Excelsior Public Beach is the City of Excelsior's swimming beach inside The Commons and Port of Excelsior, a 13-acre city park on Excelsior Bay at the south end of Lake Minnetonka. Hennepin County lists it under this name in its weekly beach testing. The park goes back to the town's founding in the 1850s and sits at the lake end of downtown, a short walk from the shops on Water Street. The swim beach is a short strip of sand on the west side of the park, near the Commons playground and the north end of First Street.

Parking is the main hassle. The city's paid parking zones include Lake Street, West Lake Street and First Street near the Commons Playground, enforced every day from 7 am to 1 am. Free options are a little farther away: the East Lot and the West Parking Ramp are free outside special events, and Water Street allows a free two-hour session once you register your license plate through the Excelsior Parking website. Cars with a disabled placard or plates park free for up to four hours. On the Fourth of July, art fair weekends and concert nights, expect every space to be gone early.

The beach itself costs nothing to use. The city opens it to the public from Memorial Day to Labor Day, seven days a week, 7 am to 8 pm, and park grounds close from 11 pm to 6 am. There are no lifeguards, and the city posts it as swim at your own risk. A line of orange buoys marks the swim area, and the rule is to stay inside the buoys and ropes at all times. The entry is sand, though lake weed often collects along the waterline. Excelsior Bay is fairly sheltered, but this is a big, busy lake, and the water usually doesn't warm into the 70s until July. Portable toilets sit at the end of First Street, with permanent restrooms at the Plaza.

Water quality is the thing to check before you go. Hennepin County samples the beach every week through the summer and closes it when E. coli runs high, which has happened several times, including a July 2017 closure, another in July 2019, and an August 2025 closure of both Excelsior beaches at once. The city also passes along Minnesota Pollution Control Agency warnings about blue-green algae, and Excelsior Bay gets aquatic plant treatments near the beaches. Boat traffic in the bay outside the buoys is heavy on summer weekends. A swimmer drowned at the Commons beach in July 2021, and the city later discussed beach safety in public. Glass, alcohol, inflatable toys, fires, animals and boats are all banned in the beach area.

The rest of The Commons fills out a day here. There are picnic areas, ball fields, tennis courts, a band shell with summer concerts, a second small stretch of sand that the county tests separately as Excelsior Playground Beach, and the Port of Excelsior docks, where public excursion boats load for lake cruises. In August 2026 the city council approved a mini master plan for the park that includes a new playground, beach house, courts and beach docks, so parts of the shoreline may be under construction in coming seasons. Call City Hall at (952) 474-5233 for current beach status.