Most Unique Beaches In The World

When you think of the beach what do you imagine? Waves gently crashing onto shore, palm trees swaying in the breeze, golden sand? Sounds pretty perfect, right? But not every beach out there plays by these rules. Our planet is also full of some pretty bizarre beaches. From stranded shipwreck-laden shores, to crawling crimson sand, get your bucket and spade at the ready, as we uncover the most unique beaches in the world!

The Hidden Beach Of Marietas Islands

Marietas Islands, off the coast of Mexico, has plenty of beaches, but there’s one that’s easy to miss because somehow, this beach isn’t actually on the shoreline. Known aptly as the Hidden Beach, it’s located inside a cavern! In fact, this beach is so well concealed, it’s completely invisible from the actual shoreline. The only way you’d know there’s a sandy shore here is from the view from above!

How do you actually get there though? Turns out, swimmers or kayakers can make there way to the Hidden Beach by venturing underneath the rocky shore, with around 6 feet of space above water level! After a short swim, the tunnel opens up into this secluded beach oasis, with golden sand, crystal-clear water and the open roof, allowing sunlight to beam onto the beach.

Swim to Marietas Island (Hidden Beach) by Manan Mehta

But you don’t usually see beaches in holes, so how did this place come to be? Despite the serenity seen today, the Marietas Islands were once a much more hazardous area. It’s said that in the early years of the 20th century, the Mexican military used the island as a target for bombing practice. As a result, the humungous hole, which has revealed the Hidden Beach that’d formed in the cavern beneath, is likely to be the result of an enormous explosion caused by these bombing drills.

Benagil Sea Cave

The Marietas Islands aren’t the only place to have a beach in a strange spot. Found on the southern coast of Portugal, is Benagil Sea Cave. Much like the Hidden Beach, this place is only accessible by the sea, and also shares that distinctive crater-like hole at the top.

So, is everyone just accidentally creating bombed beaches now? Thankfully, not. Instead, over time softer segments of the limestone coastline eroded away and collapsed, leading that distinctive natural skylight above the beach. With its awe-inspiring size and dome-like interior, this stretch of shoreline is often compared to a cathedral.

The constant crashing waves also carved out two arches into the limestone cliffs, creating the only two accessible entrance points, allowing visitors to visit the beach by water. As for getting in via the top, anyone dumb enough to take that plunge can expect to be sleeping with the fishes soon after!

Benagil Caves Boat Tour from Portimao | Algarve Portugal | 4K by Ross Angell

Maho Beach

Nearly 4,000 miles southwest of Benagil Sea Cave is another section of shoreline that’s a lot more accessible. In fact, if anything it’s a little too accessible! Maho Beach, found on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, is right next to the Princess Juliana Airport!

In 1942, it got its start as a U.S military airstrip. Then, just one year later, the first commercial flight landed here! To this day, planes continue to land at Princess Juliana Airport, zooming less than 100 feet over onlookers at Maho Beach as they descend down to land.

St. Maarten - The Lowest Plane Landing - SXM Maho - PAWA Airlines by CIA SXM

While you might think a 150-foot chunk of metal zooming overhead while you sunbathe would be nightmare fuel, people actually flock to Maho Beach to plane spot. In fact, it’s such a popular activity that daily arrival and departure times are displayed on boards throughout the beach. Back in 2017, a tourist was blown back by the power of these jets and didn’t survive! Safe to say Maho Beach will leave you blown away in more ways than one!

Playa de Gulpiyuri: Secret Beach

Normally when you’re at the beach, there’s one pretty big, glaringly obvious thing you can see: the sea! But any open ocean lovers watching may wanna give Spain’s Playa de Gulpiyuri a miss, considering you won’t be able to see the sea here! In fact, you see the exact opposite: A wall. But there are still waves. How does that work?

This beach is found 330 feet inland from the Atlantic Ocean, separated from the deep blue by a grassy section of coastline. Turns out this baffling beach is actually a flooded sinkhole. Over time, the waves of the Atlantic chiseled away at the coastline, forming underground caves.

Eventually, this collapsed in on itself forming a sinkhole which then became filled with sea water that filtered through caverns in the coastline. As a result, the water remains pretty shallow, reaching around knee height, but because it’s still connected to the ocean, it still experiences waves.

But the beach’s inland location isn’t the only thing that makes it unique. At a mere 130 feet in length, Playa de Gulpiyuri is considered the shortest beach in the world! In fact, it’s so small, it’d take Usain Bolt less than 4 seconds to run its length! Forget shoreline, Playa de Gulpiyuri is found on the shortline!

