The World’s Most Crystal-Clear Blue Water Beaches
Image: La Samanna, St Martin
We get it Ken, because “beach” is basically our job title too. Not in a “Ken has no interiority” kind of way, we have opinions about the beach, strong ones. Like the fact that a soft white sandy beach ranks way above some shabby cockle lined thing. Or that the water MUST be clear enough for me to see my legs without having to worry about anything below me. We’re beach purists here at Places with Palms.
We have spent an unreasonable number of years flying long-haul, taking small boats to smaller islands, and spending what most people would consider an alarming amount of time horizontal on a sun lounger, all in the name of working out which beaches are worth your annual vacation hours.
We've honeymooned on these shores. We've dived these reefs, We've drunk waaaay too much of the local rum, and had heated arguments about which stretch of sand in the Seychelles edges out which stretch of sand in the Cook Islands.
What follows is not a list of every beautiful beach in the world. It's our shortlist of the world’s best beaches. The ones we'd jump on a flight for tomorrow. Crystal-clear water, great hotel recommendations, and all the details you need to book your next trip.
Here's where to go, when to go, and all the rest.
The Most Crystal Clear Beaches in The World
Anse Source d'Argent, La Digue, in Seychelles Photo Credit: Aleh Varanishcha
Anse Source d'Argent , La Digue, Seychelles
Inside L'Union Estate, a former coconut and vanilla plantation, Anse Source d'Argent is built differently from most beaches on this list. Enormous granite boulders, smoothed and sculpted over thousands of years, jut straight out of the shoreline in a maze of arches, caves, and narrow passages. Pale powder-soft sand, shallow aquamarine water, and sculptural stones place it comfortably at number one on our list.
Access to the beach is controlled through a small entrance fee, which helps to keep the setting intact and minimise over-tourism. Cycle past the main stretch and keep going to Anse Cocos. It's quieter, wilder, and absolutely worth the extra effort.
Getting there: Fly to Mahé (SEZ). From New York via Dubai runs around 23 hours; London direct is about 10.5 hours. From Mahé, take a ferry or short flight to La Digue.The beach is a 10-minute bike ride from La Passe, or a quick boat transfer from nearby islands. Bring cash. There are no ATMs on La Digue.
When to go: April to May, and October to November for calmer seas and the best sunlight.
Images: Six Senses Zil Pasyon, Seychelles
Where to stay near Anse Source d'Argent
Six Senses Zil Pasyon, on neighbouring Félicité Island, is a 10-minute boat ride away. Each ocean-view villa is built from Creole timber and granite with a glass-bottomed pool that filters light straight into the living space below.
The hotel’s internationally renowned day spa is cut directly into the island’s granite outcrops, with a saltwater pool set high above the shoreline and a quiet meditation pavilion with some of the hotel’s best views.
Days can be spent kayaking, snorkeling and diving Felicite island, island hopping between Coco Island, Felicite and La Digue. Turtle Nesting season is from October to February. Spend evenings under the stars enjoying the open-air cinema, or skip the popcorn and book a seat at Kri. Six Senses’ Japanese restaurant, where chef Isa Raku sets the nightly omakase menu.
Image: Palm heights, Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman
Seven Mile Beach , Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
A classic for good reason, Seven Mile Beach runs along Grand Cayman's west coast. A giant strip of wide, uninterrupted white sand with water that shifts from pale turquoise to deep blue depending on the light. Calm conditions year-round make it a reliable choice no matter what season. The sand is soft, the entry is shallow, and the water stays clear even on windier days.
You can walk for miles, swim without thinking about currents, and move between beach, lunch, and back again without any particular plan. Perfection.
Getting there: Fly into Grand Cayman (GCM). Direct from Miami (1 hour), New York (4 hours), London (11 hours). It's a 10 minute drive from the airport.
When to go: December through to April for dry, sunny weather. May through to June is quieter with good conditions. Avoid peak hurricane season (September to October).
Local tip: Head out in the early evening. The beach faces directly West so sunsets here are consistently good. A freshly made rum punch from Library By The Sea (one of the World's Top 50 Best Bars) is the perfect way to close out the day.
