Glen Cove · Long Island’s North Shore
Waterfront parks, harbor trails and an 18-hole municipal course with Long Island Sound views on the North Shore.
Contents
Orientation
Glen Cove sits on one of the prettiest stretches of Long Island’s North Shore, and most of what makes it worth a day out is outdoors. Harborside parks, wooded preserves, a paved waterfront esplanade, ballfields, boat access and a municipal golf course looking out over the Sound.
Some of the city’s beaches are reserved for residents, and we’ll be straight with you about which ones. Plenty is open to everyone: the Garvies Point waterfront, the preserves and trails, the golf course, and Glen Cove’s summer calendar of concerts and celebrations.
Access rules
Beach access in Glen Cove is not the same everywhere, and it’s the one thing worth checking before you load the car.
The City of Glen Cove reserves Pryibil Beach and Crescent Beach for Glen Cove residents, and Morgan Memorial Park for Glen Cove and Locust Valley residents, except during certain public special events. Beach permits are required, and gate attendants check proof of residency from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day.
Visiting from outside the city? The Garvies Point waterfront and esplanade, Garvies Point Museum & Preserve, Welwyn Preserve, Glen Cove Golf Course, the downtown-to-waterfront walk and public events at Morgan Park are all open to you. That’s a genuinely full day, and none of it needs a residency sticker.
On the water
Four waterfront destinations, from a 40-acre harborside park with a bandshell to an esplanade you can walk end to end in twenty minutes.
Morgan Park bandshell. Photo by Roni Jenkins.
Glen Cove & Locust Valley residents
The city’s waterfront centerpiece: roughly 40 acres of open lawn, shoreline path, playground and picnic space with wide views across the harbor. It’s where Glen Cove gathers for concerts, fireworks and summer evenings.
The land was a gift. J.P. Morgan Jr. bought and landscaped it in memory of his wife, Jane Norton Morgan, and the park opened on July 4, 1932. The Morgan Park Summer Music Festival has been running here since 1959.
Best for Waterfront views, concerts, fireworks, picnics, local history.
Location Germaine Street, off Landing Road.
Access Residents, except during certain public special events.
Glen Cove residents
The classic Glen Cove summer beach, at the northern end of East Beach Road. A bathing area, volleyball and basketball courts, a playground, barbecue grills, a concession stand, a paved lot, and kayak rack access through the Recreation Department.
Best for Swimming, volleyball, playground time, kayak access.
Location Northern terminus of East Beach Road.
Photography of the pier is on its way — we’re shooting it this season.
The pier runs out from the eastern end of the beach into open water, and it is the reason a lot of Glen Cove residents come down here at all — snappers in late summer, striped bass in the shoulder seasons, and a clear line of sight across the Sound on a bright day.
It is also where the Mayor’s Snapper Derby is fished each summer, one of the longest-running items on the city’s recreation calendar.
Access Glen Cove residents, under the Pryibil Beach permit rules.
Sunset over Hempstead Harbor. Photo by Roni Jenkins.
Glen Cove residents
The small one: about 2.5 acres of shoreline with a long view down Hempstead Harbor, an outdoor shower, restrooms and limited parking. It’s quiet in a way the bigger beaches aren’t, and it sits right in the middle of Gold Coast estate country.
Bathing water quality is monitored by the Nassau County Department of Health.
Best for Quiet beach time, harbor views, late summer afternoons.
Location Crescent Beach Road.
Open to visitors
This is the part of the Glen Cove waterfront built for everyone, and it’s where we’d send a first-time visitor. Mercadante Beach has become a favorite launch spot for kayakers, and the wider Garvies Point area wraps it in public parkland, open space and harbor views.
The esplanade is a 1-mile paved path along Glen Cove Creek — walking, running, biking, rollerblading or pushing a stroller — with benches, grassy stretches, a playground and a dog park along the way. Come at golden hour. Finish with a beer and a bite at Garvies Point Brewery, a short walk from the water.
Best for Waterfront walks, biking, kayaking, sunset views.
Location Garvies Point, off Garvies Point Road.
Mercadante Beach, at the Garvies Point end of the waterfront.
Bring the dog
One rule up front: dogs are not permitted at Glen Cove beaches or beach facilities, Mercadante included. Head for the designated dog parks instead.
