On sunny days most Utrechters head out to the Maarsseveense Plassen, which is about half an hour’s bicycle ride from the city centre (or take bus Nr. 35 to Maarssen). Here you'll find everything you'd find by the sea: loud teenagers, beer-chugging construction workers and flirtatious students on the prowl. There's a beach with real sand, showers and a playground for which you’ll have to pay a small fee, but most people choose the free grassy patches along the lake.
