Planning

Beach access fees: what you pay for, and what is separate

Updated 2026-11-14

A beach that is described as free rarely costs nothing to visit. Entry, parking, facilities and equipment are usually separate line items, run by different bodies, and each can change on its own schedule. The examples below come from our researched profiles; rates were read from the cited pages on 14 November 2026 and may have changed since.

Per person plus per vehicle: Makena, Maui

Makena Beach (Big Beach) sits inside a Hawaii state park, where the state's land agency lists a non-resident charge of USD 5 per person plus USD 10 per vehicle, with residents exempt. A filing from April 2026 suggests the payment system may change, so treat the figures as a starting point and check the agency page before you travel.

Parking is the real cost: Good Harbor, Massachusetts

At Good Harbor Beach the city lists a non-resident parking charge of USD 40 on weekdays and USD 45 on weekends and holidays. Non-residents must reserve a space online in advance and can be turned away at the gate when the lot is full. The beach itself is open to walkers, so the planning question is how you arrive, not whether you can enter.

Small charges for facilities: Radhanagar, Andamans

A beach management plan from June 2025 for Radhanagar Beach lists toilet use at INR 10 and changing-cum-shower units at INR 20. Carry small notes: facilities with a fee often cannot make change.

A checklist before you go

• Look for the basis of every fee: per person, per vehicle, per hour or per sunbed.
• Check whether payment is advance-only or cash-only. The two can conflict with each other.
• Read the date next to a rate. A fee shown without a date is a guess.
• If a profile shows a fee as unknown, that means we could not find a source, not that it is free.