Meydenbauer Bay Park sits at 9899 Lake Washington Boulevard NE on a sheltered inlet of Lake Washington a few blocks downhill from downtown Bellevue. The City of Bellevue Parks and Community Services Department owns and operates it, and the park line is 425-452-6885. The park is open daily from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The swim area is a wide sand and gravel beach tucked into the north side of the bay, with the shoreline curving away toward the Bellevue Marina to the east and opening west toward the main body of Lake Washington. The beach and the shoreline around it were rebuilt in the first construction phase of the park expansion, which improved about eight acres west of 99th Avenue and opened in 2019. That phase added a beach house with restrooms and showers, a curvilinear floating pedestrian pier roughly 420 feet long, a hand-carry boat launch, walking paths, a pedestrian promenade, picnic areas, a children's play area, and the 99th Avenue parking lot. Behind the beach the ground climbs into a hillside woodland, a daylighted creek channel and ravine, a viewing terrace and an outdoor classroom.

Lifeguards work the beach in summer. For the 2026 season the city staffed Meydenbauer Bay Park daily from noon to 7 p.m., June 27 through September 7, the same long run it gave Newcastle Beach Park and Chism Beach Park. Clyde, Enatai and Chesterfield got the shorter July 4 through August 16 window. Swim rules are posted and enforced by the guards: swimmers stay inside the outer float lines and log booms, children have to be directly supervised by an adult, inner tubes and floating aids stay in the designated shallow area, any flotation device entering the swim area needs lifeguard approval, and anyone heading into deep water has to pass a swim skills test first. Diving from docks, ramps and floats is prohibited, as is swimming under docks or floats, scuba diving, and swimming in the boat launch area. Dogs are barred from Bellevue beach parks from June 1 to September 15.

The city lists no admission fee and no parking charge. Parking is the 99th Avenue lot at the park entrance, and it fills on hot weekends. The restrooms and the marina visitor moorage meet ADA guidelines, and the city asks for 48 hours notice at 425-452-6800 for accommodation requests. Meydenbauer Bay Park is one of Bellevue's designated non-motorized watercraft launch sites, so kayaks, canoes and paddleboards can be hand-carried in, and Best Kayak Rentals runs seasonal canoe and kayak rentals out of the park.

King County Water and Land Resources samples the water here weekly from May 15 through September 21, and Public Health Seattle and King County publishes the results and makes the closure calls. Swim area closures, whether for bacteria or for a lifeguard staffing gap, get posted on the city's beach lifeguard page.

Steamers called at a wharf at the head of the bay by the 1880s, and passenger ferries ran between Seattle and Bellevue from the 1890s until 1921. Part of William Meydenbauer's old homestead became Wildwood Park, a dance hall and picnic ground that drew Seattle crowds across the water, and that hall was later remodeled into the Meydenbauer Bay Yacht Club. Starting in 1919, right after the Lake Washington Ship Canal opened, the American Pacific Whaling Company wintered its nine-boat Alaska fleet in this bay, making it the second largest employer on the Eastside. Two buildings from that whaling station still stand on the site. The beach became Bellevue's first city park in 1953, and the rebuilt park had its grand reopening in March 2019. A second phase covering parts of the Meydenbauer Gateway and an interim pedestrian connection along the Lakeside Promenade is still in design, with construction plans and schedule not yet set, so nothing at the beach itself is closed for it.