Clarkes Beach

Clarkes is the beach you walk to when Main Beach has filled with the day. It picks up where the town beach ends and curves gently east toward the cape, sheltered, shaded along its back edge by pandanus, and noticeably quieter than the central sand only a few minutes away. For a traveller who has come to Byron to slow down rather than to be in the thick of it, this is the stretch that delivers the restful version of the bay, and it does so without asking you to drive anywhere.

The early swim is the whole point. Come at first light and the water in the curve is at its softest, the sand is cool and freshly washed, and the only company is a handful of locals walking the shoreline and the birds in the casuarinas. A slow float here followed by a barefoot walk along to The Pass and back is one of the most quietly restorative starts to a day on this coast, the kind of morning that resets you before the town has even woken.

The honest part is small but worth saying. Clarkes has fewer facilities than Main Beach and no lifeguard tower of its own to anchor to, so it asks a little more attention from you when it comes to reading the sea, and the holiday park behind it means the back of the beach is busier with families through summer than the photographs suggest. It is calmer than Main Beach, but it is not deserted in the peak weeks, and the genuine stillness is an early one.

Who should come here: anyone wanting the soft, sheltered, quieter side of the bay and the pleasure of a slow shaded morning. Who might prefer elsewhere: those who want the easiest patrolled swim with full facilities, who are better at Main Beach, and those chasing the surf and the longboard scene, who should walk on to The Pass. For the sheltered cove under the lighthouse, continue to Wategos.

Clarkes sits just east of the Byron Bay town centre, a short walk along the foreshore from the main beach, or reached from the access tracks off Lighthouse Road and through the holiday park grounds. Most accommodation in town is within easy walking distance, so you rarely need transport to reach the sand. Byron Bay is around forty five minutes by road from the Gold Coast airport at Coolangatta and a similar drive from Ballina to the south, with a taxi, ride app or hire car the simplest ways in. Parking near the beach is limited and fills early in the busy season, so walk in or come at dawn.

Plan your swim for the early morning or late afternoon to avoid the strongest sun, and bring or hire shade, though the pandanus along the back of the beach gives Clarkes more natural cover than most of the bay. The foreshore has showers and easy access points, and the town is close enough for a coffee or breakfast without a trek. Swim between the patrol flags where they are set, keep an eye on the conditions, and in the warmer months watch for bluebottles that onshore winds can push in. Read the sea each day, as conditions are typical and never guaranteed.