The Best Beaches: Destinations Above those Mediocre Tourist Beaches

If you love to travel to beach destinations, this article is a must-read for you.

Local people have a tendency to send tourists to the worse beaches and keep the best beaches for themselves. Here are several examples so you don't end up at the worst beaches at some of the most prominent travel destinations surrounding or in the United States.

St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

Bad Beach

Tourists are herded to Magens Bay which tough picturesque is so full of sand fleas (also called sand flies and no no-see-ems) that sitting on this beach is the itchiest experience you will ever have. No need for high SPF lotion, these little bugs will drive you away in less than half an hour. The beach is also too crowded for a good experience. If you bring snorkeling equipment you might as well leave it in your hotel rooms. These are few fish to see and they are not very pretty being silvery schooling fish.

Great Beach

Coki Point Beach is wonderful. It is not too crowded and is a fish sanctuary for the snorkeling enthusiast. There are no sand fleas and the water is clear as spring water. You will want to bring at least an SPF 35 sunburn prevention lotion as you will want to sit here all day. Everybody on Coki Point beach has a smile because they know that most tourists are directed to Magens Bay and are scratching themselves like a dog with fleas.

Oahu, Hawaii

Bad Beach

Believe it or not Waikiki Beach is a tourist trap and the least interesting beach on Oahu the main destination island for most tourists. Waikiki used to be a swamp which was drained to make room for the tourists while keeping the best beaches for the Locals. Most of the hotels are on this strip of sand have numerous tourist traps, time-share hustlers and souvenir shops. The food is most expensive given the quality as well. The snorkeling is poor with few fish or reefs to see. Waves are tiny with little chance to try surfboarding or body surfing.

Great Beaches

There are many great beaches for you to enjoy if you know about them. Hanauma Bay Beach is only a couple of miles from Waikiki but it is a fish sanctuary like few others. The fish are every color of the rainbow and very friendly. You may even pet them since they are not afraid of humans. This is a nice beach with pleasant views but you do have to walk down a somewhat steep path to get there. The walk is well worth it.

Lanikai Beach is one of the most beautiful swimming beaches on Oahu. The sand is soft and white. It a beach you will brag about to your friends when you return home. It is not commercialized like Waikiki and a great beach to spend the day.

The North Shore beaches of Oahu have the best waves for surfing. When the surf is high only experienced surfers should challenge the 20 foot waves. Most of the time the waves are much smaller though.

If you get to the Island Of Hawaii (usually called the Big Island be sure to check out the black sand beaches. These were built up by nature from the volcanic lava that reached the sea and eroded into fine granules.

New York

Bad Beaches

Virtually all the beaches around Brooklyn and Queens are crowded, somewhat dirty and not very impressive. While you might think this is par for the course for big city beaches and rightfully so, there are some of the nicest beaches just a few miles east of these in Long Island.

Great Beaches

Some of the nicest beaches on the east coast of the United States are on Fire Island, a 30 mile long barrier beach off the southern shore of Long Island. The best of these can be reached my ferry boat only but one Robert Moses State park can be driven to via a causeway. Other than this one causeway motor vehicles are not permitted on Fire Island making it fresh and clean. Fire Island is totally un-crowded and you can walk to expanses of beaches where there is not a single other person in sight.

I consider these beaches just as nice as the outer bank beaches of North and South Carolina. Rental of summer group homes make this beach a great place to meet New Yorkers with their hair down.

One warning there are frequent nude beaches so do not bring the kids unless you are a naturist. In addition please note that Fire Island has well over a dozen beach communities. Two of which are gay (not that there is anything wrong with that).

Enjoy your beach vacation. You will at the better beaches.