33 Beaches and Shoreline Landscapes Around the World

The most beautiful beach for one person may be entirely wrong for another. A wild coast can offer a magnificent walk and difficult swimming. A busy urban beach may give you exactly the easy transport, food and lively atmosphere you wanted.

Instead of trying to crown one stretch of sand the best in the world, start with the day you hope to have. The photograph is an invitation; the setting and conditions decide how the visit works.

For a landscape you want to look at

Unusual rock, cliffs or coastal formations can make the shore a destination even when swimming is not part of the plan. On Milos, Sarakiniko’s pale rock gives the coastline a distinctive shape. Around the Twelve Apostles in Australia, the wider coastal landscape is the main subject.

Choose authorised viewpoints and a route that suits the conditions. A dramatic photograph from a cliff edge does not establish a place visitors should stand. Our Great Ocean Walk guide offers a more considered way to spend time along a remarkable coast.

For time in the water

Look beyond colour. Clear-looking water can still have currents, waves, changing depth or difficult entry. Use the local flags, lifeguard information and site instructions rather than deciding from an image that the sea must be gentle.

Our Myrtos Beach guide considers the practical side of a famous Greek setting. The beach is more enjoyable when the conditions match the activity you intend to do there.

For a relaxed day with few logistics

A beach near your accommodation, with shade and facilities that work for you, may offer more pleasure than a distant cove requiring several transfers. Include the return trip in the plan, especially if you depend on a boat or a limited transport service.

For specific mobility needs, use our accessible beach-planning guide. Access to a promenade, the sand and the sea are different arrangements, and the distinction can change the whole day.

For a photograph with a different texture

Pebbles, black sand, driftwood and rock pools can all reward close observation. Photograph what you find without removing material or rearranging habitats. A small detail can tell a more personal story than another copy of the best-known panorama.

Notice what the caption actually names

Online beach galleries sometimes mix whole regions, lakes, resorts and individual coastal sites. “The Algarve” is not one beach, and a lake shore does not have the same conditions as an ocean coast. Find the exact place before making practical plans.

Then leave room to enjoy it. A swim, a walk, a quiet hour or lunch by the water can each be a complete and satisfying reason to go.

The unusual-shore feature adds four examples where animals, ice, driftwood or aviation give the beach a very particular context.

A shoreline collection broader than ocean beaches

The thirty-three entries include coastal sands, rocky shorelines, lake settings and even an aerial optical effect. Lake Tahoe, Lago del Predil, Lago di Braies and Lake Como are inland-water examples. Mauritius’s “underwater waterfall” image is not a beach with water literally plunging into an abyss.

The named coastal subjects range from Sarakiniko and Simos to Zlatni Rat, Cathedral Cove, Cable Beach, Copacabana, Punaluʻu, Luskentyre, Anse Source d’Argent, Jervis Bay and Whitehaven. Broad regional labels such as Algarve or Sardinia do not identify one exact beach. The photographs can inspire curiosity while leaving those distinctions clear.

A dramatic viewpoint also does not establish swimming conditions or shore access. This matters especially where the main attraction in the image is a cliff, rock formation or distant cove. Keeping the full collection and its surviving credits turns it into a useful study of different shorelines, rather than a promise that all thirty-three places offer the same kind of beach day.