Mayo Beach Park

The beach is amazing, but the manager Lisa made the entire experience really bad. No signs are posted that you can’t grill using charcoal. So our Father’s Day plans were ruined. Meanwhile, we watched others grill food for over an hour before she even bothered them. Lisa was nasty, rude and very unprofessional. Although, I appreciate the public day, the treatment wasn’t worth it.

We arrived on a day when the park was not reserved for a private event. It was empty. There were no signs saying it was by rental only. The playground was empty. The beach was empty. How is this a good use of public land? After walking around for a few minutes and admiring the view, and letting our daughter go down the slide a few times, the caretaker came out and asked us to leave. It was closed to the public, he said, and too busy to be used as it was rented out for 8 weddings a week. (As I said before, there was no one there and it was not rented out at that time, despite the fact that it was during park hours.) I can understand making it available for reserved use, but when it’s not in use by someone who is paying for it, it should be open to the public. And, how affordable is it really that county and state dollars pay for it (either directly or indirectly) for the benefit of a few who pay what amounts to a modest fee for the facility they get to rent the entire place. It’s disturbing.

Horrifying to discover, having followed the map and directional signs to the park, that it is not open to the public! There were no signs saying this until we reached the park, having driven over an hour to get there. It does say it is permit only on the Anne Arundel county website. We were told to leave after we had been there 10 minutes, having neither spoken to or bothered anyone.
How can a county site on public water be closed to be public?