Images: Palm heights, Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman
Where to stay near Seven Mile Beach
Palm Heights, set directly on the best stretch of Seven Mile Beach, is driving a Cayman's resurgence. A former Hyatt that Gabriella Khalil and her husband Matthew turned into one of the most recognisable hotels in the Caribbean. The references are unmistakably 1970s, Mario Bellini sofas, Pierre Paulin chairs, mustard yellow umbrellas neatly lined up along the sand.
An Airport pickup in a vintage Mercedes, check-in over a drink instead of a desk, it’s the small details at Palm Heights that hark back to a more analogue era.
Chloë Sevigny’s widely publicised bachelorette party was the event that cemented Palm Heights as the Caribbean hotel for people who usually avoid Caribbean hotels. The Height’s yellow baseball caps have become an unlikely downtown status symbol, appearing with alarming frequency in lower Manhattan airport lounges and Dimes Square coffee lines.
Sure, the rooms are beautiful, but their Garden Club is what makes me want book my trip back. Gorgeous tiled hammams, cold plunges looking out into dense greenery, mineral baths carved from travertine, and of course, a solid pilates programme for the Miami crowd.
Food is central to the Palm Heights experience. Tillie’s is the social hub of the hotel, serving up grilled local fish, salty fried chicken (ideal after a big night), with a space thats perfect for long lunches. There’s also a rotating chef residency programme that regularly pulls in serious names, it’s worth checking the line up before booking.
Then there's the music. No AI beach-house playlists. Actual programming. One night might slide into Balearic disco another into dancehall or old-school reggae. And somebody always knows somebody.
Image: Meads Bay Anguilla, Malliouhana Resort
Meads Bay, Anguilla
Trust us when we say Meads Bay is the Caribbean beach you've been looking for. Calm waves so clear you can watch fish work their way through the tides. Sand so soft your feet disappear straight into it.
Framing the beach as the focal point, Anguilla's best hotels sit back on the clifftops either side of Meads Bay. Superyachts park offshore on sunny days (which is almost all year). Beach bars drift soft jazz across the sand. Nobody is in a rush to do anything except roll the dice for the next round of backgammon.
And if you feel like beach hopping, Anguilla has a beach for every mood. Snorkel Crocus Bay, cliff jump at Little Bay, play a round of golf overlooking Rendezvous Bay.
Getting there: Fly into Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport (AXA). Direct flights run from Miami, with connections via San Juan, Antigua, or St. Maarten. Most people come through St. Maarten (SXM) and take a 25-minute ferry from just outside arrivals. The approach by sea is worth it.
Image: La Samanna, A Belmond Hotel, St Martin
Travel Tip: St. Maarten is worth a night in its own right. Belmond La Samana on the French side is one of the Caribbean's great overlooked hotels. If you're routing through to Anguilla, it earns a stop.
When to go: December to April is dry season. The trade winds keep things comfortable even on the hottest days. May is underrated. The crowds thin, rates drop, and the Anguilla Culinary Experience runs end of April into early May.
Planning around the Poker Run is a must. Every August, it's the headlining act of Anguilla's Summer Festival. Up to 100 boats descend on the island for a full-day beach-hopping race across five beaches. It kicks off at Johnno's Beach Bar, breakfast, music, engines running, and works its way around the island collecting crews from St. Maarten, St. Barths and the BVI along the way. Either you live and travel for the chaos of it, or you steer clear
Images: Malliouhana Resort, Meads Bay, Anguilla
Where to stay near Meads Bay
Malliouhana put Anguilla on the map as a luxury destination. When it opened in the 1980s it brought something the island had never had. Trained chefs, formal kitchens, a restaurant that treated Caribbean produce with real discipline. The chefs it trained went on to open their own places across the island. That legacy is still running forty years later.
The property sits on a clifftop above both Meads Bay and Turtle Cove, the colourful gardens crawling down the cliffs. The open-air lobby is layered with antique diving bells, mirrored mosaic tiling, and a Haitian art collection donated by original owner Leon Roydon. Every corner has details worth stopping for.
Culinary Director Kerth Gumbs, Anguilla-born and BBC Great British Menu winner, runs three restaurants that each have their own appeal. Bar Soleil was recently named one of the top ten hotel bars in the world. It overlooks the pool area, serving up rum cocktails over sundown, super yachts drifting past below. Leon's is barefoot at its best, located right on Meads Bay. A classic Caribbean beach bar with grilled fish, strong drinks, weekends with live music and beach games.
