Long Sands and Short Sands beaches make up the York Beach sections of the Yorks. Long Sands has ample metered parking along Long Sands Road--parallel only, though, so brush up on your parallel parking skills.
Long Sands is mostly white sand (the end closer to York Harbor is studded with medium-sized rocks) and is (surprise) longer than Short Sands. However, Long Sands can become quite narrow at high tide.
Nevertheless, it's popular with families and surfers (who surf the end of the beach closest to The Nubble) and tends to be less crowded than Short Sands.It also has good views of the famous Nubble Lighthouse.
Short Sands has metered parking in a lot in front of the beach. Both the lot and the beach fill up with people early during the summer season, so you may want to grab breakfast a nearby resturant like The Goldenrod and steak a claim right afterwards.
There are no surfers on Short Sands in the summer. The sand is soft and white and the beach is wide in high tide or low and doesn't drop off quickly once you're in the water. At one end of the beach, the Fun O Rama arcade will entice kids in for a game of ski ball, and at the other, there are rocks which make for cool tidal pools at low tide.
Short Sands is surrounded by the bulk of the buisnesses in York Beach, including the candlepin bowling alley (next to the Fun O Rama), the old-fashioned movie theater (behind the Fun O Rama), and plethora a resturants and gift shops that line York Beach's main street, Railroad Ave.