Beach Type
Wide sweeping bays with gentle waves and panoramic ocean views
What are bay beaches?
Bay beaches curve along natural indentations in the coastline, creating wide stretches of sand with gentle, sheltered waves. Their crescent shape often provides beautiful panoramic views and calmer swimming conditions than exposed beaches.
11 beaches found
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.
Camusdarach Beach is the curving white shell-sand crescent near Morar where the 1983 film Local Hero was shot, a five-minute dune walk from a small B8008 car park that goes pay-and-display in 2026, with views to Eigg and Rum and no facilities at all.
Cavtat's beaches are pebble, not sand, but the water is some of the clearest near Dubrovnik. Rat for the scene, Zal for families, plus the bus 10, the ferry and the best time to swim.
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 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 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.
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.
Wharton Beach near Esperance jumped to the world's 3rd-best beach for 2026, a free, facility-light 4.5km arc of white sand an hour east of town with sealed-road parking, optional 4WD beach driving, no kangaroos and no park fee to reach the turquoise water.
