First Encounter Beach, Cape Cod

Great at low tide for the kids to collect hermit crabs, skim board, dig in sand, etc. Get there before 9 and you don't have to pay!

Perfect bay beach for children

First Encounter Bay is a great place for smaller children. My grandson had fun looking for crabs!

Unique bay beach, we enjoy the outlet area with its currents for free rides on floats.

It is great at high tide for swimming. Great at low tide to build sandcastles, explore the tide pools, walk out the sandbars at low tide. A favorite!

Off season, low tide, walking with our dog late afternoon. What could be more beautiful?

Go at low tide so you can walk out and chase hermit crabs!!!

Love low tide

Easy access. Great sunsets.

Walk, drive over, or bike to experience sunset with others. It's so beautiful.

empty and beautiful- still has dunes.

This is a great beach for families. The beach stretches on forever at low tide. Perfect for kids and dogs if you are their early in the season when they are allowed. For older kids, there is a tidy river where beach goers bring their floats and let the river take then on a ride with the tide. This is also a nice spot for seeing the sunset over the water

First Encounter is very close to this home [Vacation Rental 30825]. The best sunsets can be seen and appreciated at First Encounter.

Beautiful long walks, low tide goes way out so fun to walk on the sandbars. Sunsets very day - breathtaking.

First Encounter offers easy parking, a flat walk to the beach, glorious, expansive tidal flats at low tide, and, in early Sept, warm, calm water for swimming at high tide. It was perfect for our group with a wide range of ages and physical abilities.

Beautiful sunsets, long walk out at low tide.

This beach is a hidden gem. It’s quiet and safe and the river side has so much to explore. When the tide comes in, it’s a perfect lazy river

It's a great beach to walk the flats at low tide and play in the waves at high tide. (Also love Wiley park & beach for the little ones!)

Pass by past the first parking lot to reach paroling near the tidal river.

First Encounter in Eastham is OUR FAVORITE beach
Everyone is so nice & the tides go out where you can walk around and pick up seashells, dig for clams, build sandcastles, catch minoes, or when the tides in the water tends to be super warm and the waves feel amazing, not to mention the sunsets.... Breathtaking!!!! but nowhere near the property we stayed at.

Great for young children. Beautiful tide pools and soft sand, not your typical New England Rocky Beach.

Super family friendly. Awesome low tide to find crabs and clams. Awesome high tide to swim.

Nauset is favorite ocean beach but 1st encounter is very unique bay beach, $25 to park for day

This beach has lots of room, clean sand and lots of tide pools for the kids to play in at low tide. The tidal river is fun to swim in, and the water is warm; it can be hot sitting at the beach at low tide, though.

We LOVE First Encounter Beach as we had small children with us. They can play in the water without the large waves of the ocean beaches and walk way out when the tide is out.

We love this beach so much! It has something at all times for everybody. We love to go in the early morning during low tide when the kids can find hermit crabs and all other little shells and animals. You can see for miles where the water has receded. As the day goes on and the water fills in, it turns into a different beach. The water is still much warmer than the ocean beach and the waves are perfect for small kids. The kids can catch fish with their nets or use their boggie boards. It is a different beach low tide to high tide. Beautiful sunsets, parking right up to the sand, an ice cream truck AND a COFFEE truck.. what else is there is life (except maybe a tequila truck?)?!

We love First Encounter because there is always water to cool off in at the far end of the beach. It is also a blast to bring a tube and ride the tide as it goes out...similar to a lazy river. We also love Herring Pond.

We visited after 4:30-5 and got in free. Watched the sunsets. There is an inlet past the main parking area and to the left. Follow the pathway to a “river” as the tides go in and out. Warm water and hermit crabs! Daytimes we went to Coast Guard beach and loved that as well

Perfect spot for little ones. Tide pools abound during low tide.

We discovered the First Encounter river adjacent to the beach. We floated in the river either with floats or just our bodies and the current carried us far down the river as the tide came in. Lovely experience

Loved the dazzling sunrises and sunsets sparkling off the water, and the wide expanses of rippled sand when the tide was out...fun exploring there!

First Encounter, just a few miles from this rental [Vacation Rental ID 29024], is a great beach to enjoy in early autumn. At low tide, you can walk way out. The tidal flat is sandy and comfortable to walk shoeless. You might find a moon snail with your toes! It is quiet and beautiful and not busy. Others in our group prefer the wilder ocean beaches: Coast Guard, Nauset, Ballston in Truro; there are many choices!

Beautiful beach with calm water, perfect for small children.

Amazingly warm water that is clear and smooth. Perfect for paddle boards with a great inlet for exploring! Plus lots of hermit crabs and green crabs for the kids to chase around all day.

Close to house [Vacation Rental ID 19439] and a good place for swimming and playing with all ages. Can kayak there too. And no sharks.

It was a family beach perfect for our younger grandchildren. Low tide provided many sand bars for exploration and discovery. Plus there were restrooms right by the beach!

After Salt Beach, First Encounter is our favorite for the kids. Plenty to do during bith low and high tide. Plan to spend the day!

Close to home [Eastham Vacation Rental ID 27009], within biking distance. Gentle, easy surf. Water is warm!

Love this beach and very close to this home [Eastham Vacation Rental ID 27188]. Perfect for young children, especially when tide going out. Beautiful sunsets!

Wonderful sunsets. Family friendly.

We love First Encounter, especially at low tide. You can walk forever.

You can walk for miles along the bottom of the Cape Cod Bay at low tide.

Best beach to walk the flats and watch the sunset

This is our favorite beach. It is the largest bay side beach we've found. It is great for kids to run and explore, and we love seeing the change in tide. You get the best of both worlds as the tide changes.

this is a lovely beach for families - when it is low tide goes there is a wonderfully long and smooth area to play and stand and. never too crowded. nice sand.

We went at low tide at sunset and at sunrise. How fabulous to meet nature!

We love the bay and First Encounter goes on forever.

It was great for a young child with lots of nice shallow water and no waves. Also the water was warm in June there.

We were able to walk [Vacation Rental ID 24508] to First Encounter beach and check out the Marsh on the way by. Beautiful spot!

We went there 3 times during our trip. It was low tide in the late afternoon. You can walk miles out towards the ocean on the sandy beach. Plenty of little fishes, hermit crabs, regular crabs, spider crabs were trapped in the shallow water. My two children had great time catching the fishes. We were also lucky enough to find a live razor clam.

This is a child friendly beach with a shallow bottom. Also, this is where to go to view the sunset.

Only about a half mile from the house [Vacation Rental ID 24508]. Quiet and secluded.

Great beach area and water temp for young children. Opportunities to see crabs and minnows as tide went out. Fascinating water as it went to low tide.

Although we enjoyed the ocean at Nauset Light and Coast Guard beaches, our group particularly liked First Encounter Beach on the Bay side. At low tide, you can walk far out among the tide pools and watch the seagulls snatching fish and crabs. You can also see the tide come in and surround the beached boat near the shore.

Fantastic Beach for Children! My 4yr old would not go anywhere else! She loved it. High Tide - Low Tide, she just played and played! We found so many crabs and clams, etc. at low tide, such a great beach!

For kids under the age of 5, it's a fun place at low tide. My boys loved catching crabs, hermit crabs, and little fishes.

This is a bay side beach that is just a 5 minute stroll from the Private Association Beach that came with our cottage. It was fun to watch the kids hang out with other kids, building sand structures and flying kites