Jones Beach

Jones Beach State Park is New York's greatest public beach — a 10-kilometre Atlantic Ocean shoreline on a barrier island in Nassau County, Long Island, built in the 1920s and 1930s by the legendary urban planner Robert Moses and opened in 1929. Moses designed the park as a democratic leisure destination accessible by automobile or the Long Island Rail Road, complete with monumental bathhouses in Italian Renaissance style, parking for 25,000 cars, and facilities so comprehensive that visitors would have every need met without leaving the park. Today it remains one of the most visited beaches in the United States, serving millions of swimmers, sunbathers, surfers, and concertgoers each year.

The park is divided into multiple distinct sections along its western orientation. The main bathing sections (Fields 2 through 9) are fronted by a 3.2-kilometre boardwalk connecting the two bathhouse complexes. The Zach's Bay section on the protected bay side offers calm-water swimming, ideal for families with very young children. Field 6 is the designated surf zone, popular with local longboarders and shortboarders and one of the more consistent Atlantic surf spots in the region. The park also has a fishing pier, miniature golf, basketball and volleyball courts, a children's play area, and a boat basin.

The Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater (formerly the Jones Beach Theater) is a 15,000-seat outdoor amphitheater that has hosted legendary summer concerts since 1952 — from Frank Sinatra to Bruce Springsteen to Phish — making it one of the premier outdoor music venues on the East Coast. The combination of a world-class beach, remarkable Depression-era architecture, and a summer concert season makes Jones Beach the centrepiece of Long Island's summer cultural calendar and one of the most completely satisfying public open-air leisure destinations in the entire northeastern United States.