The Spa at Malliouhana was also recently awarded as one of the World's Best Hotel Spas by Harper's Bazaar. Beyond the spa, tennis, pickleball, yoga, all on offer with options to book private training sessions.
We spent our honeymoon here, and can safely recommend it for special occasions, or any time you feel like unadulterated relaxation.
Worth the drive: Ten minutes south around the headland, you’ll find another one of Anguilla’s best beaches, Maundays Bay. Cap Juluca runs along its entire length, white Moorish-Greco domed villas lining the bay, transporting you somewhere closer to Santorini than the Caribbean. Head to Uchu for Peruvian lunch on the coastline.
Mnemba Island- Zanzibar Photo Credit: Solovyova
Mnemba Sandbank, Mnemba Island, Zanzibar
Often touted as one of the most underated destinations in Zanzibar, Mnemba is a private atoll ringed by a shallow turquoise reef where the water stays warm, clear, and completely calm. Long stretches of powder-white sand, and lush greenery.
Located off Zanzibar's northeast coast, this breathtaking beach is a holiday spot for famous jet setters like Mick Jagger, and Naomi Campbell. We don't blame them for wanting to whittle away their days lying on Mnemba Island’s soft sand.
But what puts Mnemba island at the top of our list is what’s just offshore. Mnemba Island is one of the most consistent snorkelling and diving spots in East Africa, with clear visibility, healthy coral, and regular sightings of turtles, and reef sharks and pods of dolphins moving through the channel.
Image: & Beyond Mnemba Island Dow
Getting there: Fly into Zanzibar (ZNZ). It's about a 1.5-hour drive to the northeast coast, followed by a short 15 minute boat transfer to the island.
When to go: June through till October for dry, cooler conditions. December to February is hot, clear, and ideal for long days in the water. Avoid April to May (heavy rains).
Local tip: Time a sandbank picnic at low tide. A strip of white sand emerges meters from the beach, completely exposed and surrounded by open water. It's as good as it sounds.
Image: & Beyond Mnemba Island
Where to stay near Mnemba Sandbank
&Beyond Mnemba Island is the only property on Mnemba island, with 12 beachfront bandas tucked into the treeline, spaced far enough apart that you’ll feel like you have the island all to yourself.
There’s no pool, which tells you everything about the hotel’s concept. The ocean is core to the experience, snorkel straight off the beach, sail at sunset, or dive the reef with the island’s in-house marine team.
The atoll is also a protected breeding ground for green turtles, with nesting activity monitored year-round and peak sightings between April and August.
Image: Visit Corsica, Plage de Saleccia , Corsica, France
Plage de Saleccia , Corsica, France
A small idyllic beach. Wild, remote, hard to reach, but that's part of what makes it perfect. Tucked along the coast of the Désert des Agriates, a 16,000-hectare protected wilderness on Corsica's northern coast, this beach has no road, no infrastructure, and no easy way in. The effort filters out anyone who isn't serious, which is part of the reason it remains one of the most unspoiled stretches of coastline in the Mediterranean.
What's waiting on the other side is pure white sand, backed by towering sand dunes, a pine forest, sparkling turquoise water, and isolation that's increasingly hard to find in Southern Europe. No sunbed operators, no beach clubs. Just the beach, the water, a good book, and the Corsican sun.
Getting there: From Saint-Florent, take a small boat directly to Saleccia on calm days, the quickest option when the sea cooperates, though note there's no pier; you jump off into the water to reach the shore, and operators won't land if conditions are rough.
Alternatively, take the sea shuttle to neighbouring Lotu beach and follow the coastal path for around 1–1.5 hours on foot.
A 4WD from Casta gets you through the Agriates desert track to the beach. Le Popeye, based in Saint-Florent, is the well-established operator for both shuttle boats and guided combination trips, boat one way, 4WD the other, and worth booking in advance in high season.
When to go: June and September are ideal. With warm water, long days, and the peak crowds have whittled out.
Local tip: Before or after the beach, drive 15 minutes to the Patrimonio vineyards, one of Corsica's great AOC wine regions, producing Nielluccio reds and Vermentino whites you won't easily find anywhere else. Ask Antonio at Basgi Basgi which producers to visit. He knows the winemakers personally.
