Top 30 Seaside Holiday Destinations

Here are the Top 30 adventure islands of the world, perfect for seaside holidays.The best places to stay by the sea while enjoy the natural beauty plus sun, sand and greenery.

Andaman Islands
Beach No. 7, Havelock Island
This nearly untouched, mile-plus sugar-white crescent, backed by the kind of hardwood forest you pray that makers of lawn furniture never hear about, is known simply by a number — proof that marketing people haven’t discovered the Andamans yet. Wow Factor: Divers — at least the romantically inclined ones — say the water lapping it has all the greens and blues of a December birthstone. 

Fair Warning: Havelock is two hours by boat from the islands’ capital, Port Blair. 

Brazil
Baia do Sancho, Fernando de Noronha
Turquoise seas rolling into a secret cove of golden sand make this perhaps the most visually stunning beach in South America. Wow Factor: The reward is a heaven of sand with no hotels, bars, or peddlers. 

Hint: Fly from Recife or Natal to Fernando de Noronha.

Greece
Shipwreck Beach, Zakynthos
An Ionian Sea beach that would be worth the trip even without the centerpiece rusting hulk of a smuggling vessel embedded in the sand — the result of a pirate raid that went wrong. Wow Factor: Scooped out of a vertical wall of white rock, this is an idyllic and isolated beach. 

United States
Cumberland Island, Georgia

For nearly a century, members of the Carnegie family owned most of Georgia’s largest sea island. The National Park System has since become an equally protective steward. Wow Factor: Animals far outnumber people (cimuseum.org lists fauna), with only 300 visitors allowed per day — about 18 per mile of beach. 

Brazil
Lopes Mendes, Ilha Grande

Ilha Grande is just one of the 350-plus islands off Angra dos Reis, south of Rio. Wow Factor: Its 22 beaches of soft white sand, however, make it the most alluring. And Lopes Mendes, with almost every one of its elements in just the right proportion, is the finest of the 22. 

Fair Warning: It can get crowded from December through February.

Antigua and Barbuda
Palmetto Point Beach, Barbuda
The breathtaking seven-mile southwestern beach is totally unspoiled, possibly because this is one of the less charming Caribbean islands. Wow Factor: Barbuda’s abundant shell-pink sands are one of its main exports.  

Hint: Bring amusements — there’s nothing to do.

Seychelles
Anse Victorin, Fregate Island  

Some of the few who have actually gotten to it consider this among the world’s perfect beaches. Wow Factor: Soft sand; clear, tranquil water; a backdrop of palms and cliff; and a crescent beach 230 steps from end to end — a paradise which is all that, and often yours alone.
Fair Warning: The resort’s tariff, as much as Fregate’s remoteness, keeps away all but the most determined sybarites. 

Australia
Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef 
More than 20 beaches of all shapes and sizes ring this quietly luxurious 40-unit single-resort island of great charm, 18 miles off Queensland’s coast. Wow Factor: All guests get motorized dinghies so they can search for their favorite beach or reef.
Fair Warning: Getting here is expensive: $330 round-trip from Cairns.

Whitehaven, Whitsunday Isles   

A perfect six-mile crescent of acacia forest protects a curve of wedding-white sand, forming perhaps the best beach in Australia — high praise, indeed. Wow Factor: Strictly enforced national park rules allow only limited visits and no overnighting on land, so solitude is ensured.

Fair Warning: A thin wet suit, or “stinger suit,” is advised if you plan to swim from October through May: Local Irukandji jellyfish are transparent and dangerous. 

Bahamas
Pink Sands, Harbour Island
Whoever named this beautiful beach did not lie — the sand is pale pink. Better yet, it’s virtually deserted. Wow Factor: Harbour Island itself is only four miles long, and the entire east coast is beach. A few palapas dot the sand in front of the few hotels, but otherwise this beach has nothing — no bars, no plastic chaise longues, no people hawking necklaces. 

Cook Islands

One Foot Island, Aitutaki 

This tiny uninhabited mote is one of the most photographed islets in the South Pacific, no doubt because it is everybody’s idea of what their island would look like if they were Robinson Crusoe — white sand, bending palm trees, azure water. Wow Factor: The wide lagoon is so shallow you can walk to the next island at low tide. 

Fair Warning: Too many day-trippers. 

Fiji
Vatulele Island
From the moment you step barefoot out of the seaplane and wade ashore, you have no desire to wear shoes again until someone makes you get back on the plane — the half-mile stretch of sand is that soft. Wow Factor: With the resort’s sunset-facing bures strung along the beach, there’s just one reason to wander away from the tide line: the excellent wine list.
Bonus: Vatulele is a real Fijian island, with four villages and coconut and taro farming. 

Germany
Sylt, Schleswig-Holstein
This quaint island resort has no fewer than 20 miles of sand dunes and its very own style of beach furniture, a three-seater basket that serves both as a windbreak and a territorial marker. Wow Factor: Nudism is ubiquitous, particularly with the middle-aged liberal intelligentsia.
Fair Warning: The North Sea is predictably chilly at 54 degrees latitude, but the trade-off is long hours of summer sunshine. 

Indonesia
Nusa Dua, Bali
When the Indonesians were looking for an ideal stretch of sand on which to build an enclave of upscale beach hotels, they chose Nusa Dua, in the southern part of the island, not far from the airport. Wow Factor: The sand is white, the water is blue, and the hawkers remain notably absent. 

