Nature: 9 Fascinating Beaches

I bet you know many beaches. This article is about my selection 9 fascinating beaches. With about 70% percent of the Earth covered by water, there has to be extremely long coast lines. Some of these lines are beaches.

This post is part of a series portraying the classic Elements of Nature: Earth, Fire, Water, Air. Beaches are examples of the third element, Water.

Previously unspoiled beaches

We start with two beautiful unspoiled beaches that became extremely developed tourist destinations after my visit:

1. White Beach on the island of Boracay, Philippines

White Beach on Boracay, view to south

2. Chaweng Beach on the island of Samui, Thailand

Beach boats on Koh Samui

Four developed ones

We continue with four beautiful beaches that were developed already, when I arrived:

3. Copacabana and Ipanema in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Rio de Janeiro – Copacabana

4. Albena, Bulgaria

Albena beach on the Black Sea

5. La Croisette, Cannes, France

Cannes

Some beaches have a special story, but are not particularly pretty.

6. The Bay of Pigs, Cuba

Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs)

And some more

Others are just plain pretty. Period.

7. Palombaggia, Corsica, France

Palombaggia beach

You know that a beach does not have to be situated on the sea. Lakes have beaches too, like this one.

8. Lican Ray, Chile

Lican Ray beach and the Calafquén Lake

Some beautiful beaches may not need to be accompanied by swimming or sunbathing. They are too cold, although surfers do not care about that detail.

9. Orrestranda, Jæren, Norway

Orre beach

Further reading

That was my selected 9 fascinating beaches. Missing anything? For sure, I’ve had to skip some of my images related to this subject and refrained from mentioning some of my visits. Feel free to search this website for more. In addition, you are surely missing famous places or your own favourites. Chances are I haven’t been there, and I only include my own images and visits in this series.

All articles in this series

(1) Introduction

(2-7) Element: Earth

(2) Great Caves

(3) Strange Rock Formations

(4) Dramatic Cliffs

(5) Amazing Mountain Views

(6) Great Highlands

(7) Dry Deserts

(8) Element: Fire

(8) Active Volcanoes

(9-14) Element: Water

(9) Dramatic waterfalls

(10) Fascinating Beaches

(11) Mighty rivers

(12) Picturesque Lakes

(13) Important Straits

(14) Snow and ice

(15) Element: Air

Here are images tagged “beach” on this website. Click to enlarge and browse.