Images: Boutique-Hôtel et Restaurant Basgi Basgi
Where to stay near Plage de Saleccia
Basgi Basgi, the project of a young couple, Coline and Matthieu, who built the hotel they actually wanted to stay in. Twenty-eight rooms, a saltwater pool, and a restaurant serving Corsican produce with a wine list running to over 100 local references. The building is a rehabilitation of the region's original limestone wine cellar, redesigned in a way that respects the codes of Nebbiu without being too precious about it. Breakfast is generous and heros local produce, homemade cakes, Corsican charcuterie, fresh organic fruits. The Sunday Times called it one of the Mediterranean's hidden paradises.
Image: Pink Sand Beach, Eleven Experiences
Pink Sand Beach , Harbour Island, Bahamas
There are few beaches in the world where the sand itself is the attraction, and Harbour Island's Pink Sand Beach earns the claim. The blush colour isn't from heavy Photoshop editing either. It comes from microscopic marine organisms called foraminifera whose pink and red shells wash ashore and mix with the white sand and crushed coral to create three miles of pale rose shoreline along the island's eastern Atlantic coast.
The pink sands are at their most vivid in the early morning or late afternoon when the light sits low. The water is calm, clear, and shallow, and the barrier reef offshore creates protected conditions that make swimming and snorkelling stress-free.
Harbour Island itself is as good as the beach. No cars, only golf carts. Pastel colonial architecture in Dunmore Town, a handful of good restaurants, with a crowd that discovered the place years ago and have been coming back ever since. Horseback riding along the waterline at dawn is a non-negotiable.
Getting there: Fly to Nassau (NAS), then either take the Bahamas Fast Ferry to Harbour Island's Government Dock (around 2.5 hours), or fly to North Eleuthera Airport (ELH), a 15-minute flight, followed by a 1.5-mile taxi ride and a 5-minute water taxi. We recommend the second option.
When to go: December through to April for reliable sun, but you’ll have to stomach the peak season pricing. Harbour Island is pretty quiet year-round and the weather holds well outside hurricane season which runs June to November.
Images: Eleven Bahama House, Dunmore Town, Bahamas
Where to stay near Pink Sand Beach
Eleven Bahama House, just 11 rooms arranged around a courtyard in a historic Dunmore Town estate, draped in bougainvillea and built around a freshwater pool with underwater speakers and a rum bar that earns its keep.
Rooms are named for Harbour Island streets and dressed with antiques, local artwork, and a Caribbean Miami aesthetic that makes you feel like you’re on vacation. The hotel organises your beach day. Setting up chairs, coolers stocked with drinks, snorkel gear, and a dedicated attendant.
The Experience Team handles everything from bonefishing excursions to private chef dinners. It's not beachfront, but the 15-minute stroll through Dunmore Town to the sand is all part of the fun.
Images: The Baths, British Virgin Islands
The Baths, Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands
An absolute legend. There are beaches, and then there are places that have no real equivalent anywhere else on earth, and The Baths is firmly in the second category. The southwest tip of Virgin Gorda is covered in enormous granite boulders, some topping 40 feet, formed 70 million years ago when magma cooled deep underground and was slowly pushed to the surface. The result is a labyrinthine network of grottoes, tidal pools, and caves threaded through with white sand and crystal-clear water that you have to physically climb, wade, and squeeze your way through to fully experience.
The best way is to sail up to shore, drop anchor on a mooring ball, and swim through the swell straight onto the beach. From there you're into the boulders, working through the caves until you reach the Cathedral Room, a cavernous natural grotto where sunlight pours through gaps in the rock and lights up the water below. Keep going and you arrive at Devil's Bay, a sheltered beach clearing at the end of the trail with calm, shallow water and almost no one on it by the time you get there. Alternatively, walk the trail down from the top and weave your way through to Devil's Bay from land.
Virgin Gorda beyond the Baths is criminally underrated. Richard Branson's Moskito Island sits just offshore in the North Sound. Saba Rock is a small floating beach bar worthy of a visit. A restaurant perched on the edge of a tiny island in the heart of North Sound. And Bitter End Yacht Club, at the far end of North Sound, is one of our favourite beach clubs anywhere in the world.
