Your Guide To The Worlds Best Beach Vacations

After years of hard work and diligent saving my wife and I are in the fortunate position of being able to afford a comfortable retirement, and to celebrate its beginning we decided to splash out on an extravagant vacation (our first in five years).

We had just one requirement for this vacation: we wanted to visit the best beach on the planet. It’s all subjective, of course, but during my research on our destination the same place kept popping up time and again: Anse Lazio, Seychelles.

From the moment we set foot on the perfect white sand we knew we’d made the right choice. Anse Lazio is just astoundingly beautiful. We ran like kids down to the warm turquoise water and threw ourselves into the surf, where we stayed for hours until the sun began to set.

I think what makes Anse Lazio such a perfect beach is its secluded location. Praslin is far from the regular tourist trail and nobody visits on a whim, so the beaches on the island are quieter even than neighboring Mahe. During our week there we never felt crowded by tourists, and we could often look down the beach and see nothing but sand (especially in the mornings).

If you make it to Anse Lazio there are two things you must do. The first is snorkeling in the impossibly clear water just off the beach. I’ve never had such excellent visibility, and the sealife is incredible.

The second thing is this: eat as often as possible at the Bonbon Plume, our favorite beachside rstaurant. The service is great, the location perfect and the food to die for.

Now my wife and I are free to spend our golden years pottering around with few obligations I can see us returning time and time again to Anse Lazio. This is just our favorite place on earth.

After many years of vacationing exclusively in the lower 48 states, something in me snapped. I renewed my passport, booked a flight and headed out to Cas Abao Beach, Curacao on the strength of a recommendation from a friend.

My first trip outside the US couldn’t possibly have gone any better. From the moment I arrived in Cas Abao I knew I was in for a great week. The beach was just perfect, a broad sweep or pure white sand backing onto a dense cluster of palm trees that separate the beach from the noise and stress of the outside world. I spent the first couple of days doing absolutely – and I do mean absolutely – nothing. For the first time in many, many years I just lay back on the sand with no more pressing matters than occasionally reapplying sun tan lotion.

The beach isn’t just about relaxation, though (though the roaming beach masseur can work out those knots if you just want to laze around). Cas Abao is also great for watersports such as snorkeling and kayaking. The snorkeling in particular is fantastic, with crystal clear water offering a perfect view of the sealife beyond the surf.

The beach also has its own banana boat and water trampoline, perfect for kids and kids at heart. I’m in my 40s, but I still had a great time whizzing around on the banana boat!

Best of all, though, is the daiquiri bar right there on the beach. The bar serves alcoholic drinks and smoothies for the kids, and you can get snacks throughout the day. There’s just nothing better than sitting in the shade sipping a daiquiri, passing the time of day with locals and tourists alike.

I know my experience outside the US is limited to Curacao, but I’m pretty sure I’ve found my perfect beach. I’ll be back again next year for sure.

Even living in a beach-filled state like California it’s usually necessary to travel a little to find a really great beach. Despite our state’s wealth of awesome beaches it’s all too common to find them overrun with tourists, especially during the holidays.

It was really great, then, to find that we had a fantastic beach right on our doorstep when my family moved to San Diego this year. Coronado Beach, San Diego, California is a world class beach just a short drive from our home in downtown.

Coronado feels different to most other beaches in the state. I can’t explain it, but there’s something about the beach that feels like the east coast (apart from the weather, which is always great). I think it’s something to do with the turn of the century houses and hotels that back on to the beach, and especially the historic Hotel Del Coronado. If you removed the palm trees and knocked the temperature down a few degrees you could almost believe you were somewhere like the Outer Banks.

We’ve been visiting Coronado Beach almost every weekend since we moved here, and it’s become an integral part of our fitness regime. The water’s great for swimming and snorkeling, and the beach is perfect for long strolls. What’s more, the bike path at the back of the beach runs all the way down to Imperial Beach, so we’ve been spending most of our weekends cycling along this beautiful stretch of coast (OK, perhaps we treat ourselves to a drink or three at the Del Coronado on the way home).

We consider ourselves lucky to live so close to such a great beach. If you’re thinking about visiting Coronado I can heartily recommend it. For a day trip or a week’s stay, this is a fantastic place with something for everyone.

This may sound like an unusual reason to fly to another country, but I recently made a trip to New Zealand just so I could dig a hole on a beach.

Let me explain. I’m currently spending a year backpacking around Asia and Australia, and for the last two months I’ve been living in Melbourne. Several weeks ago I met a few fellow travelers who told me about a place called Hahei Beach, New Zealand, a popular tourist destination on the North Island a few hours from Auckland.

