Rainbow Haven Beach Provincial Park — Attraction in Cow Bay

Too crowded and the park attendants close the gates when they feel the parking lot is full so you can't even drive in and drop people off. Meanwhile, at the other end of the park, cars are leaving fairly steadily. This means tons of cars park on the road (Cow Bay) causing traffic congestion that is annoying at best for the homeowners in the area and dangerous should emergency vehicles be needed. It is quite a long walk from the road to the beach, especially if you are carrying lots of stuff or have small children or anyone with mobility issues in your group. Then, once you finally make it to the parking lot on your way to the beach, you find that there are literally 50+ empty parking spots. Really wish they would leave the gate open so people could drive through the park and check for spots themselves and then park out on the road if necessary (or at least drop off part of our group and the stuff by the boardwalk).

The beach itself is nice with a wide sandy shore line. The water is refreshing and all the rocks and seaweed on the bottom provide hours of fun for young nature enthusiasts to watch crabs, periwinkles and tiny shrimp scurrying around in their underwater home.

Swimmers may prefer to wear water shoes to avoid stepping on broken shells and barnacle covered rocks, especially at mid to low tide.

Other than the parking situation on busy days this beach is very nice, especially for families with children. It is also a very popular dog...

A great beach in the HRM area. Closer to the city than Conrad's Beach, but has bathrooms. Lovely sand and also lifeguards, if that's your concern.

There are two downsides to Rainbow Haven. First, it is busy - the parking lot fills up before lunch on really hot days and you may have a twenty minute walk from your parking along the road in. Just pack accordingly - when it's hot enough to be that busy, it's worth it.

Second and in common with Halifax's other beaches, the water is quite cold. This is by no means an especially cold beach in Nova Scotia, but there are warmer ones in the province. Like most of our other beaches south of the Northumberland Strait, early in the season the Atlantic can be uncomfortably, bone-achingly cold, at Rainbow Haven. Worth a try just once in May.

In all, if you want a beach for a day trip from Halifax, this is a...

Heavenly little beach of fine white sand. Impressively clean on a busy long weekend. The parking lot is fairly good sized but fills up quickly and the entrance gate closes to vehicles. The provincial road to it is narrow and the shoulders fill up with cars quickly on warm, sunny days. The gravel road from the gate is eternally full of pot holes. Nevertheless this is a Halifax beach not to miss sunny days or foggy days. (From 2015)

Everything from last year is still true but it was hot enough to swim on our visit this year. It's the North Atlantic so it's ... a little cool compared to a lot of places you might be more familiar with. The water has never been calm but the drop off is not enormous so you can either wade around up to your ankles, knees or waist but be prepared to be dunked by the...