1. Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday Island, Australia
Best time to visit: Sept
Cost: $$
- Beach known for its crystal white silica sands and turquoise colored waters
- It is on an island only accessible by boat, seaplane, and helicopter from Airlie Beach, as well as Hamilton Island
Featured in The Best of Australia
2. Navagio Beach, Greece
Walk difficulty: Easy
Best time to visit: March-May, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Navagio Beach, or Shipwreck Beach, is an exposed cove, sometimes referred to as "Smugglers Cove", on the coast of Zakynthos
- On 2 October 1980, the coaster MV Panagiotis, ran aground in the waters around Zakynthos Island on Navagio Beach during stormy weather and bad visibility
- Recently released court documents and photos relating to the incident back up the smuggler story, suggesting that Panagiotis was allegedly making its way from Turkey with a freight of contraband cigarettes headed for Italy
- The ship was abandoned and still rests buried in the limestone gravel of the beach that now bears the nickname Shipwreck
Featured in The Best of Greece
3. Clatsop Loop Trail from Indian Beach, Cannon Beach, Oregon, United States
Walk difficulty: Moderate
Best time to visit: June-Aug
Cost: $
- Beach famous for Haystack Rock, a 235 ft (72 m) sea stack that juts out along the coast, and is often accessible at low tide, especially in the summertime
- There is a small cave system that penetrates its igneous rock that can be seen from the coastline
Featured in The Best of Oregon
#29 in Best Attractions in the USA
4. Koekohe Beach, New Zealand
Best time to visit: Jan, Dec
Cost: $
- The Moeraki Boulders are unusually large spherical boulders lying along a stretch of Koekohe Beach on the wave-cut Otago coast of New Zealand
- They occur scattered either as isolated or clusters of boulders within a stretch of beach where they have been protected in a scientific reserve
- The boulders have been exhumed from the mudstone and bedrock enclosing them and concentrated on the beach by coastal erosion
Featured in The Best of New Zealand
5. Hanalei Bay, Hawaii, United States
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Hanalei Bay consists of nearly two miles of beach, surrounded by mountains
- In the summer, the bay offers excellent mooring for sailboats, stand up paddle boarding and swimming
- During the winter the surf becomes large and the bay is a favorite surfing location
- In 1824, King Kamehameha II’s royal yacht, Pride of Hawaii, sank near the mouth of the Waiʻoli River, after its crew struck a 5-foot-deep reef a hundred yards offshore
- In 1995–2000, archaeologists excavated the wreck and recovered more than 1,200 artifacts
- During this excavation, a 40-foot section of the stern was discovered, documented, and then re-buried where it was discovered
Featured in The Best of Hawaii
6. Elafonisi Beach, Greece
Walk difficulty: Moderate
Best time to visit: June-Aug
Cost: $
- Island located close to the Mediterranean island of Crete, in the regional unit of Chania
- When the weather is fine it is possible to walk to the island through the shallow water
- It is known for its pink sand beaches, created by tidal and wave-induced deposits of pigmented microorganisms living in a symbiotic relationship with native seaweed
Featured in The Best of Greece
7. Kauna'oa Beach, Hawaii, United States
Best time to visit: Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Kaunaʻoa Bay has one of the few white sand beaches of the Kohala Coast, the western side of the island of Hawaiʻi
- A historic hotel, the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, is located on Kauna'oa
Featured in The Best of Hawaii
8. Zlatni Rat, Croatia
Best time to visit: Sept-Oct
Cost: $
- Spit of land located on the southern coast of the island of Brač
- The landform itself is mostly composed of a white pebble beach, with a Mediterranean pine grove taking up the remainder
- Its distinctive shape can be seen in many travel brochures, which made it one of the symbols of Croatian tourism
Featured in The Best of Croatia
9. Cala Goloritzé, Baunei, Italy
Best time to visit: April-June
Cost: $
- Beach that is one of the most evocative of Sardinia, and was created by a landslide in 1962
- It is famous for its high pinnacle of 143 meters above the cove
- Another feature of the beach is the natural arch that opens on the right side of the bay
Featured in The Best of Italy
10. Lanikai Beach, Hawaii, United States
Walk difficulty: Easy
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Dec
Cost: $
- Beach located in Kaʻōhao, a community in the town of Kailua and on the windward coast of Oahu
- This small half-mile strip of beach is consistently ranked among the best beaches in the world
Featured in The Best of Hawaii
11. South Pointe Park Pier, South Beach, Florida, United States
Best time to visit: March-May
Cost: $
- South Beach, also nicknamed colloquially as SoBe, is a neighborhood in Miami Beach
- This area was the first section of Miami Beach to be developed, starting in the 1910s
- The area has gone through numerous artificial and natural changes over the years, including a booming regional economy, increased tourism, and the 1926 hurricane, which destroyed much of the area
