Two Beaches You Probably Didn't Know About in Southern Minnesota

Have you heard of or been to either of these two little-known beaches in southern Minnesota? These aren't beaches that I would immediately think to go to when I think about beaches but they're probably beaches we should check out sometime!

These beaches were dubbed as being 'little-known' by Only in Your State and those two beaches are Flandrau State Park Beach in New Ulm and Afton State Park Beach in Hastings.

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Flandrau State Park Beach

This beach is very unique because it's a sand-bottom swimming pool, technically, but because of the sand, it's the perfect beach to relax on. Unfortunately, according to the Minnesota DNR website, the sand-bottom beach is closed this year. So put this on your list of places to go next summer!

Minnesota DNR

Afton State Park Beach

Afton State Park Beach IS open this summer, so this is a place you can go with the kids the next time it's hot out! It's on the St. Croix River which is a river I enjoy so maybe I'm biased but this sounds like the perfect beach.

Minnesota DNR

Have you been to either of these 'little-known' beaches? Are there other beaches in the area that you think not many people know about? Message me on our free app (which you can download above) or on my Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter (@carlyrossonair).

If you love the beach as much as I do, you'll like this: the 50 best beach towns in America! Keep scrolling to check it out.

LOOK: Here are the 50 best beach towns in America

Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.