Balm Beach
Tiny, ON, Canada
Balm Beach is the busiest of Tiny Township's five public beaches on Georgian Bay in Ontario, with soft white sand, clear shallow water, and a little strip of restaurants, a convenience store, and an old-school arcade behind it. It faces west, so the sunsets are a nightly event. Swimming, paddleboarding, and shoreline walks fill the day.
A classic cottage-country beach scene with great sunsets, though it's the most crowded beach in Tiny.
How we score beachesGrab fries, play a few rounds at the arcade, then stay on the sand for sunset.
Permit and pay-and-display parking near the beach.
Public washrooms and change rooms sit by the beach; the sand is a short walk from the road.
July and August are the busy months. The health unit tests the water from June to September.
More Great Lakes beaches
Sleeping Bear Dunes Beach
Empire, MI · Great Lakes
Freshwater Lake Michigan surf below towering sand dunes, some over 400 feet tall, with water clear enough to rival a coastline and a hike back up the dune to burn it off.
New Buffalo City Beach
New Buffalo, MI · Great Lakes
New Buffalo City Beach is the first real Lake Michigan beach you hit crossing from Indiana, a wide stretch of sand at the end of Whittaker Street beside the harbor and the Galien River channel. Chicago weekenders fill it in summer. The town's shops and restaurants are a five minute walk back up the street.
Warren Dunes State Park
Sawyer, MI · Great Lakes
Warren Dunes State Park in Sawyer has roughly three miles of Lake Michigan shoreline and some of the tallest dunes in southwest Michigan. Tower Hill rises about 260 feet above the lake, and climbing it and running back down is a rite of passage. On a hot July Saturday the beach feels like a small city.