Plum Island Beach

Plum island is a beautiful place to live, visit or even stay for a vacation! The all year islanders are wonderful people that are always willing to give a hand if needed! The local business there are cute and charming and everything has there on tid-​bit of history to it and special touch! From the light house to the Reservation and the small air port right before the bridge going on to plum island are all places you must see!
Every night there is a beautiful sun set that takes your breath away & The wild life you get to see (don’t forget to bring your camera)
Must places to check out is :
Plum island grill
Plum island Beachcoma
Plum island reservation
Captain lady boat trip also fishing and wale watching great with kids and family !
There is also a park that’s redone over for all ages at the point of the plum island seconds from the beach !
You can do your own fishing, tanning and find all kind of sea creatures and sand dollars!
Take a moment to visit !
And check out moe’s package store for all your beer wine and other needs!
Plum island soap company is one other place u must check out for gifts for your self family and what nots! I send my friend and grandmother stuff from there every year !! And they live in Germany!
everything is 100% hand made nationally!
Five stars for plum island + clean beaches !

I’ve been going to this beach since my family first moved to New England — its long isthmus is really more of a huge sandbar built from sand and soil washed down the Merrimac and Ipswich rivers. Its probably the least crowded beach during the summer due to a very low capacity parking lot which closes in the morning once full. You need to either arrive early in the morning or come around 2 PM after the early morning arrivals start to trickle out and they reopen the gates. In the spring or fall when crowds are lighter, it makes for a great day trip combined with a stop at the fried clam joints in the area or a visit to a more upscale restaurant in Newburyport. The entire island is a nature preserve with a diverse range of birds that you can view from a few different raised platforms. Four stars because of the accessibility and the fact that large parts of the beach are closed during Plover nesting season during the Spring.

Beautiful beach even in the winter!

Living on the island makes me a bit biased. However I can honestly say plum island is only second to Cranes beach. There is that thin line of letting others know how nice the islands beach really are as it only means less space on my own secret island.

Best way to spend an Indian Summer Sunday? Definitely Plum Island. The lateness of season didn’t prevent a nice 20-​car line out the gate when we arrived at about 2:00 in the afternoon, but this beautiful beach was totally worth the wait. Parking was $ 5, greenheads were nowhere to be found, and the water, while cold, was swimmable. BOOM.
The parking lot at the tip was full, but the beach we were at was perfectly fine, though the lot for that was pretty small, too. On a prime summer beach day in July/​August, getting here early in the AM would be key to nab one of these precious spots.
Overall: beautiful and serene, but not as secluded as Crane Beach down the shore, which I actually think is a good thing. Newburyport is bustling with great shops and places to eat when you’re beached out for the day.
NOT public transit accessible, unless there’s a bus from the commuter rail station that I don’t know about. Which there may be.

very nice beach, really all of Newburyport, obviously, is very nice, cool well maintained downtown area, I myself could care less about beaded jewelry and hip clothing. but for an afternoon at a quality beach this fits just fine. my only gripe which is a fairly large was in public transit… someone could have clued me in that the beach is nearly a six mile walk from the commuter rail. thank god I wore sunscreen if I had to make that walk back all ocean salty and bright red that would have been the worst. but overall a pleasant day. the evening however didn’t go so well. thanks mbta for the holiday schedule… missed the train by about ten mins, then had to wait two and a half hours for the nest train back to north station.