Getting there: Fly into Tortola's Beef Island Airport (EIS) via San Juan, St. Thomas, or Antigua, then take the 30-minute Speedy's Ferry to Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda, followed by a 10-minute taxi to the Baths.
When to go: December to April is the dry season in the British Virgin Islands and has calmer seas. The Baths can close when the swell picks up so if you’re planning a trip around visiting The Baths skip hurricane season (June till November). Go early in the day before the cruise ship tours arrive from Tortola.
Local tip: Don't just do the Baths and leave. Hire a boat for the day, take in North Sound, stop in at Oil Nut Bay for a “make-your-own” bloody mary and finish the day at Bitter End for some competitive cornhole and hydrofoiling before sunset. That's the full Virgin Gorda day and it's hard to beat anywhere in the Caribbean.
Image: Rosewood Little Dix Bay
Where to stay near The Baths
Rosewood Little Dix Bay. Laurance Rockefeller opened Rosewood Little Dix Bay in 1964 after arriving by boat and deciding the bay was too beautiful to leave alone. Importantly, he didn’t want to overbuild the area. Even now, the hotel sits discreetly into the landscape, hidden inside tropical gardens instead of towering above them.
The beach curves for half a mile around calm turquoise water, with sailboats drifting in and out of the bay throughout the day. Pelicans skim the shoreline in the mornings. By sunset, the entire place turns gold.
Nobody is trying too hard here. The soundtrack shifts between soft jazz, and the occasional vinyl-heavy beach set at Rum Room. Guests arrive barefoot to dinner after long afternoons on the water.
Food is a major part of why people return, with an organic on site farm that supplies the resort's three restaurants. Rosewood Little Dix does better than most Caribbean 5 star hotels. Reef House serves beachside long lunches and light dinner options. For something special, there's a ten-course Chef's Table built around Caribbean ingredients and produce from the farm. Sugar Mill is more formal, with candlelit tables set inside one of the island’s oldest stone buildings. Expect local spices worked into classic dishes rather than theatrical tasting menus.
Complimentary boat transfers run to hidden beaches scattered around Virgin Gorda, quiet coves and stretches of sand only accessible by sea. Staff pack snorkel gear, cold drinks, towels, then leave you there for the afternoon.
There are also six tennis courts, sailing lessons, excellent reef diving, and a Sense Spa hidden high in the gardens.
Rooms stay true to the Rockefeller vision. Pale woods, enormous beds, outdoor showers, and terraces designed for disappearing with a book for several hours.
Whitehaven Beach - Australia Photo Credit: Andrew Bertuleit
Whitehaven Beach , Whitsundays, Australia
Seven kilometres of pure silica sand on Whitsunday Island's eastern coast. Silica stays cool underfoot even in full sun, which means you can walk barefoot at midday without regret, and the sand is so white it barely looks real from above. The water shifts from pale aquamarine in the shallows to deep blue where the channel runs, and the Hill Inlet lookout, a 30-minute walk through forest from the southern end of the beach, gives you the view that ends up on every Queensland tourism poster. The tidal patterns push the sand around in formations that change every day.
The beach is uninhabited and undeveloped. No bars, no sunbeds, no infrastructure. Which is precisely why people love it.
Getting there: Fly into Hamilton Island (HTI), direct from Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, or into Proserpine/Whitsunday Coast (PPP) and ferry to Airlie Beach. Whitehaven is a boat trip from both Hamilton Island and Airlie Beach. Most operators run day trips, but the smarter approach is a multi-day sailing charter with an overnight anchorage in the bay.
When to go: Head to Whitsundays between June to August for the driest, clearest conditions. Summer (December to February) brings stinger season and stinger suits are non-negotiable in the water.
Local tip: Take a private charter out. The beach is busy by midday. Being there at 8am with almost no one else is a fundamentally different experience.
Images: Qualia, Hamilton Island
Where to stay near Whitehaven Beach
Qualia, on Hamilton Island's northernmost tip, fringed by coral, and consistently ranked among Queensland’s best resorts. Sixty individual pavilions set in eucalypts and wispy palms, each with breathtaking views and either a sundeck or private infinity plunge pool.
The resort runs helicopter excursions from its own helipad directly to the Great Barrier Reef, with a Whitehaven Beach stop included. With two on-site restaurants, the Long Pavilion for breakfast and casual dining, Pebble Beach for a six-course tasting menu that genuinely delivers.