Hahei Beach itself is well known, but the area is perhaps most famous for a neighboring attraction called Hot Water Beach. Here the sand is located directly over a natural hot spring, and for a couple of hours either side of low tide visitors can dig holes in the beach to reach the warm water beneath. Every day you’ll see dozens of tourists relaxing in home made hot tubs when the tide is out.

As soon as I heard about this I knew I had to visit, and two weeks later I found myself on a flight to Auckland. I booked myself in to a hostel on Hahei Beach Road and began one of the best weeks of my life.

The area around Hahei Beach has something for everyone. The town itself is fantastic, with lively bars, great restaurants and impossibly friendly people, but it’s the natural attractions that make this my favorite place on the planet. Hahei Beach is perfect, and from there you can head out on foot to a string of beautiful and secluded bays and coves up and down the coast. Every inch of this stretch of coast is beautiful, but out in the water it’s even better with kayaking, snorkeling, scuba and glass bottom boat rides all along the coast.

I can’t even begin to describe how much I loved Hahei Beach, but I can tell you that if you ever get the chance to visit you won’t regret it. It’s just perfect.

As an avid surfer I’m naturally drawn to the fantastic surf of the Hawaii coast. I’ve spent the last decade traveling to the islands, and more than once I’ve considered making a permanent move there (fingers crossed for next year).

In what will hopefully have been my final trip before I can make a permanent move I just returned from Ka’anapali, Maui, Hawaii, where I spent a blissful week out on the water.

This time, though, I also spent a lot of time on the beach and visiting the local attractions to get a better idea of what life in Hawaii will have in store, and I couldn’t be more excited about living there. Not only does Maui offer some of the best surfing on the planet, but the island itself is just awesome. I spent a lot of time laying on Ka’anapali’s perfect ribbon of clean white sand, occasionally escaping to the shade of one of the beach’s many great restaurants when I’d caught enough rays.

The beach doesn’t just offer surf and sunbathing though. There’s plenty more to do on the water, and I really loved snorkeling beyond the crashing waves. The sealife around Maui is just amazing, and I feel privileged to have the chance to take a peek under the water.

Best of all, though, was the kayaking. When I’m out on my board I never really concentrate on anything but the waves, but out beyond the surf you can look back and really take in the natural beauty of the island. Maui is just unbelievably beautiful, and I can’t describe how great it was to just sit out on the water and gaze back at the beach.

I’m sure if you’ve visited Maui you’ll already understand how special it is, but if you’ve yet to visit I can’t recommend it enough. Ka’anapali is God’s country, plain and simple. Just beautiful.

For years I’ve been searching all over the world for the perfect beach. I’ve always dreamed of a silent, secluded beach free from tourists; somewhere I can relax all day in a hammock without hearing anything but the sound of the waves lapping at the sand. Until recently I’d resigned myself to the fact that this was a pipe dream. Every beach on the planet has been discovered and exploited.

And then I traveled to Monterrico, Guatemala.

Monterrico is the closest I’ve ever found to the perfect beach that exists in my mind. It’s far from the tourist trail, so far resisting the ugly developments elsewhere in the world, and thanks to the fact that rare sea turtles use the beach as a nesting ground it will be protected from development as long as they keep visiting.

When you think about it it’s a bit of a shame that the presence of the sea turtles has been the only way to preserve a beautiful stretch of coast. It’d be nice if we could preserve our beaches simply because they look nice.

In any case, I’m happy. Monterrico is just beautiful, and not only is the beach fantastic but the area around it is great, too. There are few large resorts there, and the local towns still rely on the bounty of the sea for their daily bread. After a day at the beach you can wander along to any of the great local restaurants for fresh, delicious seafood caught by the local fishermen.

This is exactly what I was looking for. You can keep your golf courses, tennis clubs and neon lit bars. I’m not interested. All I want is a beautiful beach, perfect weather, fantastic food, friendly locals and a little piece and quiet. Monterrico has all of these things in spades. Highly recommended.

Since I was a little boy I loved visiting the beach, and while over the years my tastes have shifted from bucket and spade to oxygen tank and scuba mask I’ve always enjoyed one thing above all: seclusion.

The problem with most beaches is that they’re overrun with tourists (yes, I see the hypocrisy in that statement). I can’t imagine why anyone would want to share a beach, no matter how perfect the sand and how clear the water, with thousands of other tourists. I don’t understand why anyone would claim a few square feet of beach real estate and sit for hours like the penguins you’ll see in breeding colonies on nature documentaries.

This is why I travelled to Playa Norte, Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Just a quick ferry ride from busy Cancun, Playa Norte sits at the northern end of Isla Mujeres, an island with almost no cars, relatively few tourists and just a few resorts. The beach is just as beautiful of any in Cancun itself, with the added bonus that most of the tourists head back to the mainland as the afternoon wears on.

