Personal Review
My take on this trail.
The Ride
Most people who come to Woodbine Beach aren't really coming to ride — they're coming to be at the beach, and the bike is how they got there. That's a perfectly legitimate use of a trail, and worth saying directly rather than pretending the cycling is the point.
What cycling there is, though, is pleasant. The paved Martin Goodman section through here is flat, wide, and right on the water. Lake Ontario on a clear day is genuinely beautiful from this stretch — wide and blue and open, the occasional sailboat cutting across the middle distance, the far shore just visible on the horizon when the air is clean.
The packed sand near the water's edge is technically rideable, but I wouldn't recommend it on a road bike — your tires will sink and you'll fight it the whole way. A hybrid or mountain bike handles it better, but honestly, most people stick to the paved path and walk to the water, which is the right call.
Now the thing I have to say: on a Saturday afternoon in July, the path through Woodbine Beach is not really a cycling trail. It's a social event with pavement running through it. You're weaving around families with coolers, dogs on long leashes, volleyball games that have migrated onto the path, groups of friends who've stopped to take photos, kids running in unpredictable directions. It's charming in its way — the full energy of a Toronto summer — but if you came specifically to ride, you're going to spend more time braking than pedalling.
My honest recommendation: ride here as part of a longer Martin Goodman run rather than as a standalone destination. Start further west or east, ride to Woodbine, lock up for twenty minutes, walk to the water, eat something, and keep going. Used that way, it's a highlight — a natural rest stop in one of the best settings on the waterfront. As a standalone 5-kilometre loop, it's thin. There's just not enough trail here to call it a ride.
What Makes It Worth It
The water. I keep coming back to this. Lake Ontario from Woodbine Beach on a clear summer morning is one of the better views in the city. The lake is wide and flat and blue, stretching out to the south with nothing to interrupt it. There's a particular quality to the light on the water early in the day — low and warm and golden — that makes the whole beach feel like somewhere else entirely. Not Toronto. Somewhere coastal. Somewhere you'd fly to. It's that good, if you time it right.
The energy, too, deserves credit. Summer beach energy in Toronto is something specific, and it's good. People of every background spread across the sand. Music coming from somewhere you can't quite locate. The smell of sunscreen and lake water. Volleyball. Kids running. Dogs losing their minds at the shoreline. It's the city being happy, and riding through it feels less like observing it and more like being part of it. That counts for something, even if the riding itself is secondary.
The Beaches neighbourhood matters here too. Queen Street East just north of the beach is one of Toronto's most pleasant neighbourhood strips — independent shops, good cafés, ice cream places that always have a line in summer, a scale that feels human and walkable and self-contained. Combining a beach ride with a slow wander up Queen Street is a genuinely good Toronto afternoon. The ride is short. The afternoon doesn't have to be.
And then there's sunrise. Early morning at Woodbine Beach — before eight in summer — is a completely different experience from the midday version. The beach is quiet. The light is low and golden, coming off the lake at a sharp angle. The water is still. The path is empty. You have the whole place almost entirely to yourself, and the city feels like it's holding its breath before the day starts. If there's a best version of this trail, that's it. The version where it's just you and the water and the light.
Timing Is Everything Here
Come early in summer. Before nine. The light is at its best, the beach is quiet, and the water is calm. This is the version of Woodbine Beach that earns the visit. Set an alarm. It's worth it.
Come in shoulder season — late May, early June, September. The beach is quieter, the path is clear, and the water is still beautiful even if swimming weather is unreliable. You get the view and the space without the crowds, and the Beaches neighbourhood is at its most walkable when the sidewalks aren't packed.
Come as a stop on a longer Martin Goodman ride. You're passing through anyway. Lock up for twenty minutes, walk to the water, eat something from a vendor, sit on the sand for a bit. Then keep going. This is how Woodbine Beach works best for cyclists — as a destination within a ride, not the ride itself.
Don't come on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon in July or August expecting to ride. You won't be riding. You'll be navigating. If that's the only time you have, come for the beach experience and accept that the bike will be locked up for most of it.
Don't come expecting a trail experience comparable to the ravines or the spit. This is a beach with a path through it. Adjust expectations accordingly and you'll have a good time. Arrive expecting a 5-star trail and you'll leave wondering what the fuss was about.
Woodbine Beach rewards you when you approach it as a place to be rather than a trail to ride. The bike gets you there. What you do when you arrive is up to you.
Worth Knowing
The neighbourhood is half the reason to come
Woodbine Beach doesn't exist in isolation. It's the southern edge of the Beaches — one of Toronto's most distinctive and self-contained neighbourhoods. The Queen Street East strip that runs through here has a particular character: independent, walkable, a little self-satisfied in the way that all desirable neighbourhoods are, but genuinely charming underneath it. Small shops with handwritten signs. Cafés where the barista knows the regulars. Ice cream places with lines out the door. It's a neighbourhood that takes itself seriously as a neighbourhood, and that shows.
The Beaches also has some of the most vocal community advocates in the city — people who fight for the boardwalk, the park space, the character of the street. That energy is part of why the area works. The boardwalk itself runs along the waterfront connecting everything — beach to park to neighbourhood to lakefront — in a continuous ribbon that makes the whole area feel connected and intentional.
If you're riding here, budget time for the neighbourhood. The ride is short. A slow coffee on Queen Street East, a walk along the boardwalk, a detour into one of the side streets lined with old houses and big trees — that's where the time goes, and it's time well spent.
Lock your bike outside a café on Queen Street East after a morning ride to the lake. That's the version of this visit you'll remember.
