Beaches for
Quiet, uncrowded beaches made for soaking up the sun.
About sunbathing
Quiet, uncrowded beaches made for soaking up the sun.
37 beaches found
The Blue Flag central Limassol city beach with offshore breakwaters that keep the sea calm, Seatrac wheelchair-accessible water entry, and full amenities including a children's playground, shaded benches, and lifeguard service April through October.
The Kauai east-shore family beach on Hawaiian Home Lands, where locals walk from the homestead community to a half-mile bay protected by an offshore reef. Calm at the east end, dangerous at the river mouth, and quiet on most weekday mornings.
Arguably the most photographed beach on earth, where colossal granite boulders frame ribbons of white sand and shallow, reef-protected water on the island of La Digue.
The unorganised pebble-and-sand beach 27 kilometres north of Preveza on Greece's Ionian coast, with clear water, no loungers, no bars, and a GPS-routing quirk that sends some drivers up a mountain road instead of the easy coastal one.
A verdict-led guide to Boracay's White Beach: how Stations 1, 2 and 3 differ, the roughly P500 entry fees and free eTravel plus optional iPass QR at Caticlan, the Feb-May green algae months to dodge, swimming, Willy's Rock and the paraw sunset sail.
The 800-metre village beach at the heart of Cala Gonone on Sardinia's east coast, with calm shallow water for kids, easy access from the port, and the boat launches that take visitors out to the rest of the Gulf of Orosei's famous cliff-and-cove beaches.
One of the most visually dramatic urban beaches on the planet, Camps Bay sits beneath the Twelve Apostles mountain range in Cape Town. Big sunsets, buzzing restaurant strip, and ice-cold Atlantic water that almost nobody actually swims in.
Florida's most famous Gulf Coast beach, with powdery white sand and calm turquoise water, though the crowds and high-rise towers tell the full story.
Harlech Beach is a four-mile sweep of golden sand and growing dunes in Eryri, under a UNESCO castle with the Snowdonia mountains behind. Wild, often empty, no lifeguards. What to expect, how to get there and when to go.
Hayle Beach is the town-end of a three-mile sand-and-dune sweep along St Ives Bay, where the right move depends on which Towans you pick, where you park (Harveys from about £1.20/hr, Gwithian £3/hr), the dog rules by season, and the estuary current you keep clear of.
The West Maui beach most travel articles still call Airport Beach, named for the small Kaanapali airstrip that closed in 1986. Free parking, a reef off the sand, sea turtles in the lagoon, and underwater humpback whale song from December through March. Easier than Kaanapali next door.
The Kauai North Shore bay where the Kalihiwai River meets the ocean. A crescent of gold sand backed by ironwood trees, a calm summer swim, an expert winter surf break, a kayakable river running inland, and almost no facilities. The North Shore's quietest accessible beach.
The Marjan peninsula pebble beach 20 minutes from Split's Old Town, with the cleanest water in central Split, pine-tree shade, a trendy beach club at one end, and the parking lot fills by 10am problem that Bolt rides from the Old Town solve.
The Kauai beach where Highway 56 runs out, the Na Pali coast begins, and the reef-protected lagoon turns into a swimming pool in summer. The reservation is real, the construction in 2026 is bigger than most guides admit, and the snorkeling window is narrower than it looks.
The reddish-sand beach two minutes south of Hana on Maui's east shore, with cone-shaped Alau Island offshore and the Ka Iwi o Pele cinder hill behind. Photograph it. Picnic on it. Do not swim in it.
Albania's answer to the Greek islands, Ksamil offers turquoise water, tiny swim-to islands, and white sand beaches at a fraction of Mediterranean prices. Located near Butrint National Park in southern Albania.
The white-sand crescent in Kekaha Kai State Park north of Kailua-Kona, with calm turquoise water in summer, dramatic lava rock cliffs at both ends, and the new 2026 non-resident fees that older travel guides do not mention.
Bali's most famous beach strip is loud, crowded, and unapologetically touristy, but the sunsets are world-class, the beginner surf breaks are forgiving, and the food and nightlife scene runs deep.
The white-sand public beach in Badian, southwestern Cebu, 30 minutes from Kawasan Falls and a quieter alternative to busy Moalboal. Clear water, a coral garden offshore, no big resorts, and the kind of slow Cebu pace that most travel sites pretend Moalboal still has.