Glen Cove’s main off-leash park, at Leech Circle South (cross street Porter Place), open dawn to dusk year-round. The City’s posted rules require handlers to be Glen Cove residents aged 18 or over, with dogs licensed in Glen Cove and current on vaccinations.
The wider park is a neighborhood recreation hub too, with two all-purpose playing fields, a playground, paved parking and a gated entrance.
Location Leech Circle South at Porter Place.
We’re photographing the dog park this season.
A designated dog-friendly space along the Garvies Point Esplanade, maintained by the City among its park locations — an easy add-on to a waterfront walk. The City doesn’t publish a standalone rules page for this one, so check current conditions and any event-related closures before you go.
Green space
From a 62-acre preserve with shoreline cliffs to a neighborhood park named for a two-war veteran. These are open to everyone.
Location Barry Drive, Glen Cove.
Sixty-two acres along Hempstead Harbor, with about five miles of marked trails threading through forest, thicket, meadow and shoreline. The museum at its center covers regional geology, Native American archaeology and Long Island’s glacial past, with programs built for children as well as adults.
Walk the trails for glacial moraine, wildflowers, shoreline cliffs and a good deal of North Shore birdlife. It’s the single best introduction to how this landscape was made.
Welwyn in winter. Photo by Roni Jenkins.
The quiet one: woodland trails on former Gold Coast estate grounds, including the Welwyn Preserve Loop and the Pratt Loop. Bare winter trees, leaf litter, very little noise.
The grounds are also home to the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County, which gives a walk here a weight the scenery alone wouldn’t.
Best for Wooded walks, estate history, reflection, photography.
Location 100 Crescent Beach Road.
Where Glen Cove goes to play, right beside the municipal golf course. Tennis, paddleball, handball and pickleball courts, basketball, bocce, a playground, and a restaurant and concession stand — plus the adjoining 18-hole course and driving range.
It’s the practical answer to a mixed group where not everyone golfs.
Best for Tennis, pickleball, basketball, bocce, playground time.
Location Lattingtown Road, next to the golf course.
Stanco Park courts. Courtesy of the City of Glen Cove; photo by Gill Associates.
A neighborhood park with a story attached. Rededicated on Veterans Day 2013 for Ralph “Big Ralph” Mastalio, a veteran of both World Wars who earned the Bronze Star and Purple Heart and gave 32 years to the Glen Cove Fire Department as a volunteer. Today it holds community garden plots, a youth garden and open recreation space.
Best for Community gardening, local history, quiet green space.
A small civic green on the gateway between downtown Glen Cove and the waterfront, and a place of remembrance as much as recreation. Its gazebo and public art make it a natural pause point — and a good photo — on a walk from Glen Street down to the harbor.
Best for Downtown-to-waterfront walks, civic history, photography.
Waterfront golf on the Gold Coast
Founded in 1972, Glen Cove Golf Course is an 18-hole municipal course with the Long Island Sound in view for much of the round. It’s public, and the setting does a lot of the work.
You don’t have to commit to 18. The range, putting green and chipping area are worth an hour on their own, and Stanco Park is next door for anyone not playing.
The course has been through a stretch of real investment — City officials approved a $2.2 million sprinkler overhaul in 2025 — the kind of unglamorous work that shows up in course conditions for years. Pair a morning round with the waterfront, downtown or dinner by the harbor without driving more than a few minutes.
Play & launch
New photography of the ballfield is on the way.
Glen Cove’s main sports complex covers more than 19 acres between Morris Avenue and Shore Road, carrying baseball, softball, football, soccer and lacrosse across the seasons. Baseball and softball fields, batting cages, a regulation-size basketball court, concession and announcer’s stands.
If you’re in town on a weekend in season, there’s almost always a game on.
Best for Youth sports, tournaments, community games.
Location Morris Avenue.
Location Western end of Garvies Point Road.
The City’s concrete launching facility sits on a four-acre parcel at the western end of Garvies Point Road, opening onto Glen Cove Creek, Hempstead Harbor and the Long Island Sound beyond. A City permit is required to use the ramp.
Year-round
The City’s Youth Services and Recreation Department runs programming year-round: junior basketball, swimming lessons at Pryibil Beach, tennis at Stanco Park and under-the-lights youth basketball. For adults, Tai Chi, yoga and Zumba in Morgan Park.
The seasonal calendar is where visitors get the most access — the July 4th celebration at Morgan Park, the summer concert series, the Mayor’s Snapper Derby off the Pryibil pier and the Spring Egg Hunt all draw crowds from well beyond the city line.