We went to the most North part of Plum Island and it was beautiful! There was a small, historical lighthouse, you can see Salisbury beach across, the mouth of the Merrimack River, and two rock jetties.
The parking was $ 10. And the parking guy gave us a map so we could see other stuff around the area (Newburyport and such).
Saw some people fishing for striped bass. Went looking for sea glass and shells. Very secluded, quiet, clean, and overall, peaceful. Will be back next summer!

great beach! love this location for privacy and ease of access. still our hidden jewel of a beach

This reminds me of a time long ago when I brought my 3 sons now in their late 30s and early 40s to Plum Island for the day. There was a sign at the entrance to the refuge «Greenheads no refunds» We had traveled 80 miles so in we went. Yes the greenheads were awful but we made a game out of it. I had read in Organic Gardening that Japanese Beetles didn’t like the smell of their own dead and to make a concoction in your blender of ground up beetles to keep them off your plants. Sounds disgusting but we smeared dead flies on ourselves and it helped .also gave us something to do besides swat flies .We were the only ones on the beach until… and this is going to sound like script from a movie… a bus load of nuns showed up in full habit… those poor flies had no where to bite them… Those nuns had the time of their lives… I can still see them lifting their habits to go frolocking in the water… My sons laugh every time I mention it… Talk about making lemonade out of a lemon of a day!

Visited yesterday on the first 90 degree beach weekend of the summer. Parking was probably full earlier in the day, but fine in the afternoon. Expect to pay $ 10-​$ 20 for parking depending on the day and time, $ 5-​$ 6 for evening in some places. Most of the southern beach was closed off, but there was still plenty of room in the northern, more residential reaches.
The beach sand is of a medium tan, slightly coarse variety. Quite comfortable for walking barefoot on the beach or in the surf. The beach is a little steeper than most, but not annoyingly so. There are some small rock jutties to climb on in places, and dunes and marshland behind the beach to admire. The crowd is considerably less rowdy than Revere, a lot of families who live nearby seem to come here. There were some flies that landed on me while laying down that needed some swatting, but it wasn’t overwhelming and I didn’t get bitten. (Might not be the season for that.) There were some banners up in town saying area residents were having a fundraiser to put out more fly traps, as it happens. Didn’t see any restroom facilities; maybe those were farther north.
Only a short drive to downtown Newburyport; lots of places to grab food there and a nice area to walk around while drying off.

This was our first real beach visit in MA (I say real because we walked along the beach in colder weather, but this is the first time actually in the water). It was an overall pleasant experience, except for the wind. It was only rated at 6mph (based on the weather channel) but it was throwing sand around everywhere. The sand literally hurt as it was flinging all over and around us. Maybe we are just not used to New England beaches? Even at the windiest times in Cali, we never had sand blowing like this.
Otherwise, as mentioned, it was a pleasant experience, The beach is nice and clean, and there is plenty of room to spread out. Life guards also seemed generally concerned about the public as they were reminding them of no boogie boards, made sure they weren’t going too far out when the tide was coming in, etc. That was nice, again, something I am not used to from California beaches.
There actually ARE rest rooms, although I wasn’t blown away by then. They are just standard beach bathrooms to me. The person that mentioned porta potties… I assume you were at a different part of the beach. There are various parts with beach access, I am sure not all are the same. Anyway, being that there is actual running water in the bathrooms, I found it strange there were no showers of any kind. How hard would it be to do an outdoor tap to let people wash the sand off? yeah, again, maybe I am a little spoiled.
Anyway, there are various parking spots for around $ 5-​$ 10, so that is relatively affordable, especially compared to other places that charge up to $ 25. That’s another thing I can;t quite wrap my head around… high beach parking prices. On one hand, it’s an all day pass. On the other hand, you feel obligated to spend the day at the beach as you are dropping the money anyway. Would be nice to see some hourly options.

I can’t believe the stunning reviews this beach got… OR maybe I am just a beach snob as I was raised on the Cape and am not too familiar with north shore beaches. I will say this, someone on here mentioned the nice rest rooms. What rest rooms? There were disgusting porta potties! Also, Jeanie’s, the snack shack had closed so there was no available spot for food on the beach unless you walked up to the dirty convenience store.
That was my first and last time for Plum Island…

I’m typically there every Saturday morning during beach season shore line fishing for stripers. The beach has changed over the many years I have come due to erosion for the most part. I really hate that there are bottles and cans left behind by people who don’t care. I try my best to pick up most trash that I come across but in truth it is still a nice quiet beach. Not very crowded and you can see clear across to Salisbury. Highly recommend this beach. Just beware of green head season in July, they are killer. Parking is cheap and what is cool is if you make it there early enough you can see beautiful models doing their photo shoots

Absolutely the best beach around! It’s like being on your own private beach.