Featured in The Best of Florida
12. Beach of the Cathedrals, Spain
Best time to visit: May-June
Cost: $
- Natural monument whose name is derived from its cliff formations
- During low tide the size of its cliffs and sea caves is more apparent, ranging from small cracks on the rock to big caves whose roofs have collapsed due to the erosion of the waves
Featured in The Best of Spain
13. Praia da Marinha - Arcos e Algares Naturais - Praia da Morena, Portugal
Walk difficulty: Moderate
Best time to visit: June, Sept
Cost: $
- One of the most emblematic beaches of Portugal with a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, located on the Atlantic coast in Caramujeira,
- The beach itself is fairly small and sandy, and orange limestone cliffs border it
- The beach also has some difficulty to get there, it is a little off the main road and the foot path takes a sharp descent downward
Featured in The Best of Portugal
14. Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach Walk, Australia
Walk difficulty: Easy
Best time to visit: March-May, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Bondi Beach is a beach and the name of the surrounding suburb in Sydney
- While the northern end has been rated a gentle 4 (with 10 as the most hazardous), the southern side is rated as a 7 due to a famous rip current known as the "Backpackers' Rip" because of its proximity to the bus stop, the fact that many backpackers and tourists do not realise that the flat, smooth water is a rip, and quite dangerous
Featured in The Best of Australia
15. Hyams Beach Loop, Australia
Walk difficulty: Easy
Best time to visit: March-May, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Seaside village in the City of Shoalhaven, New South Wales, on the shores of Jervis Bay
- A seaside resort, its beach is known for having turquoise/aqua-coloured waters and fine, squeaky, brilliantly white sand composed of pure quartz
Featured in The Best of Australia
16. Turquoise Bay, Australia
Best time to visit: Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Pristine stretch of white sand offering swimming, snorkeling and a scenic viewpoint
Featured in The Best of Australia
17. Punalu'u Bay Trail, Hawaii, United States
Walk difficulty: Moderate
Best time to visit: mid April-early June, Sept-mid Dec
Cost: $
- Also called Black Sand Beach, Punalu'u Beach is on the Big Island of Hawaii
- The beach has black sand made of basalt and created by lava flowing into the ocean which explodes as it reaches the ocean and cools
- Punaluʻu is frequented by endangered hawksbill and green turtles, which can often be seen basking on the black sand
Featured in The Best of Hawaii
18. Ngilgi Cave, Margaret River, Australia
Best time to visit: Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Ngilgi Cave is a karst cave in Western Australia
- In many sections of the cave a red layer of soil can be seen; this is called paleosol
Featured in The Best of Australia
19. Tunnels Beach Track, Hawaii, United States
Walk difficulty: Moderate
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Low-key sand beach backed by picturesque tropical vegetation, with shallow reefs for snorkeling
Featured in The Best of Hawaii
20. Maganos - Myrtos Beach, Myrtos Beach , Greece
Walk difficulty: Moderate
Best time to visit: April-May, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Beach generally made up of marble material
- The beach is made up of round, white cobblestones
- The sediment gradually becomes smaller as you approach the shoreline. Because the slope angle has an abrupt drop near the edge of the shoreline, the wave energy is very high and causes the gradation trends from cobbles to pebbles along the beach
Featured in The Best of Greece
21. Siesta Beach, Florida, United States
Best time to visit: Sept-Oct
Cost: $
- Siesta Beach is a beach located on Siesta Key
- Unlike beaches elsewhere that are made up mostly of pulverized coral, Siesta Beach's sand is 99% quartz, most of which comes from the Appalachian Mountains
- According to Harvard University geologists, it's estimated that the sand on Siesta Beach and Crescent Beach on Siesta Key is millions of years old, having its origin in the Appalachians and flowing down the rivers from the mountains until it eventually was deposited on the shores of Siesta Key
Featured in The Best of Florida
#16 in Best Beaches in the USA
22. Papakolea Beach, Hawaii, United States
Walk difficulty: Moderate
Best time to visit: Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Papakōlea Beach (also known as Green Sand Beach or Mahana Beach) is a green sand beach located on the island of Hawaiʻi
- It is one of only four green sand beaches in the world, the others being in Guam, Floreana Island in the Galapagos Islands; and Norway
- It gets its distinctive coloring from olivine sand eroded out of the enclosing volcanic cone (tuff ring)
Featured in The Best of Hawaii
23. Baker Beach, California, United States
Best time to visit: Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Public beach on the peninsula of San Francisco, that lies on the shore of the Pacific Ocean
Featured in The Best of California