Ninety seconds on Horseshoe Bay
Cruise passengers fill it from late morning to mid-afternoon, and they bunch up by the entrance and the cafe. Come early or late, or walk to the eastern end, and there is room to spread out.
A third of a mile of sand runs east from the main entrance, and most of the crowd never leaves the first part of it, by the cafe and the rental stand. Walk east along the beach and it thins, and beyond the rocks at the far end the South Shore Park trail carries on through the dunes to smaller coves and, 1.2 miles on, Warwick Long Bay. West of the entrance, past a large rock formation, Port Royal Cove is sheltered and shallow, the water to take small children into. Your own chairs and umbrellas are allowed on the sand, though a bus driver can refuse to carry them. Allow half a day, more if the trail is part of it.
Explore the rest of Southampton
A coastal nature reserve on the south shore, running from Horseshoe Bay east to Warwick Long Bay. A sandy trail links the two beneath…
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