Kaanapali Beach, Big Beach at Makena, and Charlie Young Beach all on Maui.
Castaway Cay on the Disney Cruise is very good too.
The north side of Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands. The water is incredibly warm and clear. And ooh, look at all the pretty fishies!
Another vote for Island Beach State Park in Joisey.
On the left coast – Coal Oil Point, north of Isla Vista, CA.
Regular hangout: Sandbank beach, St. Kitts.
It’s vey shallowly sloped, so you can wade a good way out, and there are no rocks or sea urchins so it’s good for swimming. There are small waves for body surfing. It’s on the atlantic rather than caribbean side of the island, which normally isn’t recommeded for swimming, but there’s a fairly large reef far out that provides some shelter. Although two people were killed there recently, so I suppose it’s not all that safe. The beach is generally deserted, but occasionally there’ll be a few people (like me) having a barbecue.
Favorite beach: An unnamed one on Lizard Island, Queensland.
Lizard is a tiny set of islands surrounded by fringing reefs. Population: 0, except for occasional folks camping and a few rich folks in the tiny resort. It’s got powdery white coral sand, and the between the islets there’s the blue lagoon, which the beach in question overlooks. It really should be called the turquoise lagoon. It’s gorgeous, with crystal clear water, and filled with wonderful marine life; it’s a snorkeller’s paradise. The beach also has some greatl rock formations.
Honorable mention should go to many of the beaches in Kauai, and Devil’s Bay (adjacent to the Baths on Virgin Gorda) with its fantastic granite house-sized boulders. But it’s only good in the early morning before the truckloads of noisy tourists show up.
Winnie,
I’ve been looking for a lovely place to take my husband and I saw your picture of Megan’s Bay in USVI. Beautiful! And then I saw the two dead guys in the picture and thought maybe it was too violent for us…
All of the Outer Banks!
Nobody said it had to be an exotic locale or ocean beaches. My favorite beach is at Lake Tahoe…
Sand Harbor…lots of sand, clear, cold clear water and mountains all around.
My vote for best beach: There’s this green sand beach we used to go to all the time as a kid on the Big Island of Hawaii. Yup, green. Although it also had black mixed in but it looked dark green. It was made from ground up opaline. The sand was the perfect consistancy and looked very neat caked on your arms, legs and torso after running out the of the water and rolling around in it. The water was so warm. If you wanted to sun, dig, swim or just snorkle it was a great place.
Lanikai is the most beautiful though. It’s thin but just absolutely gorgeous. Someday I’ll swim on out to the Mokuluas. Although I don’t go there often. The place I most visit is Waikiki. Which is a good beach too. Lots of things to see there. While sitting on the beach you can watch girls, surfers, canoes, boats out at sea, the sunset, hula shows, live music and movies. Lilo & Stitch is going to play soon.
Actually the green sand beach wasn’t my favorite beach as a kid. Harry K. Brown beach park was but it’s gone. Buried under 15 feet of lava. Weird to think the place you learned to swim is gone.