Fourteen Unusual Coastal Scenes: Beaches, a Lagoon and an Airport

A beach can be much more than a place to spread a towel. Sometimes the memorable feature is a line of weathered trees. Sometimes it is ice, an unexpected animal encounter or an aircraft arriving on the sand.

These fourteen coastal scenes are enjoyable for different reasons. Knowing what kind of place you are visiting helps you choose the right day—and appreciate more than the unusual photograph.

Exuma, Bahamas: the swimming pigs have a specific home

The well-known pig beach is associated with Big Major Cay in Exuma, not the city of Nassau. That distinction matters when comparing excursions: a tour’s starting point is not necessarily the location of the attraction.

Treat the visit as an animal encounter, with questions about handling, feeding and supervision. The pigs are not a reason to overlook the rest of the journey through the islands.

Our Exuma swimming pigs guide provides more context. Before booking, compare the full route and travel time so that the day matches the experience you have in mind.

Jökulsárlón and the nearby coast, Iceland: ice changes the scene

Jökulsárlón is a glacial lagoon. The nearby ocean shore commonly called Diamond Beach is a separate setting, where pieces of ice may appear against dark sand. Images of the two are often shared together, but they do not show one interchangeable swimming beach.

The amount, shape and position of visible ice vary. Build your visit around the landscape you find, rather than expecting a particular photograph to repeat itself.

Stay on permitted ground and well clear of moving water and unstable ice. For more of Iceland’s changing atmosphere, explore Iceland photographed in fog.

Driftwood Beach, Georgia: let the branches lead the walk

On Jekyll Island, the trees and exposed wood along Driftwood Beach give the shore a distinctive outline. The Jekyll Island Authority’s visitor page provides the location and access information.

This is a place where a short walk can produce very different compositions. Look at a single branch against the sky, then step back to see how several forms overlap.

Keep the beach as you find it. Photographing the shapes is a much better souvenir than removing pieces. Consider tide and weather when planning how far to walk, and leave yourself an easy return.

Barra, Scotland: the beach is also an airport

Barra’s beach runway is an extraordinary meeting of island geography and everyday transport. It is also an active aviation site, so a photograph of an aircraft on sand should not be read as an invitation to wander onto the landing area.

The official Barra Airport website is the starting point for current flight and visitor information. Follow the airport’s signs and instructions about where and when you may go.

If you hope to see an arrival, check the actual day’s arrangements and leave room for operational changes. The novelty is more rewarding when understood as a working connection for the island.

Choose the activity, then pack for it

These places call for different plans: a boat trip, a cold coastal stop, a shoreline walk or an airport visit. Swimming is not the common purpose linking them.

For destinations where time in the water is the main aim, use our clear-water escape comparison. A coastline does not have to offer the same experience as every other coast to make a memorable part of a trip.

The unusual-beach guide adds examples where geology and local history explain the shore’s distinctive appearance.

Red and green sand in Hawaii

Kaihalulu and Papakōlea enter the collection through the colour of their sand. The original photographs draw attention to how the surrounding rock and mineral material change a beach’s appearance. Their appeal does not establish an easy approach, permitted swimming or a globally fixed count of beaches with the same colour. These are distinct coastal settings rather than interchangeable colour samples.

Jervis Bay and Qingdao: photographs at different levels of activity

The Jervis Bay entry emphasises pale sand, while the Qingdao image emphasises a crowded shore. Neither photograph supports a permanent world record for whiteness or crowding. A scene can look quiet or busy because of the specific place, date and framing. The contrast is still enjoyable when those conditions remain part of the interpretation.

The Marietas hidden beach and Gulpiyuri

At the Marietas Islands, the beach appears beneath a distinctive rock opening. Gulpiyuri has a different relationship with the coast: its connection with the Cantabrian Sea runs underground. That concealed link explains why an apparently inland hollow can contain seawater. Both settings show how rock can enclose a beach while leaving an opening, visible or hidden, to the water beyond.

Glass Beach and Bowling Ball Beach, California

The glass-rich shore reflects a history of discarded material being worn and redistributed. That history is not an environmental success story that makes dumping harmless, and the glass is not evidence that plastic becomes the same smooth mineral-like material. Bowling Ball Beach’s rounded rock forms offer a separate geological subject. The two settings should be appreciated through their different origins rather than grouped as unexplained oddities.

Hot Water Beach and the Dubai climate-control claim

Hot Water Beach in New Zealand belongs to a geothermal coast, where hot water introduces a very different experience from an ordinary surf beach. Temperature varies, so the appearance of a pool cannot establish whether it is comfortable to enter. The Dubai entry concerns a reported hotel-development proposal to control beach conditions; the accompanying image is not evidence of an operating attraction.

Fourteen coastal scenes with very different uses

These ten entries join Exuma, the Jökulsárlón region, Driftwood Beach and Barra in the complete collection. A lagoon, an active airport, a development claim and a swimming beach are not one kind of attraction. Understanding that difference gives the photographs more value than a universal invitation to put on a swimsuit.

The full photographic collection

Sand colour, driftwood, ice and unusual access each give a beach a different identity. The most memorable feature may have little to do with swimming. Several scenes are better understood as coastal landscapes whose changing materials and uses happen to meet at the water’s edge.