Right by Newburyport, this beach is very secluded. I had a great day there. I went for a photo shoot, during which we didn’t run into ANYONE, and got some great pictures on the wooden board walk down to the beach.
Afterwards I went back to Newburyport and had a delicious dinner! Perfect trip for a day off.

Love this beach! If you plan right, you can get great parking and a beautiful day in the sun. While there isn’t much around the beach, a short drive and Newburyport is a great way to unwind after a day at the beach :)

After reading MANY beach reviews, BFF and I decided to check out Plum Island for her birthday. We were here the very last day in July and the beach was GORGEOUS.
+ Bathrooms were clean
+ Parking was $ 10
+ I only saw 2 flies the whole time we were there
+ Lots of open sand
+Pretty quiet for a weekend in the summer
— Beach had a steep slope down to the water, but no biggie
— The water was COLD!
All in all, we made a good choice. She got to swim, I got to lounge, we picked up some cool shells. I’d come back for sure.

If you want to enjoy this beautiful, secluded, 5-​star beach then there are 2 vital questions that you must ask and answer before you even walk out the door.
1. Is it greenhead season? This beach is mostly impassable in July because of the overwhelming fly population. They will dive bomb you and eat your entire family. Their stings draw blood and it feels like getting shot with a BB gun. Trust me, just stay away until August rolls around.
2. Is parking lot 6 open? Parking lot 6 is at the far southern end of Plum Island and provides access to the most secluded and picturesque part of the beach. It is closed for most of the year due to nesting Piping Plovers but it’s certainly worth the trip when this parking lot is open (check the website or call). There’s only room for about 20 cars so get here early! The small parking lot is highly beneficial though because it doesn’t allow for large crowds.
If you can get the logistics right then you’ll be treated to one of New England’s most beautiful beaches.

It’s mostly quiet beach. Very minimum amount of stores or even bars. Surrounding is very low key/​low profiled. I was a little concerned because the beach looked eroded a lot comparing to what I remember from 4 years ago. Is this another indication of global warming?
Only disturbance is people who sit next to you. If they were younger than mid 20 and sounding like locals, be aware. They just blossom their conversation with loads of local gossip and trip down to Boston and how bad they got shitfaced while they were down there. It was quite painful to listen to and I was thinking in my head «Duuuude… can’t you guys just take a nap like I am?»
In my personal experiences, going to the beaches in Gloucester area is quite painful to get to because of the heavy traffic jam has been inevitable. But trip to Plum Island is consistently smooth. I would definitely prefer here if I weren’t willing to sit through the traffic.
Parking ranges from $ 10 – 15.

This is a really excellent beach. I should start by saying I am no expert in beaches. I’ve been to the Outer Banks and to all sorts of Great Lakes beaches, but I’m new to the Atlantic coast, and aren’t really a huge fan of beaches to begin with.
So Sunday morning I was just looking for a nearby beach to enjoy the first hot summer weekend at. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read that beaches around here (Crane, Singing) actually cost over $ 20 to go to! I’d never been to a paying beach in my life, and I didn’t really feel like starting.
I had a hard time finding detailed information about Plum Island beach (some sites made it sound like it was closed April 1^st for bird nesting). Turns out there are several different beaches, some inside the actual reservation on Plum Island, others not.
The beach you see when you first drive onto the island looked very crowded, so my wife and I paid the $ 5 for entrance to the reservation and parked in the only lot open, Lot 1. It was a quick two minute walk to the beach.
The beach was … well, a beach! Beautiful, expansive, with soft sand. Fairly crowded, but very easy to find a spot. I’d highly recommend it to anyone looking to enjoy nature without having to pay much for it.