Itineraries
Five ways to build a day here, depending on who you’re with and what kind of morning you’re having.
Waterfront
Walk the Garvies Point Esplanade end to end, take the harbor views slowly, then stop for lunch or a beer nearby. Come back for sunset, or time it to a summer evening event on the water.
Golf
Book a morning tee time, warm up on the range, play 18 with the Sound in view, and finish with lunch on site or downtown. Non-golfers can wait it out at Stanco Park next door.
Nature
Start at Garvies Point Museum & Preserve for the exhibits, then take the marked trails out toward the shoreline cliffs. Add Welwyn Preserve in the afternoon for a second, quieter set of woods.
Family
Stanco Park covers the bases: courts, bocce, a playground and a concession stand, with the driving range for anyone old enough to swing. Check the City’s recreation calendar for seasonal programs.
History
Morgan Memorial Park for the Gold Coast gift that started it, Pratt Park and Big Ralph Park for Glen Cove’s memorials to service, and Welwyn Preserve for the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center and the woods around it.
Before you go
Background
Glen Cove’s parks are mostly inherited. Morgan Memorial Park came from one of the city’s great private gifts. Pryibil Beach traces back to the former Paul Pryibil estate. Crescent Beach and Welwyn Preserve both carry the shape of the Gold Coast era, when large estates and their landscaped grounds defined this stretch of shoreline.
What changed is who they’re for. The same lawns and woods that were once private now hold concerts, beach days, fishing derbies, kayak launches and Fourth of July fireworks. That handover — from estate to public park — is most of the story of the North Shore.
In progress
We’re drawing an old-fashioned illustrated map of Glen Cove — parks, beaches, the waterfront, the golf course, trails, downtown and everything in between, hand-rendered the way harbor towns used to be mapped.
A working version is up now, with the finished illustration to follow.
Answers
Not all of them. Pryibil Beach and Crescent Beach are for Glen Cove residents, and Morgan Memorial Park is for Glen Cove and Locust Valley residents except during certain public special events. Beach permits are required and gate attendants check proof of residency from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day. Confirm current rules with the City before you travel.
Quite a lot. The Garvies Point waterfront and its 1-mile esplanade, Garvies Point Museum & Preserve, Welwyn Preserve, Stanco Park, Glen Cove Golf Course and the city’s public events are all open to visitors. Those five alone make a full day.
The Garvies Point Esplanade. It’s a paved 1-mile path along Glen Cove Creek with harbor views, benches, a playground and a dog park, and there’s dining within walking distance. Pair it with the museum and preserve and you have a strong half day.
Not to the beaches. Dogs are not permitted at Glen Cove beaches or beach facilities. Use the off-leash dog park at Leech Circle South in Dennis Brian Murray Park, open dawn to dusk year-round, or the dog park along the Garvies Point Esplanade. The City’s posted rules require handlers to be Glen Cove residents aged 18 or over, with dogs licensed in Glen Cove and current on vaccinations.
Pryibil Beach has a paved lot and Crescent Beach has limited parking, but both are resident beaches with permit requirements. For visitors, park at the Garvies Point waterfront for the esplanade, at Barry Drive for the museum and preserve, or on site at Glen Cove Golf Course and Stanco Park.
Yes, in three cases. Beach permits are required for the resident beaches. The City boat ramp at the western end of Garvies Point Road requires a permit. And filming, photography shoots or events on city property may require a permit as well.
Yes — it’s an 18-hole municipal course owned by the City of Glen Cove, founded in 1972 and open to residents and non-residents. Tee times are booked online through the City’s booking system, and current rates are published in the City’s golf rates sheet.
It does, along with a putting green and a chipping area. You can use the practice facilities without playing a full round, which makes the course an easy stop even on a short visit.
Stanco Park is the most complete option, with courts, bocce, a playground, a concession stand and the adjoining driving range. Dennis Brian Murray Park has two playing fields and a playground, the Garvies Point Esplanade has a playground along the path, and the City runs seasonal youth recreation programs throughout the year.
Official sources
Rules and schedules are updated here first. Worth a look the day before you visit.
Keep exploring
Rules change with the seasons here. Beach permits, resident access, lifeguard hours, park improvements and event schedules are all updated on the City of Glen Cove website first.
