Leddy Beach is the swimming beach at Leddy Park, a large city park in Burlington's New North End run by Burlington Parks, Recreation and Waterfront. The sand runs for several hundred yards along the Lake Champlain shoreline below a wooded bluff, facing west across the broad lake toward the Adirondacks. It is one of the city's official swimming beaches, so it gets the same water monitoring as North Beach and Oakledge, but it usually draws a smaller crowd than either of them.

From North Avenue, turn onto Leddy Park Road and follow it to the large lot at the end beside the Gordon H. Paquette Ice Arena (216 Leddy Park Road). The city's parking rate table lists the Leddy Park lot as free, with paid parking not in effect, which sets it apart from North Beach and Oakledge, where the city charges $3 an hour in season. Walking or biking in is always free. The Burlington Greenway bike path runs straight through the park, so it is an easy ride from downtown or from the Colchester causeway trail to the north. Paths drop from the lot and the bluff-top picnic area down to the sand.

The beach is sand with a gradual entry, and regulars mention shallow water and sandbars off the main stretch, which makes it popular with families. Lake Champlain is cold into June and usually warms enough for comfortable swimming from about early July through August. There is open water to the west with no current to speak of, but wind out of the south or west can push in a real chop. The city's lifeguards are assigned to North Beach, not Leddy, so swimmers here are on their own and should keep children close. Restrooms are inside the ice arena.

There is no entrance fee. Dogs are allowed in the park on a leash but are banned from the beach itself under city park rules, and glass bottles, open fires and smoking on the beach are also prohibited. The city's former parks website listed the main lot gate as open from 4:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m.; the current city pages do not post separate beach hours, so plan on daylight swimming.

Water quality is the main thing to check before you go. From Memorial Day through Labor Day, city beach staff look for cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) blooms every day and test for E. coli twice a week, closing a beach when counts pass 235 per 100 milliliters. Swimming areas also close after combined sewer overflows, which tend to follow heavy rain. Status is posted on the city's Beach Closure Tracker in green, orange (children and pets should stay out) or red (closed). Leddy has closed for blooms in past summers, sometimes on days when nearly every Burlington beach was shut, and it has also closed after an accidental discharge into a stream just north of the beach. After Labor Day the beach is checked only as needed, so look over the water before you get in.

The rest of the park keeps you busy if the water is closed. About 2.5 miles of easy dirt and paved trails wind through mixed forest, there are picnic tables along the bluff, tennis and basketball courts, ball fields, the Burlington Bike Park's dirt trails, and public skating at the ice arena. The city has been working through a long-range plan for Leddy Park that includes better accessible routes down to the beach.