Traveling with your furry best friend can be a fulfilling experience. As many dog owners can attest, your dog is an extension of your family, and having to keep him or her on a leash on a beach is not so pleasant. If you are visiting Toronto, there’s a solution to this problem. Toronto has a couple of dog friendly beaches, so it should be easy to find the perfect one to bring your canine friend along.
In this blog post, I’ve listed three of the best dog friendly beaches in Toronto. These beaches either have a designated leash-free beach area or have an enclosed dog park right on the beach so that you can be totally worry-free.
Kew-Balmy Dog Park
If you plan to have a day out on the beach in Toronto, then you should know, East Toronto has some of the best beaches in Toronto. What’s more, they are 2 dog friendly beach options in East Toronto. The first is Kew-Balmy Beach.
Located right next to the popular Woodbine Beach, the Kew-Balmy beach is an excellent beach to take your dog to. This beach has a dedicated dog park where you can let your dog run leash-free. The dog park is fenced on all sides except the parts of the park that open up to the lake. This can be a fun reprieve for you and your dogs on hot summer days. The park also has some trees. Even if the tree density is not much, it’s enough to give you some shade to spread your picnic blanket.
Silver Birch Dog Friendly Beach
Silver Birch Beach is not far from Kew-Balmy Beach. Just walk up the boardwalk towards the East till you arrive at the end of the boardwalk, which signals the beginning of Silver Birch beach. Unlike the Kew-Balmy Dog Park, which has a small enclosed area, this beach is entirely open to dogs to run leash-free. You may enjoy this beach more than the Kew-Balmy dog park as this has a wider sandy area, so you are free to run and exercise as well.
This beach is also not very crowded and has a residential beach feel as there are some houses that have backyards that face the beach. Visitors to the beaches in this area usually stick to Woodbine or Kew-Balmy beach making this one of the hidden gems of Toronto. The boardwalk and the Martin-Goodman trail stop right at the beginning of the beach, so you can easily walk or bike to the beach.
If you plan to arrive by car, you can do street parking closer to the beach. However, it may be difficult to find a spot. You can also park at Woodbine beach and walk a healthy 2.5 km walk on the boardwalk to arrive at this beach.
The only criticism I can give about this beach is the lack of enough shaded areas. There is a clump of trees in one part of the beach where you can take refuge from the sun. However, this problem is easily solved if you bring your own umbrella or set up a tent.
Cherry Beach
Cherry Beach is a dog friendly beach that’s closer to downtown Toronto. The beach has a gated dog park/beach. The fenced off-leash dog park is located towards the east end of the beach. It has a huge open space that gives your dog an opportunity to take a dip in the lake.
One of the drawbacks of this beach is that there isn’t enough space in the dog park for dog owners. The beach can get crowded during weekends and parking spaces are limited. Plus point, the water at this beach is warmer compared to other beaches.