Namib Desert's Skeleton Coast

Found on the southwestern tip of Africa, the Namib Desert, which runs through South Africa, Namibia and Angola, stretches for some 1,200 miles! Yet the most mind-boggling feature of this desert is the fact that it borders the Atlantic Ocean. From above this seemingly endless sea of silica contrasts with the blue crashing waves creating a picturesque scene. That’s one stupendously sized sandy beach!

Along this seemingly endless beach desert, you’ll find a 300 plus mile stretch, known as the Skeleton Coast. As you can guess, this place isn’t for the faint-hearted. It got its name from the many whale carcasses that scattered across its shores, at the hands of the whaling industry. However, these aren’t the only remains to have cropped up on Skeleton Coast. Over the centuries, nearly 1,000 shipwrecks have littered the sandy shore.

So, how did this place become a grizzly graveyard? In this area, the upwelling of the Atlantic Ocean’s cold current clashes with the hot air from the Namib Desert. As a result, this creates a dense fog that shrouds the area around Skeleton Coast. This fog creates dangerous navigating conditions for ships, with many accidentally running ashore.

Furthermore, this stretch of coastal desert is also home to a fearsome predator, the African lion! Crazy as it sounds, the Namib is the only place in the world, where you’ll find desert-beach-adapted lions. These carnivores are known to feed on marine species, like seals, beached whales and cormorants.

Hot Water Beach

If the Skeleton Coast left you with chills, then how about we heat things up a bit? And where better to do that than the aptly named Hot Water Beach! As the name suggests, the water on this beach found in northern New Zealand can get pretty spicy.

Funnily enough, it’s not the seawater that gets hot, though. The fiery fluid is actually found underneath the beach. When the tide’s low, it’s possible to dig into the sand, allowing hot water below the surface to escape, forming a beachside jacuzzi! The source of the heat is ancient volcanic activity that’s left a slab of hot rock deep underground. Thanks to underground fissures, this heats up surrounding water reservoirs, which bubble up to the surface at a steamy 147°F!

Around 700,000 people flock to Hot Water Beach every year, to experience this steamy silica sauna for themselves. Safe to say that life really is a beach for anyone lucky enough to spend the day at this special stretch of scorching shoreline!

Brava Beach

At first glance, Brava Beach, found on the southern tip of Uruguay, looks like any old sandy beach. That is until you reach an intriguing sight of a hand coming out of the sand. From a distance it looks sort of like 5 toweringly tall sandcastles. However, a closer look reveals 5 giant fingers poking out the sand. Judging by how small they make that woman look in the image below, those fingers have got to be well over 10 feet tall!

But before your mind runs away with thoughts of some giant lurking under the surface, this huge hand is actually the work of Chilean artist, Mario Irarrazabal. He initially intended to make a sculpture of a hand drowning, as a warning to swimmers. While that’s one way to do it, what’s wrong with a simple sign? Either way, any beach sporting a humungous hand rising from the sand is unique enough for the feature!

Glass Beach

Normally the beach is the perfect place to unwind and feel at one with nature. But apparently that’s not a sentiment felt by everybody. Take the residents of Fort Bragg in California. Back in the early 20th century, people here used Glass Beach at Fort Bragg as a dumping ground.

From 1906 to 1967, three dump sites along the shoreline accumulated all kinds of waste, from glass, cans, bottles and even vehicle parts! The site got so saturated that waste had to be burnt down! Thankfully, by the late 60s, much of the waste was removed, but plenty was still left scattered across the Fort Bragg beach. Incredibly though, this eyesore transformed into a thing of awe over the coming decades. Today, Glass Beach, as the name suggests, is home to beautiful sea glass that’s scattered along the shore.

Overtime, the pounding waves weathered down what waste was left, breaking the glass dumped here into small, smooth, colored pieces that wouldn’t look out of place in a high-end jewelry store! Nowadays, Glass Beach is visited by tens of thousands of tourists each year, each looking to get their hands on that shiny sea glass. Glass Beach really proves that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure!

Shell Beach

At first glance, the image below looks like any old shoreline made up of small stones. However, a closer look reveals that everything isn’t as it seems.

This beach, found in Shark Bay in Western Australia, isn’t made up of sand, or stone, but trillions of tiny shells! In fact, this 40-mile beach is brimming so full of shells, it’s believed they go down as deep as 30 feet below the surface! Even more incredibly, they all belong to one species, the Hamelin cockle. So, what makes Shark Bay such a popular place for these mollusks?

The waters here have an incredibly high salt concentration, being twice as salty as the rest of the ocean. This is due to the shallow water of Shark Bay, as well as the fact its waters are protected from the open ocean by a long stretching sandbar, limiting the water flow.