Italy
Lido, Venice
The ultimate in seaside swank. The Lido was made forever famous by Thomas Mann’s novella “Death in Venice” and Visconti’s lush movie of the story. There are two enormous public beaches at each end of the island. Wow Factor: In September, it hosts the prestigious Venice Film Festival, first held in 1932, where film stars arrive elegantly by boat or private plane. 

Jamaica
7-Mile Beach, Negril
There’s a reason — besides the glorious sunsets — that this seven-mile stretch on the west coast is a perennial favorite. Wow Factor: Just the right mix of white sand, tranquil water, and enough beach life to keep you from getting bored after the first few hours of bliss. One-Love Factor: Visitors most easily mix with locals at Alfred's, a beachy restaurant and bar with live reggae Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. 

Maldives
Cocoa Island   

It’s hard to go wrong in the Maldives, which has eighty-seven one-resort islands on its atolls, all with worthy beaches. Wow Factor: Tiny Cocoa Island is virtually all beach, all of it white sand, complemented by palms and a lagoon of tranquil sky-blue water.
Bonus: If that’s too much activity for you, they’ll drop you off on your own private beach, where you can remain blissfully isolated for as long as the sunscreen holds out.

Philippines
White Beach, Boracay This three-mile stretch of sand has the color and consistency of baby powder, and is one of the world’s classic beaches on which to mix with locals. Wow Factor: From one end to the other, there’s a frenzy of life: hotels, bars, dive operators, windsurfing schools, massage stations, hair braiders, and scam artists of every description.
Fair Warning: From Manila, you fly to Caticlan; from there, it’s a half-hour boat ride right onto the beach. Note, too, that the community has issues — overdevelopment, erosion, pollution. 

St. Vincent & The Grenadines
Petit St. Vincent
A two-mile-long idyllic beach almost completely encircles this islet near Union Island. Wow Factor: PSV has sand so cushy that guests risk sinking up to their piña coladas. 

Spain
Playa de las Salinas, Ibiza   

Every beach is a party beach on Ibiza, but this is the hippest. Wow Factor: A mile-long stretch of sand backed by pines, it’s where people who have the stamina to party all day after partying all night come to dance — and to pretend they don’t notice just how little some people can get away with wearing to the beach. Visitors with an interest in either should come in the summer or not at all. 

Tanzania
Bwejuu, Zanzibar
This 12-mile beach on the southeast coast is populated mostly by locals—fishermen wading to their boats, brightly dressed women husking coconuts or gathering seaweed, kids with dreams knocking around a deflated soccer ball. Wow Factor: Zanzibar is one of the most exotic of African islands, and Bwejuu is its wide and blindingly white beach. 

Thailand
Kamala Beach, Phuket
The western shores are thick with beaches, and many of those beaches are thick with commerce — food vendors, souvenir kiosks, girlie bars, and other distractions. It is possible to escape the commotion by retreating to an exclusive resort, but you risk missing the local color. Wow Factor: Kamala is the antidote. The beach itself is much like Phuket’s others, and mostly obscured under the regimented rows of chaise longues, but Kamala Bay’s main street is a convivial integration of seafood restaurants, shops, and bars that are notably tamer than nearby Patong’s strip. 

Tonga
Mounu Island, Vava‘u
A luxurious eco-resort — for real. Mounu Island utilizes solar power, and rainwater is filtered for drinking. Wow Factor: The white beach that fringes this 6.5-acre coral atoll always feels deserted, even when the sole resort is full, because Mounu has only four units and a communal fale (a traditional Tongan house) where gourmet meals are served every evening. Bonus: Turtles nest here in summer, and there are two boats for humpback whale–watching from July through November. 

Ocracoke Island, North Carolina

The horses that once ran wild on this low-lying barrier island are now fenced in. Wow Factor: Unlike the horses, a wide, wild, big-surf beach still runs virtually the entire length of this 16-mile-long stretch in the southernmost section of the 75-mile Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Hint: Arrive via the free ferry from Hatteras Island.

United States
South Beach, Florida
Rollerblades and prominent pecs are as essential as sunblock on the southern stretch of Miami Beach. Wow Factor: SoBe can be rowdy, but it is 23 blocks long, with plenty of quiet spots to plant an umbrella. 

Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii 

The “little collection of cottages under coconut trees” that Mark Twain admired has become the world’s most famous island beach, with more than 100 hotels along a two-mile shore. Wow Factor: There’s no such thing as boredom in Waikiki. The gentle surf invites haoles of an amusing range of skills to give it a try. Join them, or choose your vantage point at a beachside café or bar. The shops, restaurants, and parks of Honolulu are a block away.

Venezuela
Cayo de Agua, Los Roques Bring an umbrella and claim your own sandy realm in this sparsely populated archipelago of several hundred small islands — most, unlike Cayo de Agua, unnamed. Wow Factor: Los Roques has some of the most pristine beaches in the Caribbean. 

Gibson Beach, Sagaponack, New York
The reports of toplessness at Gibson Beach, titillating though they may be, are sadly exaggerated. Wow Factor: With no amenities of any kind, this wild swath of dunes, surf, and fabulously wealthy homes is one Hamptons beach that attracts more thongs than throngs.

Fair Warning: With minimal parking, bicycling is a preferred transport.

South Padre Island, Texas
No wonder this barrier-island strand is America’s number-one spring-break party beach. It’s plenty warm by March, and it’s legal to drink beer from a keg on the beach. Wow Factor: You don’t need a college degree to recognize that the water here is as clear as any on the Gulf Coast.

Like this Article ? Share it with friends or submit to your favorite sites Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc.