We dropped by South Beach/Katama Beach on our way from Aquinnah to Edgarton as part of our 4.5 hour blitz on the island in a rental car.  Parking is FREE!!!! I wish I had been able to figure that out ahead of time, but was happy that was the case.  (In fact, apparently ALL parking on the island is free except for the beaches out by Aquinnah.) Also, take a close look at the Satellite image on Google Maps; if you are going south toward the beach on Herring Creek Road (the west end of the beach area), you will pass three dirt parking lots on your left before you have to make the left onto Atlantic Dr. At that intersection, you can turn right into another dirt parking area and if you go to the end of that dirt lot, there is an access road to a lot that is just steps from the beach.  We were there on a Monday in late June, and we were able to park practically at the entrance to the path through the dune area, and from there it was maybe 100 feet of walking in the sand up and down a very slight rise to get to the beach.  However, where you enter the beach is at the very edge where it transitions to private property (and there are big menacing signs everywhere), so it was super packed right there and we would have had to walk some distance if we had been planning to stay for a while. The waves were nice and big and continuous, and the fact that just to the west of where we were standing was completely deserted made for great pictures. 

South Beach is a nice ocean beach with soft sand (as opposed to most of the other beaches on the island). The day we went the waves were incredibly calm which was surprising reading about the surf on here (though we did see a seal pop up). I will say, this was definitely the most crowded beach I had been to while here in MV (State Beach was much less full!) so for that reason I docked a star. Plenty of free parking, bathrooms and lifeguards if you feel you need that. However, if you're looking for emptier beaches, probably not the spot.

We love going to South Beach but this year we were forced to leave mid-day due to over crowding. Most families were very, very good about social distancing but the younger crowds drove us from the beach. Far too close for our comfort. We arrived at 10am and got about 2 hrs of beach time before we were forced out. Just an FYI.