The resort is adults-only (16+), car-free, and navigated by golf cart. Make sure to pre-book everything, spa, dinners, and activities fill quickly as guests staying throughout Hamilton Island can also book into the restaurant
El Cielo - Cozumel Island
El Cielo , Cozumel, Mexico
The name translates to “the sky,” a reference to the starfish scattered across the ocean floor like constellations. El Cielo is a shallow, protected bay within Cozumel’s national park, where a white sandy seabed is dotted with starfish visible in startling detail through water so clear it barely seems there. You can spot them from 10 metres above. The bay is calm, warm, and sheltered, the kind of place that you could float over for hours.
We visited El Cielo on our last trip travelling through the Caribbean side of Mexico and it stood out as one of our favourite stops along the whole route. If you've been to Tulum and found it overrun, the quiet side of Cozumel is the reset you're looking for. Far more pristine, insane dive sites, with underwater visibility that the mainland coast simply can't match.
Get here by boat from San Miguel (around 30 minutes) and go with a guide who understands how to approach the marine life respectfully, we recommend Adrian Cozumel. This is a protected area and the guidelines matter, you’re in crocodile land. Combine it with a drift dive along the Palancar Reef for a full day that earns the trip from wherever you've flown in from.
Getting there: Fly into Cozumel (CZM) directly, or into Cancún (CUN) and take the ADO bus to Playa del Carmen ferry terminal, then the ferry across (45 minutes total). Cozumel's airport has direct flights from several US cities including Miami.
When to go: November to April for dry season and peak water clarity. Avoid August through to October as Cozumel sits within the Hurricane belt.
Local tip: Go first thing in the morning before the tour boats arrive. The bay is a different place with only one or two other groups in it.
Images; InterContinental Presidente Cozumel Resort Spa
Where to stay near El Cielo
InterContinental Presidente Cozumel Resort Spa, the longest-running resort on the island, with direct beach access and one of the best house reefs in Cozumel right off the dock. Overwater palapa rooms sit above the Caribbean, and the reef is close enough that serious snorkellers rarely leave the property. PADI dive centre on site, and the team knows the local dive sites better than anyone.and spa.
Grace Bay Turks & Caicos Photo Credit: Jack Cohen
Grace Bay, Turks & Caicos
Grace Bay is consistently ranked among the world's best beaches and the ranking holds up. The barrier reef running along Providenciales creates a buffer from ocean swells that leaves the bay calm, clear, and impossibly shallow for most of the year, with soft white sand, a bottom littered with sand dollars and pink-tinged tellins, and visibility that runs to 30 metres on a good day.
Even when the beach is busy, you can find stretches of sand all to yourself.
Getting there: Fly into Providenciales (PLS), direct from New York, Miami, Boston, London, and several other cities. From the airport it's a 15-minute drive to Leeward Marina, then a 35-minute scenic boat transfer to Parrot Cay. COMO's team arranges everything.
When to go: December–April for dry season. September–October is peak hurricane season. Avoid. The shoulder months of May–June and November offer calmer conditions and lower rates.
Images: COMO Parrot Cay
Where to stay near Grace Bay
COMO Parrot Cay, the private island that has become one of the Caribbean's most sought-after stays.
COMO Parrot Cay is a 35-minute boat transfer northeast of Providenciales. The island has 1,000 acres entirely to itself, a mile-long powdered beach that’s never crowded, and the kind of enforced separation from the outside world that leaves you completely relaxed.
Accommodation ranges from hillside rooms and suites to beachfront villas and beach houses. The in-house spa therapists, many Balinese-trained, regularly run treatments that rival anything in Southeast Asia.
The food is far above what Caribbean destinations typically manage with three onsite restaurants, including a beautiful outdoor terraced romantic Italian spot with Monday night Jazz. Kayaks, paddleboards, and snorkel gear are complimentary.
The mangrove kayaking excursion through the island's interior is one of the more extraordinary things you can do in Turks and Caicos.
Image: One Foot Island, Aitutaki
One Foot Island , Aitutaki, Cook Islands
Aitutaki has around 2,000 residents. In practice it feels like far fewer. This is a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Remote, unspoilt, a place that makes you realise how much effort most "paradise" destinations put into creating the idea of paradise rather than letting nature be. There are no high-rises, no cruise ship crowds, no one trying to sell you anything or pushing for a massage. Just the lagoon, and a post office.
