What is your favorite beach?

[threeplusfire]

Where is your favorite beach?

Bonus points for pretty water, and quiet.

Comments

[splix.livejournal.com]

Sandbridge, Virginia
Cape May, New Jersey
Inis Meain, Ireland

[rockstarbob.livejournal.com]

Anywhere on the Oregon coast, but I don't think those are really swimmable beaches, even during the dog days of August.

[freznor.livejournal.com]

The prettiest water I've seen off a public beach anywhere was Seven Mile Beach on Grand Cayman. Perfect Caribbean azure. The stretch we were on wasn't particularly quiet, but I've heard there are relatively secluded areas nearby...

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

West Dennis Beach, at Cape Cod, and Kamil Beach and Marquette Park Beach, at Lake Michigan.

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

90-Mile Beach on the North Island in New Zealand.

[cjwriter.livejournal.com]

Warren Dunes State Park in the southwest part of Michigan. On a clear day, you can see the Chicago skyline across the water. My family has been going there for years.


http://www.michigandnr.com/ParksandTrails/Details.aspx?id=504&type=SPRK

[litos.livejournal.com]

I second the Warren Dunes. You can't go wrong with any of the beaches in Indiana and the Michigan side of Michigan (as, opposed, you know, to the Huron side....).

The best sand you can imagine, massive rolling dunes of the stuff...., great for lying around on or playing in. Great water for swimming and playing. Big fluffy clouds....

Good times.

The only place I have found that compares is a little beach on the French side of St. Maarten. There the water is nice and the sand decent... You get this great dropoff shortly past shore, and you can swim and dive and play in crystal clear water without swimming out more than 10 yards. It is insane. But, there are lots of little bars and such lining the beach.... they are fun, but I prefer the more naturalistic setting of Lake Michigan's beaches.

[haste.livejournal.com]

Oak Island off the coast of North Carolina. I spent a month there every summer until I was 19. The island is tiny and quiet, even during peak season, the water is calm and a good temperature for swimming. We stayed down at the southern tip of the island, which also meant daily sand bars when the tide went out, and perfect seashell hunting.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

The beaches I went to in Cyprus are the most gorgeous beaches I've ever seen. In particular, I adored one near St George's island (photo!). It was a rocky beaches, but with huge flat slabs of pale stone, so it didn't hurt your feet. There were fishes and sea urchins all over the place. There was a little island close enough to swim too (not St George's itself, but a little place that I think didn't have a name). It was probably a 20-minute or so swim each way, and all away you could look down through the crystal clear water and see the coral and fishes and sand down below you. Supposedly there had been a Roman shipwreck nearby, and you could see amphora, but we didn't find any.

Also awesome was Petra Tou Romiou, where supposedly Aphrodite was born from the sea. There's a big rock that marks the spot the emerged from the waves, and we were told that if you swam around it three times, you would meet your true love.

[ladypeculiar.livejournal.com]

Two . .

The first, in Canada, where my family goes every year:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alterjess/3894603496/in/set-72157622032561458/

The second, Boracay in the Phillipines:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/megansarak/2712509789/in/set-72157606447566492/

[cymry.livejournal.com]

any of the beaches on Capri, Italy. a little too crowded but oh, the water...

for the more local stuff, the little local quarry that serves as a swimming hole in summer. good sand, not too crowded, no scary algae in the water, and rocks in the center to perch on.