Best of · beaches & coasts
The 13 Most Beautiful Beaches & Coastlines in the World
13 places · every one real, mapped, and worth the trip
A coastline is where two worlds meet, and the most beautiful stretches turn that meeting into theatre — limestone towers over turquoise water, black volcanic sand under basalt columns, or cliffs that fall a hundred metres straight into the sea. This is our editors' pick, loosely ordered by the strength of the spectacle.
Every one is a real, mapped place with an honest guide to reaching it and the best season to go — because the same shore can be a paradise or a wind-lashed grey line depending on the month.
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Railay Limestone lagoons
Krabi Province, southern Thailand
A Thai peninsula cut off by karst cliffs and reachable only by boat, where white-sand beaches sit beneath dramatic limestone towers strung with climbers.
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Reynisfjara Black volcanic sand
Near Vík í Mýrdal, South Iceland
Iceland's famous black-sand beach, backed by hexagonal basalt columns and sea stacks, with powerful 'sneaker' waves that demand real respect.
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Balabac Islands Untouched sandbars
Balabac, southern Palawan
A remote cluster of islands at the southern tip of Palawan with blindingly white sandbars, turquoise shallows, and a fraction of the crowds.
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Ölüdeniz The Blue Lagoon
Fethiye, Muğla Province, southwest Turkey
Turkey's iconic sheltered lagoon of impossibly clear turquoise water, framed by pine-clad mountains — and one of the world's best paragliding launches above it.
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The Calanques
Between Marseille and Cassis, Provence, France
A string of hidden white-limestone inlets between Marseille and Cassis, their turquoise coves reached only on foot or by boat.
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Tayrona National Park
Magdalena, Caribbean coast, Colombia
Where the Colombian jungle meets the Caribbean — golden coves and boulder-strewn beaches backed by rainforest and the odd hidden ruin.
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Kalanggaman Island
Palompon, Leyte, Eastern Visayas
A sliver of an island in the Philippines famous for its long, curving white sandbar reaching out into clear blue water — a day-trip paradise.
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The Jurassic Coast
Dorset and East Devon, South West England, United Kingdom
England's fossil-rich coastline of layered cliffs, natural rock arches, and shingle beaches spanning millions of years of Earth's history.
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Skeleton Coast
Northwestern Namibia
Namibia's hauntingly beautiful desert shore where towering dunes meet the cold Atlantic fog, littered with shipwrecks and seal colonies.
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Cape of Good Hope
Cape Peninsula, Western Cape, South Africa
The wild, wind-scoured tip of the Cape Peninsula, where sheer cliffs, fynbos, and crashing surf mark the meeting of two great oceans' currents.
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Great Santa Cruz Island
Zamboanga City, Zamboanga Peninsula, Mindanao
A rare pink-sand beach near Zamboanga in the Philippines, tinted by crushed red coral washed up along the shore.
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Bay of Fundy
New Brunswick & Nova Scotia, Canada
Home to the highest tides on Earth, this Canadian bay drains and refills so dramatically you can walk the sea floor at low water beneath sculpted rock.
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Whitehaven Beach
Whitsunday Island, Queensland, Australia
Seven kilometres of near-pure white silica sand on an uninhabited Whitsunday island, where the tide swirls sand and turquoise shallows into shifting patterns at Hill Inlet.
Coasts are ruled by season and tide: tropical beaches are clearest in the dry months, northern shores are kindest in summer, and some — like the Bay of Fundy — change completely with the tide. Each guide notes the best window and how to reach the shore safely.
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