Kershaw Swimming Beach is the guarded public swim area inside Kershaw Park, a 9-acre city park run by the City of Canandaigua on the north shore of Canandaigua Lake. The beach and its bathhouse sit at 155 Lakeshore Drive, at the north end of one of the larger Finger Lakes, about a mile southeast of downtown. The lake runs about 16 miles south from here and is more than 270 feet deep in the middle, but the beach is a short sandy strip at the foot of the park lawn.

Lakeshore Drive (US 20 and NY 5) runs along the park, with two parking lots off it and sidewalks on both sides of the road. Part of the eastern lot has a two-hour limit, the westernmost lot is one-way heading east, trailers are not allowed, and no one may park in the park between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. The bathhouse sits between the lots and the sand, so the walk from the car to the water is only a minute or two. Kershaw Park itself is open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. from May 1 to October 30 and 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. the rest of the year.

Swimming is only legal inside the marked swim area and only while a lifeguard is on duty. City code bans swimming anywhere else in the park and at any other time, so the water is off limits outside the summer season. For 2026 the city listed the swim season as May 24 through August 21, with the beach open 11 a.m. to 6:45 p.m. every day, and it can close for storms or cold weather. Admission was free for residents and visitors alike in 2026, the second free summer in a row. Before 2025, non-residents paid a daily gate fee of $2 to $5, and the City Council has debated bringing a fee back, so check the city's beach page before you go.

The city code sets firm beach rules. No diving, no snorkels, and no rafts, tubes or other floats (Coast Guard approved life vests and instructional swim aids are allowed). Glass is banned on the beach, smoking is banned in the park and swim area, and pets are not allowed on the beach or in the bathhouse, though there is a separate signed area of shoreline where dogs may go in the water. Boats are kept at least 500 feet off the Kershaw shoreline.

Harmful algal blooms are the main hazard here. The city shut the beach in early August 2026 after blue-green algae was found in the water, reopening it about a week later, and Ontario County health officials told people and pets to stay out of any water with a green, paint-like scum. Staffing is the other limit: in both 2025 and 2026 the city closed the beach around August 21 because it was running short of lifeguards as students headed back to school, so plan on late May through about the third week of August, not Labor Day.

The rest of the park is set up for a full day by the water. There are lakefront walkways, rentable picnic pavilions, an open-air gazebo, picnic tables, charcoal grills, a playground, a public dock, and small craft launch areas for kayaks and canoes. Lakefront Park and the Canandaigua Lady boat dock are next door to the east, and the historic city pier with its row of boathouses is a short walk west.