Waukegan Municipal Beach is the City of Waukegan's public swimming beach on Lake Michigan, a mile-long strip of sand on the north side of Waukegan Harbor, a little over a mile east of downtown. The city manages it as part of a 400-acre lakefront that also holds a 1,000-slip marina, the Stiner Pavilion and the Waukegan Dunes, one of the few stretches of natural dune left on the Illinois shore. The beach address is 201 E. Sea Horse Drive, and the swimming end sits just north of the harbor's north breakwater.

Drive to the lakefront and follow Sea Horse Drive past the harbor to the beach lots and the concrete drop-off loop. The Metra Union Pacific North line stops at Waukegan station downtown, and from there it is a walk or short bike ride to the sand. The beach is open every day of the year from dawn to dusk. Walking or biking in is always free. Parking is free on weekdays and outside the summer season, and always free for vehicles with a current Waukegan city sticker. From the Saturday before Memorial Day through Labor Day, cars without a sticker pay $20 a day to park on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, and $30 on Memorial Day, Juneteenth, the Fourth of July and Labor Day. Active military, veterans and first responders park free.

The swim area is a broad, sandy beach with a gradual entry. Currents along this part of the shore drop a lot of sand here (the Illinois Natural History Survey puts it at about 72,000 cubic yards a year), so the bottom is soft sand with shifting bars rather than rock. Lake Michigan stays cold well into June and can turn cold again in a day when winds push warm surface water offshore. There are no lifeguards at any time, and the city says plainly that swimming is at your own risk. In summer, parts of the beach are marked off for swimmers, motorized boats are barred from the swim area, and they may only land north of a posted marker.

Take the open-lake hazards seriously. A 16-year-old drowned offshore here in August 2021, and wind-driven waves and rip currents can build quickly on the Illinois shore. Stay out of the harbor channel and off the breakwater, which are not swimming areas. Water quality is checked by the Lake County Health Department, which samples this beach (listed as Waukegan North Beach) several days a week from Memorial Day to Labor Day and issues a swim ban when E. coli counts run high. Both Waukegan beaches were closed for bacteria in July 2022, so check the county's beach advisory map before going in, especially after heavy rain.

The rules are simple: no alcohol, glass, loud music or fires, and no pets on the sand. Charcoal grills are allowed only in the grassy picnic areas and at the Stiner Pavilion, where the Waukegan Band plays on Tuesday nights in summer. Sand volleyball courts sit near the south end, and on windy days kiteboarders work the water just off the beach. Stay on marked paths through the dunes. Endangered piping plovers have nested on this lakefront in recent years, and volunteers with Sharing Our Shore, a Lake County Audubon Society program run with the city, rope off and watch the nesting areas. For visitors with limited mobility, a ramp from the drop-off leads to a roll-out beach mat, the city lends two beach wheelchairs, and accessible parking and restrooms are on site.