Every “best beaches” list is really an argument about what a beach is for. Some beaches are for swimming. Some are for looking at. The ten below are the ones that do both, plus the luxury hotel that puts you closest to the sand. I have shot on half of these coastlines over the years, and the light at golden hour on the good ones is something no filter has ever improved.
Which Beach Matches Your Style?
Answer 4 questions and get the beach from the article’s ranking that fits how you travel.
1. Anse Source d’Argent, La Digue, Seychelles
The most photographed beach in the Indian Ocean earns it. Towering granite boulders, sculpted by millions of years of weather into shapes that look poured rather than carved, frame pockets of powder sand and shallow turquoise water. It sits inside the L’Union Estate, so there is a small entry fee, and arriving before nine in the morning means you get the famous compositions without the crowds.
Where to stay: Le Domaine de l’Orangeraie, a 63-villa resort set in tropical gardens a few minutes’ walk from Anse Severe beach, with the Presidential Villa offering a private pool and butler service. La Digue has almost no cars, so you will get around by bicycle, which is half the charm.
2. Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday Islands, Australia
Seven kilometers of silica sand so pure it squeaks underfoot, stretching along Whitsunday Island at the edge of the Great Barrier Reef. The sand is 98 percent silica, which is why it stays cool even at midday and photographs almost white against the swirling turquoise and blue of Hill Inlet at the northern end. There is no development on the beach itself, which is the entire point. You arrive by boat or seaplane, usually as a day trip.
Where to stay: qualia on Hamilton Island, the luxury benchmark for the region, with private pavilions, a clifftop spa and a waterfront that looks straight out over the Whitsundays. Book the seaplane transfer if your budget allows. Seeing the reef’s patterns from the air is a separate attraction.
3. Kapalua Bay, Maui, Hawaii
Kapalua Bay is the crescent of golden sand that the big resort beaches wish they were. Sheltered by lava rock points on both sides, the water stays calm enough for snorkeling most of the year, and the marine preserve means the coral and the turtles are protected. Sunset here, with the bay curving away and the West Maui mountains behind you, is the Hawaii of the postcards. For more on whether the Maldives is worth the hype, see our related coverage.
Where to stay: Montage Kapalua Bay, a residential-style resort of suites with full kitchens and sprawling lanais, set directly above the bay. The snorkeling off the beach in front of the resort is some of the best accessible shore snorkeling on Maui.
4. El Nido’s Bacuit Bay, Palawan, Philippines
El Nido is not one beach but a seascape, dozens of limestone karst islands rising out of water so clear the boats seem to float on air. Nacpan Beach, a forty-five minute drive from town, is the great sweep of golden sand, four kilometers of it, still refreshingly undeveloped. The island-hopping tours through Bacuit Bay, lagoons, hidden beaches, snorkeling over coral gardens, are the main event.
Where to stay: El Nido Resorts Pangulasian Island, the “island of the sun,” a private-island resort with just over forty villas fronting a 750-meter pristine beach. The house reef is excellent and the remoteness is the luxury. Read our Joali Maldives overwater villa review for a comparable private-island experience.
5. Praia da Rocha, Algarve, Portugal
The Algarve’s famous golden cliffs and sea stacks are at their most dramatic around Portimao, and Praia da Rocha is the big, lively beach at the center of it. Fortaleza de Santa Catarina, the 17th-century fortress on the headland, gives the beach its postcard anchor. The water is Atlantic, so it is bracing rather than bath-warm, but the light on the ochre cliffs at sunset is extraordinary.
Where to stay: base yourself at a marina-side hotel in Portimao, such as the Tivoli Marina, minutes from the sand, and day-trip along the coast to the quieter coves at Benagil and Marinha. The Algarve rewards renters, a car turns one beach into ten.
6. Cala Conta, Ibiza, Spain
Cala Conta, or Cala Comte, is the west-coast cove that produces Ibiza’s legendary sunsets. Shallow, impossibly clear water in graduated blues, small offshore islands including the mystical Es Vedra on the horizon, and a bohemian beach-restaurant scene that runs from barefoot paella to DJ sets. Arrive by mid-afternoon, claim your spot, and stay for the sunset ritual, when the whole beach turns to face the sun.
Where to stay: 7Pines Resort Ibiza, a Destination by Hyatt all-suite resort set on the cliffs between Cala Conta and Cala Codolar, with views straight out to Es Vedra, a 1,500-square-meter Pure Seven spa and some of the best sunset terraces on the island.
7. Matira Beach, Bora Bora, French Polynesia
Matira is the public beach that outshines most private ones, a mile of soft white sand sloping into a lagoon that shifts from pale aqua to deep sapphire. It is at the southern tip of the main island, facing the sunset, and the water is calm, warm and shallow enough to walk out for a hundred yards. Mount Otemanu looms over everything, the jagged volcanic peak that makes Bora Bora look like a film set.
Where to stay: the Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora, spread across its own motu with overwater bungalows facing the mountain, a superb spa and the kind of lagoon access that justifies the airfare. This is the honeymoon against which others are measured. Compare with our guide to all-inclusive luxury resorts.
8. The Baths, Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands
A geological accident turned into a national park. Enormous granite boulders, some the size of houses, tumbled into piles at the water’s edge, forming grottoes, tunnels and tidal pools you can wade and scramble through on a marked trail. It is part beach, part natural playground, and there is nothing else quite like it in the Caribbean.
Where to stay: Rosewood Little Dix Bay on Virgin Gorda, set on a half-mile crescent of sand with rooms tucked into the tropical gardens behind the beach. It reopened after a full rebuild and remains the island’s grande dame. Pair it with a day sail to the Baths and lunch at a beach bar on Jost Van Dyke.
9. Playa de las Catedrales, Galicia, Spain
At low tide, the cliffs near Ribadeo reveal a cathedral of stone, natural arches and buttresses up to thirty meters high carved by the Atlantic. You walk the sand beneath them for a few hours, and then the tide returns and the whole thing disappears. It requires timing, check the tide tables, and in summer a free advance reservation, but it is one of Europe’s great natural spectacles.
Where to stay: the Parador de Ribadeo, part of Spain’s network of historic state-run hotels, a handsome Galician manor setting. This is a road-trip beach, pair it with the seafood restaurants of the Galician coast.
10. Cable Beach, Broome, Western Australia
Twenty-two kilometers of white sand on the edge of the Kimberley, famous for two things: sunsets over the Indian Ocean, and the camel trains that parade along the waterline at dusk. The tidal range is enormous, so the beach transforms completely between high and low water, and the Staircase to the Moon, a natural optical illusion on the tidal flats during full moon months, draws crowds from March to October.
Where to stay: Cable Beach Club Resort and Spa, the grande dame of Broome set in tropical gardens directly across from the sand. Ask for a room facing the sunset. The resort’s own beach access means you skip the parking scramble at dusk.
How to Choose
If you want the single most beautiful beach on this list, it is Anse Source d’Argent. If you want the best swimming, Kapalua Bay or Matira. If you want the photograph that stops people mid-scroll, Whitehaven’s Hill Inlet from the air, or the Baths’ boulder grottoes at midday when the light shafts come through. And if you want the beach that is also an event, time your visit to the Cathedrals for a spring low tide, or to Cable Beach for a full moon. The sand is only half the story. The timing is the rest.
