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Back to > travel articles  The most beautiful beach in the worldWhat is the most beautiful beach in the world? I will try to answer this question and choose the best beach among 14 of them scattered all over the world.With today improved travel services and availability of information on the web, getting to remote paradises is every day easier. So, before choosing your next destination for a beach holiday, you may wonder what is the most beautiful beach of the world and how to get there. Well, I start this article saying that I don't like any kind of absolute "top 10 classification" especially when talking about travel, since any place in the world is certainly special and unique for one or more things that can't be found in any other, yet beautiful, place. So, talking about the best beaches in the world, this concept is really not different, since a beach can be very beautiful and unique for the color of the sand, while another beach can be very beautiful and unique for the surrounding landscape, with both certainly deserving a visit. Therefore, in my classification of the best beach of the world, you will not see a 1, 2, 3... list ordered from most to least beautiful, but I will show the most beautiful beaches on just chronological order, starting from the most recent I visited and then going back and back into the time. The most recent beautiful beach that I had the opportunity to visit, was a long stretch to sand surrounding Honeymoon Island in the Cook Island. This is one of the most beautiful beach in the world for the huge expanse of fine white sand and for the beautiful landscape all around, dominated by small islands and by a crystal-clear turquoise lagoon. To get to Honeymoon Island, you will have to get first to Rarotonga, the main island of the cook, then to Aitutaki from where boat excursions depart daily. There are no accommodations on Honeymoon Island. In the Cook Islands you will find many beautiful beaches throughout Aitutaki, Rarotonga, Atiu and other minor islands. See here our Cook Islands travel guide.
Another beautiful and very special beach is located in Maré Island in New Caledonia. This is one of the most beautiful beach in the world mainly for the wonderful landscape all around, dominated by a forest of Araucaria trees. It is like an alpine landscape merging into a tropical paradise. New Caledonia is located east of Australia, in the Pacific Ocean, and there are several daily flights to Maré from the capital Noumea, lasting just 30 minutes.
WOW! Another beach in New Caledonia! Ouvea is a flat atoll, once again just 30 minutes flight from Noumea, the capital of New Caledonia. The entire lagoon of Ouvea Island is an UNESCO World Heritage site for the unique landscape and for the biodiversity, while the 16 miles uninterrupted beach, made of pure white fine sand, will certainly keep the visitors busy for many days. See here our full New Caledonia travel guide.
Shell Beach in Western Australia is one of the most strange beach in the world, because instead of the sand, there are billions of billions of small shells shining under the light of the sun. The shells can be found up to a depth of 20-30 feet (!) for a stretch of 36 miles (!) There is a small airport in Shark Bay with few flights operating from and to Perth, otherwise you may get to Shell Beach driving for a couple of days from Perth and taking the opportunity to visit lot of additional beautiful places along the way. See here our full Western Australia travel guide.
The southern region of Portugal, known as Algarve, is home to some of the most beautiful beach in Europe (and perhaps in the world), framed by dramatic cliffs of rocks with vivid colors. The Algarve is getting every day more and more popular, so, in high season (mainly in July and August) it will be quite crowded, as the place is served also by low cost airlines. However, the location really worth a visit. The closest airport is Faro, in southern Portugal, from where visitors may use public transport or rent a car, to get to the best beaches of the region. See here our full Portugal travel guide.
Most people never heard about Ascension Island, a small volcanic island located in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, about halfway between Africa and Brazil. Comfortless Cove is a beautiful beach, almost always deserted, related also to the interesting history of the island. Ascension is known also as a very important breeding site for several birds and a nesting place for green turtles. There are lot of land crabs as well. The best season to visit Ascension goes from December to April, but getting here is very challenging since the only airport has been closed to long haul flights (there are monthly flights, or so, from the nearby St. Helena island). See here our full Ascension Island travel guide.
Another very little know country is Kiribati and the Gilbert Islands, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Abemama island is just 40 minutes flight by turboprop plane from the capital Tarawa, however, visitors must be aware of the very basic facilities requiring an open-minded traveler. The prize will be fantastic beaches throughout the atoll, always completely deserted. Oops... I forgot to mention that Tarawa is another 3 hours flight from Fiji islands, the flight is available only a few times per week.
Kiritimati, known as Christmas Island, is probably the most remote island of the world, where the distance from any continent exceed 3000 miles. The island has also some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, which are usually deserted and without anybody else. To get to Kiritimati, there are weekly flights from either Honolulu or Fiji, lasting a few hours. Like the Gilbert Islands, also Kiritimati belongs to Kiribati, see here our full Kiribati travel guide.
Gozo is a small island in southern Mediterranean sea belonging to Malta and is particularly known for a couple of beaches of orange sand. The sand is really so orange as you can see in the picture (no need to use Photoshop), therefore this beach certainly deserves to be mentioned among the best beaches of the world. The location is anyway a lot popular and in summer from June to September, it is full of Europeans spending the holidays there. Malta is served by lot of flights, even low cost, from many cities in mainland Europe. See our full Malta travel guide.
Socotra is a small island just off the Arabic peninsula and belongs to Yemen. Socotra is known not only for fantastic beaches throughout the island, but also for the endemic flora which include rare succulent plants like the Adenium obesum (bottleneck tree) or the dragonblood tree. Unfortunately there is a bad war currently going on in Yemen, so getting to Socotra is difficult if not impossible. See our full Socotra travel guide.
If you are looking for deserted islands with spectacular beaches and unspoilt landscape, Raja Ampat in an archipelago located in New Guinea (Indonesia) about 3 hours flight from Jakarta. There are very few accommodation options in Raja Ampat, most travelers will visit the islands by small boats letting to snorkel, swim and have a sunbath every day in a different location. See our full Raja Ampat travel guide.
Tonga is a tropical paradise located about 3 hours flight from Auckland, New Zealand, and is one of the few places in the world where visitors may swim with whales during the austral winter. Beside such beautiful and unique snorkeling, the location has also fantastic beaches and islets where it's possible to get to by just swimming or by kayak. See our full Tonga travel guide.
Oops! What is this? A joke? At the beginning of the article I said that I was about to talk about the most beautiful beaches in the world and this beach in the Falkland Islands, not far from Antarctica, IS actually one of the most beautiful. Here you cannot swim or have a sunbath (unless you are very brave), but the place really worth a visit not only for the wonderful landscape which looks SO tropical, but also for the thousands of penguins wandering everywhere. To get to the Falklands there are weekly flights from Santiago del Chile by LAN or from London (UK) by Royal Air Force. See our full Falkland Islands travel guide.
The Maldives are located across the equator south of India and are one of the most unique islands in the world, as some of them are so small, that you can walk all the way around the island in just a few minutes. Unfortunately this beautiful place has been totally spoilt in the recent years to build both luxury resorts and other resorts to accommodate mass tourism in low cost structures. The place you can see in this photo, Thudufushi Island, doesn't exists anymore (or at least the landscape has changed a lot due to the over-water villas built after the photo was taken in 2004). See our full Thudufushi travel guide.
So, what is finally, the best beach in the world? As you can see from the photos, there isn't probably a "most beautiful beach" in the absolute meaning of the word, but every beach can be different and unique for some aspect and all of them certainly deserve a visit. Back to > travel articles |