Margate Main Sands is a broad, family-friendly town beach at the heart of Kent's coolest seaside town, 90 minutes from London by high-speed train. The tides, the swimming, Turner Contemporary and Dreamland, plus the quieter bays nearby.
The Kauai north-east shore half-moon bay where Gilligan's Island was filmed in 1963 and almost nobody has been since. Treacherous currents in the centre, calm at the ends, no lifeguard, no facilities, and limited parking on a residential road. Quiet on purpose.
The iconic Navagio Shipwreck Beach on Zakynthos, Greece, where a rusting smuggler ship sits on white sand surrounded by towering limestone cliffs and impossibly blue water.
The Methodist camp meeting town on the Jersey Shore, still owned by the OGCMA, and the first summer in the beach's modern history that the sand opens on Sunday mornings. Victorian cottages, tent city, rock groins, a dry-town ordinance, and the 2025 order that changed everything.
The South Maui white-sand beach hidden behind a kiawe-tree screen between Wailea Beach and Polo Beach. Locally called White Rock for the lava rocks that frame it. Calm morning swim, decent snorkel on the rock points, no parking lot, no facilities, no lifeguard.
Pico de Loro Cove is a gated resort beach in Nasugbu, Batangas with no walk-ins, so this review nails the 2026 guest fee (from around PHP 1,000 per adult), exactly how non-members get past the gate, the 2.5-3 hour drive from Manila, and whether the calm marine-reserve cove is actually worth it.
The Blue Flag wide-sand beach 15 minutes from Ostuni's white-washed old town, with high dunes covered in centuries-old Mediterranean junipers, shallow water for kids, and protected status as part of the Parco delle Dune Costiere regional reserve.
The 1.5-kilometre Blue Flag beach midway between Limassol and Paphos, with the white cliffs of Cape Aspro on either end and a sand-and-pebble shore that holds up against everything either bigger town puts forward. Clear water, year-round lifeguards in season, family-friendly swim, and no resort dominance.
Puka Beach is Boracay's raw, quiet north-coast beach: coarser white sand, the shells it's named for, and some of the island's clearest water, with almost none of White Beach's crowds. What it's really like, how to get there, and whether to swim.
The Princeville beach 191 steps below the bluff that fronts the resort everyone now calls 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay. Reef-protected swim in summer, dangerous in winter, no lifeguard, no facilities, no roadside parking. The view across to Hanalei is the reason to make the climb.
The Kauai west-shore family beach named for the active Hawaiian salt-making ponds beside it. A reef-protected crescent that swims like a pool, lifeguards on duty, and one of the few beaches in the state where Hawaiian sea salt is still harvested by hand.
The Kauai south-shore beach with the 40-foot cliff Harrison Ford jumped off in Six Days Seven Nights. The cliff is the photo, not the activity. The real reason to come is the Maha'ulepu Heritage Trail that starts behind the sand.
Southport Beach has one of England's most dramatic tides, with the sea over a kilometre out at low water. Why it's like that, the safety reality, the pier and Lord Street, and where to actually swim nearby.
The 1.5-kilometre east-coast Rhodes beach below the Tsambika monastery, with shallow water that extends 30 metres from shore (the best family swim on the island), full amenities, and a 300-step pilgrimage climb to the mountaintop monastery for sweeping Aegean views.
St Pete Beach's erosion-prone north end, defined by four rock T-groins and the $125M county renourishment that wrapped in March 2026 after Helene and Milton flattened the dune line. What actually opened, what is wider, and what to expect in April 2026.
The east Crete Blue Flag beach in Istron with fine golden sand, shallow turquoise water, and the half-moon shape that makes it the consistent family pick for visitors based in Agios Nikolaos. Locally called Golden Beach for the soft sand that almost no other Crete coast section delivers.
The Blue Flag 3-kilometre sand-and-pebble beach an hour east of Thessaloniki, where Macedonia's mainland coast meets the Aegean. Shallow water for kids, organised loungers and beach cafes, and a quiet resort-town pace that day-trippers from Thessaloniki use as the city's nearest swim.
The Kauai west-shore beach where Captain Cook first stepped foot on the Hawaiian Islands in 1778. Black sand from the red-dirt river runoff, a historic state pier, plantation cottages behind the dunes, and a swim that almost nobody does because the water is genuinely too murky to enjoy.
