Some of the most beautiful beaches, in the world!
Places that inspiring your, to return again and again:
By Caitlin Morton and Nicholas DeRenzo, February 3, 2022
For our 34th annual Readers’ Choice Awards survey. Registered voters weighed in on their favorite islands for beaches around the globe. As the world has begun to reopen and readjust, the results reflect the kinds of destinations you longed to visit. When you couldn’t travel and the ones you returned to first once you could.
More than 800,000 of you, filled out our survey. While we’re always curious about where you’ve been and where you’re going. We’re especially excited to learn about the truly memorable places. That sparked your imagination and stayed with you when travel may have seemed out of reach. Here are the 10 islands you love most for the perfect beach getaway.
This gallery has been updated with new information and new pictures, since the original publish date.
1. British Virgin Islands:
You can thank conservationist Laurance Rockefeller for putting the British Virgin Islands on the beach holiday map back in 1964. When he opened the Little Dix Bay resort, on a serene crescent of Virgin Gorda sand. Soon it was attracting well heeled sunseekers like, Queen Elizabeth II herself. Also the recently renovated property (now a Rosewood) regularly ranks among your, favorite resorts in the world.
Elsewhere in the archipelago, you can snorkel off of white bay beach, on Jost Van Dyke. Just sail away to a remote and uninhabited Sandy Spit, or follow the crowds to The Baths National Park. Where enormous boulders some as big as 40 feet in diameter set the boundaries for calm natural pools. Watch This Three Top Hotels to Book Next, From Mexico to California
2. Mykonos City, Greece:
There are certainly more secluded and relaxing spots in the Greek Isles. However if you’re coming to the party capital of the Cyclades. Chances are you’re looking for more stimuli than simply sun, sand, and surf.
Psarou Beach is the place to see and be seen, as the international elite moors their yachts offshore. To lounge on Loro Piana mattress–topped mahogany sun beds, under striped Tucci umbrellas. Come nightfall, the flashily named Super Paradise Beach transforms into a thrumming nightclub in the sand. Where the motto is “music’s loud, champagne’s cold”. We never said Mykonos was subtle.
3. Bermuda:
You’ve heard about white and black sand beaches, right. However this British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic, is home to pink sand! Which gets its surprisingly rosy hue from the presence of teeny-tiny, red-shelled organisms known as foraminifera.
While there are a few wide stretches of sand, scattered across the island. Such as Horseshoe Bay and Clearwater Beach. The true joy of beach-going in Bermuda is discovering tucked away spots. Like Jobson’s Cove, which is encircled by jagged limestone outcroppings and teeming with tropical fish.
So if it’s history you’re after? Then the St. Regis Bermuda Resort sits on St. Catherine’s Beach, in the shadow of a hilltop fortress. It was on this very bay, in 1609, that the first colonists landed by chance after their ship. The Sea Venture, wrecked on this reef. That inspired, William Shakespeare to write, The Tempest in the process.
4. Seychelles:
Lined with dense thickets of palm trees, including six species only found here! The beaches of this Indian Ocean archipelago are impossibly scenic. On some islands in the chain, you’ll be sharing the space with the Aldabra giant tortoise. These species as impressively gargantuan as its cousins in the Galápagos.
Therefore, you might find yourself rubbing shoulders with the glitterati. The Clooneys, the Beckhams, and Prince William and Kate Middleton all honeymooned on the uber-exclusive North Island.
If you don’t have private island money. Then you should consider the stunning Anse Source d’Argent. Which requires a small access fee to enter through a former coconut and vanilla plantation.
It’s reportedly among the most photographed beaches in the world! So when you see the elephant like, granite boulders strewn about the sand, you’ll understand why.
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5. Anguilla:
With 33 beaches to choose among, from a 35 square mile island! You’re never far from a relaxing spot to dip your toes in the Caribbean. On this most northerly of the Leeward Islands, the trade winds serve dual purposes. As a natural air conditioner and as a delivery device, for the wafting aromas of grilled lobster and crayfish. Lovingly prepared, at the island’s many roadside barbecue stands.
