Every beach, measured the same way.
Sand, water entry, swimmability, surf, snorkelling, crowds. The same six readings on every listing, so two beaches on opposite sides of the world can be compared without reading two thousand words about either.
Where Lily Mae has actually been, she adds a verdict on top. It is marked in magenta, it is labelled, and it never touches the listing data underneath. How this works.
- 2
- Beaches
- 0
- Stays
- 1
- She has visited
Destinations
- Bahamas
Seven hundred islands strung across a very large shallow bank, which is what gives the water its colour — much of it is only a few metres deep for miles, and that is why it reads turquoise from the air. Nassau and Paradise Island are the developed end. The Out Islands, particularly the Exumas, Eleuthera and the Abacos, are where the empty sand is.
0 regions · 0 beaches
- Bali
One island, and a small one, but it behaves like several places at once. The south — Seminyak, Canggu, Uluwatu — is dense, built up and where the surf is. The east and north-east are quieter and rockier, with black volcanic sand rather than white. The Gili islands and Nusa Penida, both a short boat away, are where most people actually find the water they came for.
0 regions · 0 beaches
- Bora Bora
One extinct volcano, one barrier reef, and a lagoon between them that is the reason the whole thing is famous. The main island is small and steep and does not have much sand of its own; almost every beach worth the name is on a motu, one of the low sand islets on the reef ring, and that is where the resorts are.
0 regions · 0 beaches
- Fiji
Three hundred islands, of which about a third are inhabited, spread over a big area. Most visitors never see the main island beyond the airport road: the Mamanucas and Yasawas, a boat or short flight west, are where the postcard beaches are. The Coral Coast on Viti Levu is the mainland alternative and cheaper for it.
0 regions · 0 beaches
- French Polynesia
A hundred and eighteen islands across five archipelagos and an area of ocean the size of Europe. The Society Islands — Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, Huahine — hold nearly all the tourism. The Tuamotus are flat coral atolls with the diving. The Marquesas have no reef at all and look like nowhere else in the Pacific.
0 regions · 0 beaches
- Hawaii
Six islands open to visitors, each with a different shape of coastline. Volcanic geology gives Hawaii the widest range of sand in the directory — white, golden, black and, on two beaches, green — and the north and south shores of the same island can be unswimmable and glassy on the same afternoon. Which side you are on matters more than which island you chose.
1 regions · 2 beaches
- Maldives
Around 1,200 islands in 26 atolls, of which roughly 190 are inhabited and 160-odd are resorts. The decision that shapes a trip here is not which beach but which island, because on a resort island you get the one beach and the one reef for the whole stay. Guesthouse islands are the cheaper counter-argument and have public beaches with dress codes.
16 regions · 0 beaches
- Mauritius
A single volcanic island ringed almost entirely by reef, which is why the water inside the lagoon is flat nearly everywhere. The north around Grand Baie is the busy end, the west has the sunsets and the dolphins, the east is windier and quieter, and the south is the wild coast where the reef breaks and the cliffs start.
0 regions · 0 beaches
- Seychelles
A hundred and fifteen islands, and the granitic inner ones are the reason to come: Mahé, Praslin and La Digue have boulder formations on the sand that exist almost nowhere else and are the most photographed beaches on earth for a reason. Anse Source d'Argent and Anse Lazio are the names, and both deserve it.
0 regions · 0 beaches
- Tahiti
The largest island in French Polynesia and the one everybody flies into, which is also why most people leave it within a day. That is a mistake made on bad information: Tahiti Iti, the smaller lobe in the south-east, has black sand beaches, the Teahupo'o reef break, and almost no visitors.
0 regions · 0 beaches
- Thailand
Two coasts with opposite weather, which is the thing to understand before booking. The Andaman side — Phuket, Krabi, the Phi Phi and Similan islands — runs on the north-east monsoon and is at its best November to April. The Gulf side, Koh Samui and Koh Phangan, is roughly the inverse, driest June to September. Picking the wrong coast for your dates is the single most common mistake here.
0 regions · 0 beaches