City Beaches Open Memorial Day & NYC Beach Bus Will Take You There From Park Slope

Memorial Day weekend marks the official opening of New York City beaches for the season, and right now the forecast doesn’t look too bad for a little sun and sand. And once again this year, if you’re in the neighborhood and want to get to the beach quickly but you don’t have a car, there’s a bus that will take you directly there.

NYC Beach Bus is back beginning Saturday, May 23, running between the Barclays Center and a number of beaches — the Rockaway Beach and Jacob Riis Park route returns, plus later this summer they’re adding trips to Fire Island, Robert Moses, and Jones Beach.

Trips to Rockaway Beach (the stop is now at Beach 95th Street, moved from Beach 84th) and Jacob Riis Park depart on weekends and holidays hourly from the Barclays Center and Williamsburg between 9am and 1pm, and make hourly returns from 2:30pm to 7pm. Prices start at $10 for one-way and $14 for round-trips (up a bit from last year), and tickets can be ordered in advance online.

A bonus this year: they’re setting up a pilot program where they’re renting beach chairs (starting at $10) and umbrellas ($5) at Jacob Riis — they can be reserved online before you get to the beach (though that doesn’t appear to be set up just yet).

Then starting on June 21, they’re adding routes to beaches a bit further off. You’ll also be able to reach Fire Island, Robert Moses, and Jones Beach from the Barlcays Center (also at Union Square), with weekend departures at 10am and a 6pm return, which will cost $20 one way and $30 round trip. NYC Beach Bus optimistically tells Gothamist that it should take an hour to get to Fire Island, and 45 minutes to get to Jones Beach.