And it just so happens that Hamelin cockles can thrive in these salty conditions, while their predators can’t. So, this place has been a Hamelin cockle paradise for thousands of years, allowing the marine mollusks to live, breed and die, with their shells washing up on shore over and over and over again!

Okinawa Island: Star Sand Beach

Much like that Hamelin cockle spot, the beaches in Okinawa Prefecture, off the southern coast of Japan, looks fairly ordinary. But, as you know by now, we don’t feature ordinary beaches. So, what’s its secret? Well, to find out we have to take a closer look at that sand on the beach. As you can see in the image below, under the microscope this sand is actually made up of star-shaped sand particles.

Unlike most places, the sand on the beaches in Okinawa Island aren’t made up of rocks and minerals, but the remains of deceased organisms. What you’re looking at is actually the exoskeleton of a tiny organism, known as a Baculogyspina sphaerulata. These critters build intricate shells from calcium carbonate they collect while drifting through the sea. Then, when they die, their shells remain in the sea, until the tide eventually brings this stardust to shore!

Punalu'u Black Sand Beach

When you think of Hawaiian beaches, you probably conjure up images of idyllic palm trees and the waves crashing onto the golden shore. But there’s one beach here that doesn’t quite fit that stereotype. Located on the southeastern Ka’u coast in Hawaii, you’ll discover Punaluʻu Black Sand Beach.

Punaluʻu’s sand is made of basalt, which formed thousands of years ago, when a lava flow from one of Hawaii’s many volcanoes streamed into the ocean. The rapid cooling of the lava formed basalt which shattered into tiny fragments, creating this drastically dark beach!

But black sand isn’t the only unique feature Punaluʻu has to offer. It’s also become something of a home for endangered Green Sea and Hawksbill Turtles. As turtles are reptiles, they can’t maintain a constant body temperature. Instead, their body is influenced by the temperature of their environment. So, black sand offers the perfect place to bask for these rare reptiles. A unique beach, with unique inhabitants, what more could you ask for?

Diamond Beach

Similar to Punaluʻu, the beach at Breiðamerkursandur in southern Iceland, is covered in jet black sand, formed from volcanic lava hitting the ocean, before cooling and breaking off into tiny pieces of basalt. But that’s not the only fabulously freaky feature of this beach. This place is known as Diamond Beach. But before you book your flights to Iceland to make a quick fortune, be warned these aren’t the kind of diamonds you’d find on a wedding ring. They’re actually icebergs.

As the temperatures rise, icebergs break off the Breiðamerkurjökull Glacier, before washing up on shore. Once on land, the big boulders are naturally polished and sculpted by the wind, giving each ice diamond a distinctive shape. To make matters even more impressive, the beach’s black sand heavily contrasts with the bright blue-white diamonds, making these ice chunks look especially elegant.

Clearly any beach near a glacier isn’t gonna be the place for sun-bathing and swimming, the temperature here rarely reaches above 50°F, even still, those dazzling diamonds are worth the cold conditions on their own!

Papakōlea Green Sand Beach

Less than 20 miles away from Punaluʻu is another curiously colored shore. Papakōlea, otherwise known as Green Sand Beach is green! While it’s not exactly blazing emerald, this beach does have a distinctive green hue. So, how did it come to be?

Around 50,000 years ago, the Mauna Loa volcano erupted, forming a massive cinder cone that circled around to create a small bay on the south of the island. The eruption brought tons of minerals to the surface, including a green-colored mineral known as olivine. Much of the cinder cone has now eroded, although the dense chunks of olivine have survived the crashing tides, causing this lawn-like shoreline!

Aside from looking funky, olivine is actually a hugely helpful mineral. When it weathers from exposure to water and air, it reacts with harmful carbon dioxide, effectively removing it from the atmosphere, helping to mitigate climate change. As a result, olivine is now being artificially sprayed onto beaches. So, who knows, maybe we’ll soon get used to the sight of Papakōlea’s exclusive emerald shoreline?

Purple Pfeiffer Beach

Pfeiffer Beach, found on the Californian coast is famous for having tan incredible purple sand. While it looks like some kid’s Kinetic Sand, this stuff is fully natural! The color comes from the cliffs. Located above the beach is a cliffside made up of Manganese garnet rock. After periods of rainfall, the rain washes purple away from the rocks, before sliding down onto the sand, creating this stunning scene.