The lagoon is the main attraction, with crystal-clear water that shifts between shades of turquoise depending on the depth. On cloudless days, the colour is unnaturally vivid. One Foot Island sits at its edge, a tiny uninhabited motu fringed by white sand and surrounded by shallow water that glows electric blue. At low tide, a narrow sandbank extends out into the lagoon before dissolving beneath the surface. The island's only structure is a small post office hut, where visitors can have their passports stamped with one of the South Pacific's more unusual souvenirs.
Getting there: Fly into Rarotonga (RAR). Air New Zealand from Auckland, Jetstar from Sydney, then take the 40-minute ATI Air shuttle to Aitutaki. No direct international flights exist, which is a large part of why the place remains what it is.
When to go: Visit Aitutaki from April to November for stable weather. While December through to March is Summer, it typically brings more rain. There is genuinely no bad time though. Aitutaki is so small the rain never tends to hang around too long.
Local tip: A lagoon cruise to One Foot Island is the centrepiece of any stay. Book through Bishop Cruises. The day includes snorkelling, time on the sandbank, and fresh fish served from the island hut.
Image: Pacific Resort Aitutaki
Where to stay near One Foot Island
Pacific Resort Aitutaki is a small boutique property on the island's western coast, with thatched beachfront bungalows and villas opening directly onto the lagoon.
Book a beachfront bungalow, you'll still be thinking about the view years later. It's a few steps from your bed to the sand, with warm turquoise water and tropical fish drifting by before breakfast. Kayaks are complimentary, making it easy to spend the morning exploring the lagoon before the day heats up.
Rapae Bay serves locally inspired Pacific cuisine and excellent margaritas, while the infinity pool looks straight across the water, with windsurfers tracing the horizon in the distance. The staff are exceptional, warm and intuitive in a way that feels inherent to the island's culture rather than forced.
The hotel is adults-only (12+), which makes an already peaceful corner of Aitutaki feel even quieter.
Image: Beqa Lagoon Sandbank
The Sandbank, Beqa Lagoon, Fiji
Most people fly into Nadi, transfer to Denarau Marina, and call that Fiji. Denarau is a soulless strip of tourist infrastructure that tells you nothing about the country. The real Fiji is out in the islands, the Yasawas, the Mamanucas, the far-flung Lau group, or one of our favourite spots on the main island itself, Beqa Lagoon. And the place that makes the case for Beqa is the sandbank.
At low tide a strip of pure white sand rises out of the middle of the lagoon, surrounded on every side by water so clear and so vivid it looks backlit. No island, no palm trees, no bar, no other people. Just a sliver of sand in the open Pacific that exists for a few hours and then disappears beneath the surface again.
We came out here on Royal Davui's Sand Cay Picnic, dropped off by boat and left alone for three hours. Just the two of us, the emerald water, a deep blue sky, and groups of crabs working the sand. You can snorkel straight off the cay. Surrounded by clownfish, Silikili damselfish just hanging in the shallows. We did not want to leave. We have not found anywhere more beautiful in Fiji, and we would put it against anywhere in the world.
The lagoon around it is the other reason to come. The reef here has been a protected no-fishing zone for over 25 years, and the results are visible the moment you get in the water. The soft coral is extraordinary, dense and vivid, growing in formations that make the reef look like an underwater garden. Sharks patrol the outer edges, rays drift through the shallows, and the smaller stuff keeps divers in the water until they are forced out. For the serious diver, Beqa Lagoon's Shark Reef Marine Reserve runs one of the world's most properly managed structured shark dives, with bull sharks, tiger sharks, and multiple reef species in a controlled environment. The shark dive runs Mondays and Fridays. Book it before you arrive.
Getting there: Fly into Nadi (NAN), then transfer to Pacific Harbour, around two hours, followed by a 20-minute boat ride out to the lagoon. The sandbar is a 5 minute boat ride from Royal Davui Island.
When to go: May to October is Fiji's dry season and the best conditions for diving and clear water. December to April is more variable.
