Best Beaches in the World

Wet Seasons | EU water quality '07 | Jellyfish

Dangerous Rips | Sunbathing | Mosquitoes

Criteria for best beaches choice: weather, water, sand, facilities, access, people. Not included: shopping or hotel quality!

Detailed information and pictures of the world's best beaches:

Beach pictures:

To check the best months on the world's beaches:

Caribbean Tours

Wet seasons, particularly in the tropics: cheaper yes, but they do stuff beach holidays up!

Many tour operators and even guide books are pretty casual about recommending best beaches in any season, reasoning that during the rainy season it only pours down for a short time.
This is true, but unfortunately there are other side effects to wet season weather that can change a great beach holiday into a dismal waste of time and money. [The Bugcrew have recent personal experience of the right South Pacific at the wrong time - not our fault!]. e.g.
- High winds can make seas choppy, inter-island travel and fishing trips unpleasant, snorkelling waters murky with drifting sand and windsurfing or sailing impractical for all except pros. Even swimming becomes an exercise in battling muddy blue waves rather than floating tranquilly in clear turquoise waters. Furthermore, flotsam, jetsam and seaweed blown onto shores makes even the best beaches look grubby and unattractive.
- Constant clouds ruin the sunny seaside ambience, sunbathing possibilities shrink and photos look dull and dreary.
- High humidity creates an uncomfortably damp environment in rooms that are not well air-conditioned.
- Stagnant pools of water create the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes, though high winds will prevent them from flying.
- Not often but occasionally it will rain for several days at a time, and then your beach paradise is really down the tubes and your bed, book or a bar are the only solution.
So, the moral is to check the best/worst seasons before you book your expensive trip and pay attention to the information!
Whether you buy the guide book first, see the Best Beaches calendar to the right or visit the Bug's Destination Finder, don't risk the rainy season unless you have no choice!

EU beach water tests for bacterial pollution:
- especially Streptococcus and Enterococcus, usually caused by sewage or decaying matter, June 2007:
The best water hit the beaches of Cyprus and Greece, with Spain 3rd, Italy 4th, Portugal 7th, Britain 13th, France 14th.
The worst beach water quality was found in Poland and Belgium though French sand is surprisingly washed by a lot of dirty seas.
In some cases - such as UK - the Environment Agency blames unseasonal rainfall washing farming residue into rivers and down to beaches.
Inland beaches: the best freshwater bathing sites tested by the EU were in Denmark, Estonia, Germany and Austria. Britain's, including Hampstead Heath ponds were very poor.

EU beaches that failed water quality tests:
Greece - NONE.
England: Blackpool central; Newhaven, Staithes.
Scotland - NONE.
Ireland: Dublin, Galway, Dunmore east.
Cyprus: Paphos.
Italy: Crosia, Battipaglia, Ortona, Pomezia, Anzio, Bellaria-igea Marina, Fano, Piombino, Vincenzo, La Spezia, Santo Stefano al Mare, Rapalio, Rumaro, Chioggia.
France Atlantic coast: Lampaul, Combrit, Locquirec, Porspoder, Douarnenez, Moelan-sur-Mer,Telgruc-sur-Mer, Arzon, Carnac, Ploulech, Quiberon, Erdeven, Erquy, St Michel en Greve, Plerin, Frehel, Sarzeau, La Trinite sur Mer, Plouha, Trelevern, Treveneuc, La Pointe d'Agon, Agon-Coutainville, Bernieres, Ouistreham, Dieppe, Piriac sur Mer, Prefailles, La Plaine sur Mer, Mesquer, La Rochelle, La Tremblade, Sainte-Marie-de-Re, Port-des-Barques.
French Mediterranean coast: Carry-le-Rouet, Marseilles, Saint-Chamas, Grimaud, La Seyne-sur-Mer, Toulon, Antibes, Saint Laurent-du-Var.
Corsica island [France]: Ajaccio, Aleria, Calvi, Porto-Vecchio, Saint Florent.
Portugal: Caminha, Albufeira, Lagos, Vila Nova, Odemira.
Spain Atlantic: Carreño, Suances, Motrico, Orio, Sukarrieta.
Spain Mediterranean: Salobreña, Motril, Linea de la Concepcion, San Roque.
Spanish Island [Balearics]: Sant Antoni de Portmany, Port de Pollenca, Es Castell.

Dangerous sea currents, aka rips:

In October '07 three parents drowned in a whirlpool off Tonel beach on Portugal's Atlantic coast.
Whirlpools are an extreme example of dangerous currents but fundamentally need to be handled in the same way as any undertow - also known as a rip; they rarely drag people down, only around and around.

Monster waves are clearly visible but powerful rips that cycle water back to the ocean are equally dangerous, can easily take swimmers out with them and are invisible to the inexperienced eye. Resistance is futile.
Parents should exercise caution on unfamiliar beaches. Beaches that are monitored by life guards around the world generally flag safe areas to swim - which may be narrow and crowded - as opposed to surf zones which can seem attractively uncrowded but conceal dangerous rips. Most surfers are strong swimmers, know how to handle rips, and of course have a board to hang on to, so don't think you can share their space.

