When you think about it, beaches are actually pretty simple.
All you need are some crystal-clear waters, long stretches of sun-kissed shoreline and you’ve got yourself a gorgeous, ‘gram-worthy patch to lie down and chill out
Though plenty have sun, sand and sea in common, no two beaches are truly alike – nature just doesn’t work that way. The glistening white shores of tropical, palm tree-lined bays are a million miles away from volcanic black pebbles along rugged Nordic coastlines.
But that doesn’t mean they aren’t all magnificent, and the ones in this list are the very best this planet has to offer: take a look.
1. Hyams Beach | New South Wales, Australia
One of my favourite memories of living in Australia is when I spent a weekend in a gorgeous beach side AirBnB, in a big group of exhange students, just minutes away from Hyams Beach.
We all loaded into cars and drove for three hours down the coast from Sydney, to where the pine forest parts to reveal the quintessential Australian white-sand beach.
Here, you can snorkel, paddle up to the Hyams Point and search for stingrays. I’d recommend packing a picnic and taking the shady, half-hour White Sands Walk to the picnic tables at Greenfield Gully.
2. Pigeon Point | Antigua & Barbuda, Caribbean
3. Railay Beach | Krabi, Thailand
4. Anse Source d’Argent | La Digue, Seychelles
5. Arco Magna | Calabria, Italy
6. Barafundle Bay | Pembrokeshire, Wales
27. Weligama Beach | Weligama, Sri Lanka
Make your trip to Sri Lanka count at this under-visited splash of brown-sugar sand 20 miles from Galle. Swimming is safe here – calmer and shallower than other south coast beaches. Or curl up in a hanging chair under a bough until noon, when the fish shack fires up its barbecue to serve mackerel and prawns that arrived on longboats at dawn.
