Sand Harbor Beach — Attraction in Incline Village-Crystal Bay

We went on a Saturday in July. We arrived at 6:30a and numerous cars were already lined up to enter.

Cars lined up in the middle turn lane on the highway in front of the entrance were allowed to stay parked there waiting. If we arrived just a few minutes earlier we would have fit in that turn lane, but a ranger/park staff parked behind the next to last car in the middle lane and told us in the most dismissive way "The park is closed, go grab a coffee in Incline". If we would have done that we definitely would not have been able to make it in.

You can't park on the highway (blocking it) and you can't park on the side of the highway close to the entrance before 7am waiting to get in. In addition, you can't drop anyone off at the entrance, so you can go find parking in another area. There were park staff enforcing all of the above.

TIP: There are several turn outs before the entrance. We almost gave up, but we made a u-turn and parked in a turn out before the entrance. About a mile away. At 6:58a we headed back to the entrance. There were hundreds of cars lined up in front of us on the highway to get in. We thought we might not make the cut, but we did. The parking lot filled up so fast! And parking was closed shortly after.

They only accepted cash or check for the entry fee. We parked in the south parking lot at the very end and felt it was not as crowded as other spots on the beach, but still just as beautiful. Although, it did kinda feel like a race to get a nice spot close to the waters edge upon arrival.

Beach is clean, well maintained, bathrooms near the beach are clean, never had to wait to use the restroom. Beach access was close and easy. The sand is more like super tiny gravel, which I like because it's easy to clean off. Not ideal for building sand castles. I'd recommend water shoes. There are smooth rocks in the water with algae growing on them and lots of little fish. I love how you can be pretty far out in the water, but not be too deep. The water temp. is on the cold side.

We didn't feel packed or crowded, even though we were surrounded by people which was interesting. Nice energy here.

We enjoyed the bar and grill nearby. Friendly staff. Was busy, but not stressful. Good food. They have a gift shop and also a grab and go type area inside the bar and grill, where you can buy a bag of ice or packaged snacks. There's a nice patio area with table and chairs.

At the end of the day park entry was stressful and unpleasant, but Sand Harbor is beautiful and worth...

Summer- July 2023 visit update: don’t go in summer if you can’t reach there by 7:30 am.

Worst time to go visit in summer especially when schools are out. We went for a day trip and reached here around 2-3 pm after visiting other scenic spots, there was no parking available and all cars were parked all along the coast. We were shocked to see the crowd come out in huge numbers, there was no place to sit on the shore. We then found out that there is a free shuttle that runs from 771 south wood blvd incline village for free of cost. You can park your car there, board the shuttle and the shuttle gets you to the beach, that’s the only way you can get to the beach. We found out that People were in line to park by the beach at 7:30 am in the morning and it was full by 8:30 ish. Shuttle is a savior here, it runs until 3 pm from the address I mentioned above to get you to beach and last shuttle from the beach leaves at 6 to get you back to 771 southwood blvd, so keep that in mind. When we reached the beach by shuttle, half of the parking lot was empty, their management is worse, even though people were leaving with their cars, they weren’t allowing anyone to come in except via shuttle bus, even walk-ins aren’t allowed.

Pristine waters and a very clean sand beach. This is an amazing beach to visit in South Lake Tahoe. The location is Simply great and you get to overlook the mountains and enjoy the cleanest waters by being here. There are restrooms available by the visitor center near parking. Please note, there is a $15 entry fee for non Nevada residents coming to visit the beach. Overall a wonderful location that you shouldn’t miss out if you are in...

Really disappointed with how management runs this place. Showed up to wait in line at 5 AM in order to get in and then some kayak company comes by 30 min later and bulldozes their way into the beach to take over. Shoving people out of the way, stacking kayaks up a foot in front of your towel they tried to kick us out of our spot we got on the water for my girlfriend’s birthday. Literal bullies. “Oh this is a reserved area for our event” oh really? No signage or marked areas people in the company were very rude. I told the manager of the company we didn’t appreciate the way that her employees were behaving and she shrugged us off. Through out the day she was off chit chatting with people and didn’t pay attention as customers ran their kayaks onto our towels and blankets and left a mess on top of us. The guys working there almost hit a toddler in the head with a kayak and didn’t even care, it was a couple of young guys who showed up to work late and needed space on the beach so they did it by being disrespectful to everyone else around them. Then when the beach clears mid-day and the lot is half empty the guards don’t let more people in. You can see from the highway the beach has space and the lot is open. Get off your butt and take a look around. Somebody working there needs to start putting a little more effort in.

I know there’s this new reservation system being put into effect but this isn’t the solution. The people working here need to stop being so ineffective at their jobs. This place is beautiful and it’s such a shame it’s ruined by a bunch of...