Thanks to it’s powdery white sand. Buzzing Shoal Bay East, is the island’s most popular beach. That string of rum-punch-slinging bars, even attract day trippers from the neighboring of, St. Martin.
6. Boracay, Philippines:
At less than four square miles, this compact Philippine island grew up fast. Transforming from under the radar to a overtouristed place, in the span of a few rocky decades. However, it was temporarily shut down in 2018 to allow for much-needed redevelopment and rehabilitation.
The island’s most famous beach, is the three mile White Beach. Where the sugary sands provide the perfect blank canvas, for viewing magical sunsets. And blue-sailed paraws (outrigger boats) that skim along the horizon. On Boracay’s eastern shores, steady winds make for some of the best kiteboarding and windsurfing conditions in the region.
7. Maldives:
Don’t come to the Maldives expecting expansive stretches of sand. The Indian Ocean nation is made up of some 1,200 pocket-sized coral islands! With the largest being only about three square miles. The beaches are appropriately intimate. However it’s their exclusivity, that keeps you coming back. Discover three Maldivian spots showing up on our, best resorts in the world list this year.
Because you’ll rarely have to jostle for a lounge chair while on land. One of the best ways to choose the Maldivian beach, that’s right for you is to consider the crowds. You’ll encounter under the sea. The Baa Atoll is considered the largest manta-ray gathering place in the world. While whales and sharks tend to congregate, in the South Ari Atoll.
So if you like your marine life considerably smaller. Then the microscopic Lingulodinium polyedrum species of plankton, puts on a dazzling bioluminescent display. Known as the “sea of stars,” off Vaadhoo Island in the Raa Atoll.
8. Bora Bora, French:
Polynesia, It’s not hard to see, why honeymooners flock to this destination, of French Polynesia. An extinct volcano ringed by turquoise lagoons, overwater bungalows, and a string of flat, sandy islets known as motus. Many of the beaches here are private, the personal fiefdoms of international luxury resort brands. The Conrad Bora Bora Nui, owns Motu Tapu, which was once the private beach of 19th-century Tahitian queen Pomare IV.
As luck would have it, one of the island’s few public beaches also happens to rank among its finest. Furthermore the waters around Matira Beach. Are as warm and calm, as an infinity pool. You can walk, all the way out to the surrounding reef, to easily snorkel among confetti colored fish and stingrays.
9. Palawan, Philippines:
This place is protected as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Also discover your third favorite islands in Asia. Doesn’t skimp on the geological drama, from its karst limestone cliffs to its subterranean river.
Offshore, its trapped in time. The beaches here gives you the option to discover, an underwater landscape! Of seagrass meadows and coral reefs, which are home to sea turtles, dolphins, manatee-like dugongs, and endangered giant clams.
Certainly you’ll find, some of the most gorgeous and unspoiled beaches, along the island’s. Northern tip to El Nido, which takes its name from the Spanish words for “the nest”. A reference to the swiftlets who build their (edible) nests on the cliff faces. And it’s also the perfect gateway for island-hopping among the lush and mostly uninhabited islets of the Bacuit Bay archipelago.
10. Aruba:
For first-time visitors, to this Dutch Caribbean island. It would be easy to never step foot off the two-mile strip of Palm Beach. With it’s high-rise hotels and access to watersports. From parasailing to kite-surfing to flyboarding aka zooming above the surface of the water on a water-propelled jetpack. But look elsewhere on this nearly 70-square-mile island and you’ll find beaches that show off its surprising diversity of landscapes.
Eagle Beach, is home to gnarled footie trees that twist and bend like bonsais due to the trade winds. While rugged Blackstone Beach is covered in smooth black pebbles in the shadow of natural land bridges.
Differently, it’s hard to beat the Instagram friendliness of the Renaissance Wind Creek Aruba Resort’s private beach. However you can get a day pass! Where its possible, to hand feed the lock of flamingos. Who strut among the lounge chairs and palapas like they own the place.
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