ask-amac
0/2000
Neighborhoods · The Bronx

Pelham Bay: the beach, the biggest park in the city and City Island

The end of the 6: a mile of free beach, 2,700 acres of salt marsh and woodland, and a fishing village on an island at the end of a bridge that looks like coastal New England and runs on fried seafood — a summer day that most New Yorkers haven't taken.

The 6 train ends at Pelham Bay Park, about forty-five minutes from Grand Central, and what is at the end of it is the largest park in New York City, the Bronx's own beach, and a mile-and-a-half-long island village built around seafood. Together they are the best summer day in the borough and one of the best in the city, and almost no visitor takes it.

The geography is simple: the station is at the park's southern edge, and two buses leave from it. The Bx12 runs to Orchard Beach — often in summer, rarely otherwise — and the Bx29 runs across the bridge onto City Island and down the length of City Island Avenue. The park itself is on foot from the station, though the good parts, the Hunter Island trails behind the beach, are nearer the beach than the subway.

The food is on City Island: paper-plate fried-clam counters at the far end, where the line on a summer weekend is the attraction, and sit-down seafood houses along the avenue. For names, ask the composer on this page — it checks every one against the city's own register, because this site once invented four City Island restaurants and would rather not again.

What's here

  1. Orchard BeachFree

    Pelham Bay · The Bronx

    A mile-long crescent of sand on Pelham Bay, free, reached by the Bx12 from the subway, and known to almost nobody from outside the borough. The Bronx Riviera. Morning, before the summer weekend crowd from the neighborhood fills it; the pavilion behind it is a piece of 1930s WPA architecture.

  2. Pelham Bay ParkFree

    Pelham Bay · The Bronx

    Twenty-seven hundred acres — three times Central Park — with salt marsh, genuine woodland and thirteen miles of shoreline, all free and mostly empty. The Hunter Island trails start behind the beach's northern end; the rest of the park you will have to yourself. This is where to walk off lunch.

  3. City IslandUnder $25

    City Island · The Bronx

    The Bx29 across the bridge, then ride to the far end and walk back up the avenue, which is the right way to do it. A fishing village that behaves like coastal New England — boatyards, clapboard houses, and seafood from paper plates to white tablecloths. Lunch, or a long late-afternoon one.

How to do it

Beach in the morning while it is quiet, the island for a late lunch, the park trails in the afternoon if you have the legs, and the island again at dusk if you don't. The buses make it: Bx12 to the beach, back to the station, Bx29 to the island, and the reverse. In summer both run often; off-season the beach bus is infrequent and the walk from the subway to the sand is long and dull, which is the honest reason this is a summer page.

Common questions

How long does it take to get there?

About forty-five minutes on the 6 from Grand Central to Pelham Bay Park, the last stop, then ten to fifteen minutes on the Bx12 to the beach or the Bx29 onto City Island. Call it an hour door to sand. There is parking at the beach that charges a seasonal fee on summer weekends, and the buses are the better choice anyway.

Is Orchard Beach nicer than Coney Island or Rockaway?

Calmer and emptier, on a bay rather than the open Atlantic, so no surf and warmer water. Coney Island has the boardwalk, the rides and the crowd; Rockaway has the surf and the longer ride. Orchard Beach has the fewest visitors of the three and the best day-trip structure, because City Island is next door. It is the local's beach, and it feels like one.

Is City Island worth it out of season?

Yes, for a quiet afternoon — the restaurants are open year-round, the avenue is pleasant to walk in fall, and the views across the Sound are clearer in cold air. The beach is a summer thing. Spring and fall are the island's best seasons for food without a queue; summer weekends are the ones with the atmosphere and the line.

Who should skip this

Anyone without a full day, or anyone visiting in winter — the buses are infrequent, the beach is closed, and the distance from Manhattan only pays off when the sun is out.

More neighborhoods