Everything about Playa Norte was just perfect. The soft white sand was beautiful (as was the ‘right to your beach towel’ drinks service), and the calm turquoise water was as clear as any I’ve ever seen. I spent my days kayaking and snorkeling until exhaustion got the better of me, then I returned to the sand and lounged in the shade until the sun fell before heading to a bar to meet the locals.

I can’t imagine any way the beach could be improved, and the island itself is fantastic. The resorts are relatively small with more personal service than you’d expect to receive on the mainland, and every moment you’re ther you’ll feel like the island is just for you. Highly recommended.

When we told our friends we were taking a vacation in Colombia they all thought we were crazy. From what they’ve heard on the news over the last few decades they were certain we were walking into a war zone. It was kinda funny to watch them get all worked up, to be honest, but I certainly understand why they were concerned. In fact, I’d already visited the country a couple of times in the past, so I knew exactly what to expect when we arrived in Santa Marta, Colombia.

Santa Marta used to be just awful. When I first visited 20 years ago on a trip to the Tayrona National Park I couldn’t wait to get out of there. Santa Marta is Colombia’s oldest city, and back then it really showed. Everything was run down, the bars were sketchy and the food was just awful.

In recent years, though, Santa Marta has enjoyed something of a renaissance. The city has been cleaned up to an unbelievable extent, and today you’d never believe that this was anything but a world class resort destination. A huge marina opened in 2010 with room for dozens of yachts and super yachts, the historic buildings you’ll find around every corner have been cleaned and renovated, and the last decade has seen a large influx of foreigners who have opened a wide range of great restaurants serving cuisine from around the world.

It’s actually kind of nice to have this little corner of the world to ourselves. Many tourists wouldn’t dare visit Colombia, so right now we get to enjoy great prices and beautiful, empty beaches. In a few years Santa Marta may have become just another expensive resort town full of loud, boorish tourists, but right now we get to enjoy it all to ourselves. My advice? Visit while it’s still a secret.

It’s always great to find a world class beach on your doorstep, so I was very pleased when Santa Rosa Beach, Florida was voted one of the top ten beaches in the US. Here in Florida we’ve known this for a long time, but we’ve always struggled to compete against the much more high profile Quays when it comes to drawing tourists up here to the north west of the state.

Santa Rosa Beach is just beautiful. It’s hidden away behind high dunes, protected from the wind on one side and from the waves by Hogtown Bayou, making it one of the most peaceful beaches you’ll ever find. There’s nothing better than spending hours on end laying in the sun, or walking down the peaceful beach at sunset, listening to the waves lapping at the sand.

While the beach is certainly one of the most beautiful in the country, the charms of Santa Rosa don’t end at the edge of the sand. The town itself is one of the cutest on the coast, packed full of independent cafes and quirky galleries. When you’re done with the beach there’s hours of fun to be had strolling around town.

If you’ve never experienced the pleasure of a visit to Santa Rosa you can picture it as miniature version of Savannah, Georgia: old fashioned, beautiful and peaceful, full of happy, smiling people who know exactly how lucky they are to live in such an idyllic town.

If laying on the beach and promenading around town isn’t enough for you, you can also enjoy the 207 holes of golf available in South Walton, or any of the 30 tennis courts open to visitors to this perfect part of the world.

Whatever you’re looking for, be it sport, shopping or relaxation, I’m sure you’ll find it at Santa Rosa Beach.

For the last five years I’ve been living in Thailand running an import/export business, so I’m never far from the beach. When I take my vacation, though, I always like to escape the crowded resorts of my adopted country for something a little more sedate. In recent years this has led me time and again to Kuta, Bali, but on my last trip there it seemed as if even this once pleasant town has become a little too mainstream for my liking.

This year, then, I decided to try out Sanur Beach, Bali, and I’m so glad I did. Sanur Beach is just a few miles from the ‘drink all night’ resorts of Kuta and Seminyak, but in terms of peace, quiet and luxury it’s a world away.

The first thing that struck me and my wife about Sanur Beach was the relative lack of development in the area. Many Bali beaches have been colonised by bars, restaurants and tacky souvenir shops, but Sanur remains untouched by the less appealing tourist developments. Sanur is still a traditional fishing village, and the long white beach is jealously guarded against development by the high end resorts that populate this stretch of the coast.

All in all, Sanur beach offers the opportunity to experience a traditional Balinese way of life far from the tourist crowds. If you want to experience the more raucous side of Bali it’s just a short cab ride away, but if you want to escape the tourists and enjoy a pristine beach, eat at fantastic local restaurants and enjoy world class accommodation you should head to Sanur Beach.

Next year my wife and I will be retiring and leaving Thailand, and until we visited Sanur we had no idea about where to go next. As we flew out of Bali back towards Bangkok we knew our question had been answered.