Clifton Beach is Karachi's most accessible stretch of Arabian Sea coastline and the one most Karachiites think of first when they want to be near the water. On Friday and Saturday evenings it transforms into a vast, chaotic carnival: camel rides, horse rides, cotton candy vendors, hawkers selling everything from cheap sunglasses to live crabs, and several thousand people doing more or less the same thing — watching the sun drop into the sea. The energy is genuinely infectious even if the beach itself, a wide grey-brown strip, is not pristine.
Swimming is not advisable — the currents are unpredictable and the water quality near the city is poor — but paddling at the edge is common and nobody enforces anything. For a quieter experience, come on a weekday morning when families stroll along the sand and the vendors are still setting up. The beach fronts a busy road, and the whole scene sits in the shadow of apartment towers, so do not come expecting seclusion. Come for the spectacle.