Ocean Beach Park

Beach · New London, Connecticut

A 1940s municipal beach resort that has survived more or less intact, which is rarer than it sounds - most of the New England boardwalk parks burned down, blew away or were sold. Ocean Beach was built by New London after the 1938 hurricane destroyed what was there before, and it is still run by the city: a half-mile of sand on Long Island Sound, a wooden boardwalk, an Olympic-size outdoor pool, a water slide, a miniature golf course, an arcade and a nature walk through the salt marsh behind. It is unashamedly a day-trip park rather than a scenic beach, and it works best if you take it on those terms. The entry model is the thing to understand: you pay per CAR, not per person, so it is cheap for a full car and poor value for one, and the pool, the slide and the mini golf are all charged again on top. Weekdays are cheaper and far less crowded than weekends, out-of-state plates pay more, and out of season the whole park shuts down to a beach with nothing running on it. Taken on its own terms, on a hot weekday in July, it is the best surviving thing of its kind in the state.

1225 Ocean Avenue, New London, New London, Connecticut, 06320, United States

STRICTLY SEASONAL, roughly Memorial Day to Labor Day for full operation, with reduced weekend-only opening at the shoulders. ENTRY IS CHARGED PER VEHICLE, with a higher rate at weekends and on holidays and a higher rate again for out-of-state plates. Lifeguards, the pool, the slide and the arcade all run to the summer season. Out of season the beach itself is often accessible on foot but nothing is operating.

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