Vancouver • Ocean Beach Safe to Swim

English Bay Beach (First Beach)

Water Quality is Clean & Safe. Bacterial levels are well below federal health guidelines.

💡 Recommendation: Ideal conditions for swimming, paddleboarding, and water recreation.

Latest Laboratory Test

38 CFU/100mL

30-Day Geometric Mean (Threshold: ≤ 200)

Single Sample: 42 CFU (Limit: 400)

Tested on: 2026-08-14

Latest Verified Reading

Metro Vancouver's public beach monitoring feed publishes each site's current result only — no per-sample historical series is available upstream, so no trend chart is shown here.

Sample Date	2026-08-14
30-Day Geo Mean	38 CFU
Single Sample	42 CFU
Water Quality	Safe to Swim

Beach Amenities & Details

Vancouver's premier downtown beach along Beach Avenue and Denman Street with direct Stanley Park seawall access.

🐾 Dog-Friendly / Off-Leash No (No Dogs on Sand)

🏊 Lifeguards On Duty Seasonal (May–Sept)

♿ Wheelchair Access Mat Accessible Mat Installed

🚻 Public Washrooms & Showers Available

Great For:

Sunset views Open water swimming Seawall walks Volleyball

Verify on Official VCH / Health Agency

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Getting to English Bay Beach (First Beach)

Transit connections, parking access, and GPS coordinates

🚌 Public Transit

Bus #5 (Robson) or #6 (Davie) directly to Denman and Davie.

🚗 Parking & Access

Pay parking along Beach Ave and Denman St. City lots nearby.

🗺️ Navigation

49.2873° N, 123.1435° W

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Nearby Clean Safe Beaches

Verified safe waters within quick travel distance

Vancouver Safe to Swim

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Connected Live City Telemetry

Cross-Utility Pulse

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Hyper-Local Weather & UV Doppler

Live coastal temperatures & sunlight curves

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Beachside Car-Share Parking Parking

Permit zone rules & meter exemptions

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Urgent Care & Clinic Finder VCH Health

VCH UPCC and emergency triage wait times

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How Safety Status is Decided

Vancouver Coastal Health & Health Canada E. coli standards

CFU / 100 mL

Safe to Swim (Green)

≤ 200 geometric mean
≤ 235 single sample.

Clean water, low health risk.

Caution (Yellow)

Single sample 235 – 400.
Beach Action Value triggered.

Resampling in progress.

Advisory (Red)

Geometric mean > 200
or single sample > 400.

Do not swim (high illness risk).

Unmonitored (Gray)

Off-season or no sample within 14 days.

Recreational season: May–Sept.