary’s-by-the-Sea, not Seabright Beach.

***The Black Rock website states that a Bridgeport Parks sticker is required during the summer months in the immediate vicinity. However, a parks department employee told me he was not aware of any park rule requiring stickers, and I did not notice any signs. Park at your own risk, or look for street parking nearby. There are a lot of side streets, and Black Rock is quite safe.

St. Mary’s-by-the-Sea

This is the beach that isn’t really a beach. When I first heard about St. Mary’s-by-the-Sea, I was confused about what and where exactly it was. The Google listing doesn’t make it entirely clear. 

For those who haven’t been, St. Mary’s-by-the-Sea is a waterfront park that runs between the road and the water. It wraps around part of a peninsula in the Black Rock neighborhood. Most of the park is a waterfront walkway that is quite scenic—it’s one of the best places to walk by the ocean in Bridgeport. 

But this post is about beaches, not scenic walks. And St. Mary’s has a beach, sort of. 

At the western point where Eames Boulevard and Gilman Street meet, there is a small beach area. Here the harbor meets Ash Creek, so there is a current in some spots.

Overall, this is not an ideal swimming beach—there’s no lifeguard and it’s very rocky. Depending on the tide, you might be able to wade a bit but would probably want water shoes. 

The sandy area at the top of the beach is a bit rough—with pebbles and shells throughout it. When you walk toward the end of the point, though, the sand gets pretty soft, although it’s still pebbly as you go down toward the water. 

Like Seabright Beach, this is a nice spot to go when you want to sunbathe by the water, take in the sights, read a book, or just relax without worrying about too many crowds. 

Note that St. Mary’s-by-the-Sea requires a Bridgeport park sticker year round, and I have been told that the police department monitors this area heavily. If you don’t have an annual sticker, there are some side streets fairly close that have street parking, and there’s a nice walk along the marsh to get to the beach and oceanfront boardwalk. 

Have you been to any of these Bridgeport beaches? Let us know in the comments!