Where is the nicest sand?

Table of Contents
  • These beaches boast stark white sand that beautifully contrasts with azure waters and painted skies.
  • Rendezvous Bay: Anguilla.
  • Grace Bay: Turks & Caicos.
  • Destin: Florida.
  • Orange Beach: Alabama.
  • Paraga Beach: Mykonos, Greece.
  • Shoal Bay: Anguilla.
  • White Bay: Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands.




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New South Wales, Australia As for the honor of the world's whitest sand? Well, it goes to the little-known beach at Hyam's Beach, on the shores of Jervis Bay in the Australia state of New South Wales.

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Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday Island, Australia Whitehaven Beach is consistently ranked as the world's best beach, and with good reason: It's almost surreally beautiful. Besides its crystal clear waters, it's known for its white sand, consisting of 98% pure silica which gives it a bright white color.

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Olivine Sand Sand of almost exclusively olivine grains is very rare, and Papakolea is one of only four green sand beaches in the world. The others are Hornindalsvatnet in Norway, Punta Cormorant in the Galapagos Islands, and Talofofo Beach in Guam.

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Best White Sand Beaches in the U.S.
  • Lanikai Beach, Oahu, Hawaii. This little treasure routinely tops the list of best beaches. ...
  • Orange Beach, Alabama. ...
  • Clearwater Beach, Florida. ...
  • Marco Island, Florida. ...
  • Carmel Beach, California. ...
  • Kauna'oa Beach, Hawaii. ...
  • Cape Hatteras National Seashore, North Carolina.


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For millions of years in the Gulf of Mexico and along the coast the constant grinding and pulverizing motion of the waves have broken down the sand. That creates a situation where the sand becomes so fine it doesn't take more than a small breeze to displace it on the beach. This is called “saltating”.

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The beach is noticeably less pink than it used to be due to humans snagging a little souvenir. While this may sound excessive and possibly even amusing, taking sand is illegal from beaches all over the world.

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Black beaches are so rare because they're only formed under very specific conditions. Essentially, when hot lava is rapidly cooled by the ocean, basalt rock is formed and shattered into tiny pieces and black sand.

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A Google search revealed that those shiny flecks are actually a mineral called mica–the same type of mineral used to produce glittery substances prized by cave painters (40,000 years ago), cosmetic companies (1960s), and David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust (1972).

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One of the main highlights of Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur is the famous purple sand. Erosion of the cliffs above, which contain Manganese garnet rocks, is responsible for the incredible plum-like colors you see here.

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The Weddell Sea has been claimed by scientists to have the clearest waters of any ocean in the world. Described by a historian as “the most wretched and dismal region on earth”, due to the flash freezes that caught Shackleton's ship, its clarity is only belied by the sheer depth of the ocean below.

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