Local tip: The cay is tide-dependent, so it only surfaces at certain times of day. If you are staying at Royal Davui, book the Sand Cay Picnic and ask them to time the drop-off for low tide so you get the full window out there. It is as good as it sounds.
Images: Royal Davui Resot
Where to stay near Beqa Sandbank
Royal Davui, a small, quiet, adults-only private island sitting right in the lagoon, two hours from Nadi and a world away from it. Just sixteen private vales spread through ten acres of dense tropical vegetation, each with their own plunge pool, sun deck, and uninterrupted ocean views. The resort is meals-inclusive, which on an island so remote is exactly what you want.
Surrounding Royal Davui Island you’ll find a reef drop off you’ll find a kaleidoscope of soft coral, small tropical fish and critters. Small reef sharks work the outer edges, rays drift through the shallows, and nudibranchs that keep divers in the water until they are forced out. If you only get in the water in one place in Fiji, make it here.
The island itself is understated, just a small spot big enough to house a boutique but beautifully run resort by people who care about it. The staff will know your name by the second day and remember what you drink.
Images: Matira Beach, Bora Bora
Matira Beach, Bora Bora, French Polynesia
The only public beach on Bora Bora, running along the island's southern tip. No resort walls, no entrance fee, no hawkers. Just a mile and a half of soft white sand and water shallow enough to wade for what feels like forever. Travel + Leisure has called it the most beautiful beach in the world, and for once the ranking holds up.
The name carries a small piece of maritime history. In 1792 the British whaler Matilda wrecked in Polynesian waters, and one of its survivors, James Connor, settled on this southernmost point of Bora Bora and called it Matilda Point. Over two centuries the local pronunciation softened Matilda into Matira, and the name stuck. Long before that, Polynesian navigators used the same point as a lookout and a safe landing along the lagoon, the calmest and most sheltered corner of the island.
Walk out to Matira Point at the very tip for the best of the beach, where the sand narrows and the water wraps around you on three sides. Bloody Mary's, a Bora Bora institution since the 1970s, is a few minutes back from the sand for a long barefoot lunch. The Leopard Rays Trench, one of the lagoon's best snorkel and dive sites, is a short boat ride offshore.
Getting there: Fly to Tahiti (PPT), then take the 50-minute Air Tahiti connection to Bora Bora (BOB), landing on Motu Mute. Matira Beach is at the southern end of the main island, about 8km from the main town of Vaitape, roughly 10 minutes by car or taxi.
When to go: May to October for drier conditions and the best visibility. November to April brings more rain but also fewer tourists and better hotel rates. Whale sharks occasionally appear in the lagoon between January and March.
Local tip: On Sundays, local families come to Matira after church and the beach takes on a completely different, far livelier energy that is worth seeing even if you prefer the quieter weekday version.
Where to stay near Matira Beach
Conrad Bora Bora Nui, on Motu To'opua, a private island a short boat ride from the main island. We have stayed at all of Bora Bora's five-star properties and keep coming back to the same conclusion. Since its renovation, the Conrad sits firmly at the top of the field, and it does so without making you feel you are paying purely for a name the way some of its competitors do.
Part of that comes down to value. Some Bora Bora hotels charge heavily for their reputation. The Conrad feels like you're paying for the actual product. The overwater villas are among the largest on the island, many with private infinity pools, and are positioned to face the open Pacific rather than Mount Otemanu. Instead of looking inward, you're looking out across layers of reef and ocean.
The renovation solved a problem that affects many of Bora Bora's older properties. Everything feels contemporary, spacious and fresh, without losing the traditional Polynesian island romance people come here for in the first place.
Food is strong across the resort. Iriatai restaurant serves locally influenced French fine dining, while Tamure Beach Grill hosts a Polynesian dinner show each Tuesday with fire dancers performing barefoot on the sand. It's touristy in a good way and worth booking.
The spa on-site offers Biologique Recherche treatments, excellent facials, and has a very cozy Finnish sauna, with treatment rooms positioned high above the lagoon. Not a bad place to spend an afternoon in Bora Bora.
Thanks For ReadingWe've been horizontal on a lot of sand in the name of getting this list right. We'll keep going. If somewhere extraordinary isn't on here yet, it's either because we haven't been, or it didn’t make the cut this year. Let us know if you think we’ve missed one so we can add it to our list to investigate for 2027.