Haven Beach
Mathews, VA
Haven Beach is one of Mathews County's handful of public Chesapeake Bay beaches, a sandy bottom shoreline with a tidal lagoon and marsh running alongside it. Unlike Gwynn's Island a few miles south, where almost every stretch of sand belongs to a private cottage, Haven Beach comes with an actual public lot and restroom.
Rare public bay access for this part of Mathews County, though it's a small, no frills beach without a lifeguard or any real amenities beyond parking.
How we score beachesBring your own shade. The beach itself has parking and a restroom, but no umbrellas, concessions, or other amenities beyond that.
A parking area and restroom serve the beach directly, a rarity for this stretch of the Chesapeake Bay's Middle Peninsula shoreline.
A flat, direct path leads from the lot to the sand.
Water reaches the mid to upper 70s by August, calm and shallow like most of the bay side of the Middle Peninsula, with hurricane season running June through November.
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