But if you ever visit Pfeiffer Beach, don’t just stare at the pretty purple sand. This place is also home to the Keyhole Arch, which is pretty much a large rock with a hole in it. And, while that’s the case for most of the year, things take a turn in the winter months. From November to January, photographers flock to Pfeiffer Beach to get a snap of the sun setting through the arch! Whether it’s the idyllic Keyhole Arch, or its purple sand, Pfeiffer Beach has to go down as a grape sandy spot!

Red Crabs Of Christmas Island

Speaking of flashy waterfronts, which brings us to Christmas Island, and no, this isn’t where Santa lives. While the world’s full of mesmeric, pink-colored beaches, you'll probably not find the red color of this beach so welcoming! But these beaches aren’t always this crimson color. That red hue isn’t sand, shells, or stones, it’s an animal, well millions to be more accurate. Even more bizarre, these aren’t the fossils or exoskeletons or dead critters, they’re live animals!

The Christmas Island red crab are the culprits. Every year, between October and November, millions of red crabs all over the island leave their forest home, before migrating to the beaches to mate and spawn. Each female crab produces a startling 100,000 eggs, which she safely stores in a brood pouch.

Around a couple of weeks later, the egg-laden crabs leave their burrows and head for shore. When the high tide starts, the mother crabs move into the sea and release their eggs, before returning to the forest. Then, around 4 weeks later, the juvenile crabs return to the shore to make their own journey into the forest, leaving this radically red scene on the shore.

Baby Crabs on Christmas Island by DUC THO LE

Torrey Pines Beach

Torrey Pines, off the coast of San Diego, has become famous for its electric blue waves. This sight isn’t magic, though. It’s actually down to the work of a microplankton. Specifically, the species Lingulodinium polyedra, which uses bioluminescence to avoid predators. When the algae’s disturbed it reacts with oxygen to produce a bright blue flash. This sudden burst of light can startle any would-be predators and attract larger animals to eat those predators.

Unbelievable Bioluminescent Beach, California by FunForLouis

So, while that bright light spells bad news for any plankton eaters, it’s great news for us humans, who can marvel at its beauty. But San Diego isn’t the only place that’s home to these marvelous microplankton! The beaches of the Maldives, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean are, known for arguably an even more mesmerizing display by these little guys!

Speaking of bright blue beaches, which brings us to Toyama Bay in Japan. Through most of the year the beach looks beautiful here. But for all its beauty it doesn’t look too unique. However, between March and June each year, this bay transforms into a shimmering spectacle.

Unlike at Torrey Pines or the Maldives, this isn’t the result of algae, though. Instead, Toyama Bay’s bright blue waves are the result of firefly squid. By day they dwell in deep, dark depths over 1,000 feet. But in the evenings from March to June, they ascend to the surface to search for potential mates. Their glow is the result of an evolutionary phenomenon, known as counter-illumination.

It’s thought this radiance attracts potential mates. Turns out it attracts plenty of humans too, with people flocking to the beach at Toyama Bay to marvel at the squid’s bright blue glow! Safe to say despite their color, these beaches certainly won’t leave you feeling blue!

Beach Of The Cathedrals

Praia das Catedrais, which translates to Beach of the Cathedrals, is a jaw-dropping sight found on the northwest coast of Spain. This place gets its name from its natural 90-foot-tall arches, which resemble the flying buttresses found in cathedrals. If that wasn’t holy enough, it’s said during low tide on breezy days you can hear the wind whistling through the rocks, similar to organ music that’s played in church.

So, how did this blessed beach come to exist? Over millions of years, natural erosion from blasting winds, as well as crashing waves carved away the softer stone in the center, leaving behind these enormous arches. During low tide you can even walk through this coastal cathedral, but keep your prayers short, as the tide can come in alarmingly quickly, washing any dawdlers out to sea!

Kelingking Beach

When you think of a beach, what animals normally come to mind? Crabs? Seals? One beach on Penida Island in Indonesia, is the home to a much more menacing animal. Kelingking Beach, as it’s called, is known for it’s T-Rex!

However, this shore isn’t home to an actual dino. It’s not even home to the fossil of one. Instead, it’s the coastline that gives this beach its reptilian reputation. Overtime, the limestone cliffs have been eroded by the onrushing waves, somehow forming a perfect outline of a T-Rex.

As a result, Kelingking has become something of a hotspot, earning itself the title "the most Instagrammed beach in the world per square foot". In 2021, a total number of 338,193 Instagram pics were taken here. And, considering its shoreline is 260 feet long, that makes for 1,300 photos per foot! While it may be a tourist hotspot, the waves on Kelingking beach don’t take any prisoners! Even still, safe to say that Kelingking’s little quirk has made it into a roar-some tourist attraction!

I hope you were amazed at the most unique beaches in the world! Thanks for reading.