Paradise Beach is a sandy river beach on the lower American River in Sacramento's River Park neighborhood, a short distance downstream of the Sacramento State campus. It is one of the river access sites of the American River Parkway and is run by Sacramento County Regional Parks, which describes it as a cove formed where the river swings through an oxbow bend. The land itself came to the City of Sacramento in 1950, when the developers of River Park sold the riverbank outside the levee to the city for public use, and the beach has drawn swimmers, families and dog owners ever since.

The beach sits on the river side of the levee behind Glenn Hall Park, a 7.08-acre City of Sacramento park at 5415 Sandburg Drive. From U.S. 50, take the Howe Avenue exit north, turn left on Fair Oaks Boulevard, then right on Carlson Drive; the county gives the access point as the corner of Carlson and Sandburg Drives. Park in the Glenn Hall Park lot or on the neighborhood streets, walk over the levee and down to the sand. Entry is on foot only and there is no fee. The county lists the beach as open every day of the year from sunrise to sunset.

The swim area is the sandy inside of the bend, where the water near shore is calmer than the main channel. Swimming happens at your own risk: there are no lifeguards on the river, and the county points people who want supervised swimming to the city-run Glenn Hall Pool next door. The American River here carries water released from Folsom and Nimbus dams upstream, so it runs cold and its speed and depth change with the release schedule. Stay close to shore unless you are a strong swimmer, and expect the beach to be partly or fully under water after heavy rain or high spring flows. Alcohol is prohibited at Paradise Beach all year.

Children under 13 are required by city and county ordinance to wear a life preserver in public waterways. The county keeps a Kids Don't Float loaner station at Paradise Beach stocked with children's life vests that can be borrowed for free and returned on the way out. Dogs are a common sight on the sand, but they must be leashed on the parkway.

Glenn Hall Park, on the other side of the levee, has the restrooms, a fenced playground, picnic tables with a barbecue, tennis courts, ball fields and the public pool. Trails run along the riverbank from the beach, and the paved Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail passes nearby on its way between Folsom Lake and Discovery Park. Outside the swim season, anglers fish from the shore for striped bass, salmon and trout under state fishing rules, and birders work the cottonwoods and willows along the bank. Levee work by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has removed many trees along this stretch of riverbank, so the shoreline is more open than it once was.