What to do if caught in a rip: DO NOT PANIC. Desperate and exhausting thrashing is the killer as rips don't usually drag swimmers under, even the whirlpool version, just away from the beach. If you fight the current you will tire rapidly and may lose the ability to keep your head up.
Rips do not flow indefinitely, they lose power within 5-40 metres though this may seem a long way when you're trapped there, but just go with the flow. When the drag loosens, swim a few metres parallel to the beach i.e. away from the rip and then a safe return is possible.
Alternatively, calmly wave a hand and call for help, perhaps from a surfer.

Blobby life forms off the world's beaches:

Mediterranean Jellyfish: In summer 2006 much of the Mediterranean - from Spain's Costa del Sol thru France's south coast and down Italy as far as Sicily - suffered from jellyfish invasion, specifically the mauve stinger or Pelagia noctiluca [so called because they glow at night]. The stings are painful and unpleasant but not generally life-threatening, unless a swimmer has a weak heart, a sever allergic reaction or panics on encountering a shoal of blobbies and drowns...
The cause of the stinger explosion is the usual suspect - global warming boosting water temperatures by a couple of degrees as well as increased pollution-derived nutrients and reduced cool freshwater entering from rivers. However, overfishing of anchovies [which compete with jellies for plankton salad], turtles and tuna fish [which eat jellies for dessert] has also aided the mauve climate avenger's expansionist tendencies.
What was done in 2007?
Spain organised fleets of volunteer blob-spotters and scooper boats to take the flabby boogers far out to sea [environmentalists don't want them eradicated] while France set up 2 metre deep stinger nets off major resorts.
Italian authorities took no action.
Jellies in 2007?
No Mediterranean problem for whatever reason.

Seriously dangerous Jellyfish - beware especially in tropical waters around north Australia, PNG, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Get a stinger suit if you have a weak heart:
Box Jelly - this square-headed creature the size of a basket ball with three metre tentacles, can kill in a couple of minutes and is responsible for at least one death a year around Australia.
The Box Jellyfish is mostly a problem from November - May.
Irukandji - also found as above and around the Great Barrier Reef, but sea currents easily move it to the shore. It is extremely painful but not generally deadly, though has killed people with weak hearts.
Irukandji is so small - the size of a peanut, and shaped like a bell - that it can and does get through Australian stinger barriers around popular beaches. It's mostly a problem from December - February.
Portuguese Man-of-War [ blue-bottle in Australia] - it's a blue, wind blown critter which travels the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans and may be blown inshore. It's painful but not usually life-threatening.

Australia's Stingers get zapped:
Getting wacked by a jellies off popular NE coast resorts of Cairns and Airlie beach is a dying custom as both towns have constructed such spectacular, user-friendly, free salt water lagoons on the shore that no longer does one feel the need to brave the muddy waters of the sea.
Brisbane also has a terrific lagoon on a city river bank.

Avoiding Jellyfish Stings:
Take special precautions if you have a heart condition as Jellyfish deaths are normally attributed to cardiac arrest or pulmonary congestion.
Avoid swimming off northern Australia's beaches in the Oct-May high-jelly season, especially in the seas north of Brisbane in Northern Australia, but also around India, Indonesia and the Philippines. Wetsuits or Lycra 'stinger suits ' offer good though not complete protection.
Dead jellyfish on beaches may look like gelatinous blobs, but while there is still moisture there can be life in the cells and you may be stung. Don't tread on them and don't pick them up.
See Bugbog's Jellyfish_stings page for full details.

Sunbathing on the Best Beaches in the World?

Try not to lie in the sun in the middle of the day while on a beach holiday. This may not only win you a prize in the melanoma lottery, but will give you wrinkles and sagging skin at an early age and add an unpleasant red highlight to your tan; in fact it may burn the tan off altogether.
You will brown up more smoothly and enduringly if you hit the sun before 11am and after 3pm. And you may live longer too.
In addition, be careful when swimming, snorkelling [wear a T shirt and put waterproof sunblock on other exposed areas, especially the backs of your legs, back of the neck and balding heads], motorcycling and getting wrecked on the beach.
Force yourself to drink water, lots of it, if you want to avoid headaches and lethargy from dehydration.
Water requirements generally are six glasses per day, so multiply that by at least three for baking beaches or other toasty environments.

Facts:
Most at risk are fair haired/skinned folk or those with a lot of freckles or moles, but everyone - including those with dark skin - can get skin cancer from the sun.
The UK has 75,000 new cases of skin cancer every year, Australia 380,000 [the highest in the world] but the UK sees more melanoma deaths as British are less experienced at recognising symptoms and leave things too late. Catch a melanoma early and it can be removed.

Here's the ABCDE of danger moles:
Asymetry - two halves have a different shape.
Border - the edges are irregular.
Colour - different shades or colours.
Diameters - most melanomas are at least 6mm in diameter. Watch for changing size or shape.
Expert - if in doubt check with a doctor, preferably a dermatologist.

More hazards on and around the world's beaches: Mosquitoes | Shark Attacks | Blue-Ringed Octopus