Beach Reviews

Every coastline we've stood on.

Slow, on-the-ground reviews of the beaches we have actually stood on. No press trips, no comp rooms. Just water, sand, atmosphere, and the access you'll wish you'd known about.

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15 reviewed

Cala d'Hort beach with straw parasols and blue sun loungers on the sand, turquoise water, and the rock of Es Vedrà with Es Vedranell rising from the sea offshore

4.4

Ibiza, Spain

Cala d'Hort

The beach with the best view in the Balearics. A small sand-and-pebble cove in southwest Ibiza staring straight at the 382-metre rock of Es Vedrà, with paella on the cliff and a sunset that needs no filter.

Camp de Mar beach from above in summer: a busy cove of pale sand with palms and parasols, the wooden footbridge running out to the islet restaurant in turquoise water, and villas on the pine headland behind

4.0

Mallorca, Spain

Camp de Mar Beach

A sheltered sandy cove in southwest Mallorca with a rocky islet 50 metres offshore, reached by a wooden footbridge, with a fourth-generation family restaurant on top of it.

Buġibba Perched Beach: the terrace of imported sand raised above the rocky shoreline of St Paul's Bay, with palm trees and a white hotel block behind and the rocky point beyond

3.7

Malta, Malta

Buġibba Perched Beach

Malta's strangest beach: a terrace of imported Jordanian sand built above a rocky shore in 2006. Small, honest about what it is, and more useful than it sounds.

Skagsanden Beach at dusk: a wave sliding over the wet sand flats in a line of white foam, dark rocks on the shore and the snow-streaked ridge of the headland against an orange evening sky

4.5

Lofoten, Norway

Skagsanden Beach

An Arctic surf beach beside the E10 in Lofoten where dark mineral sand braids through white shell sand, surfers share the lineup with sea eagles, and the northern lights reflect off the wet flats.

Landa Beach near Ayia Napa: pale golden sand sweeping towards a low rocky point, shallow turquoise water along the shoreline, and sunbeds with blue umbrellas down the beach with a white hotel in the trees behind

4.4

Cyprus, Cyprus

Landa Beach

The quiet middle child of Ayia Napa's golden strip. Four hundred metres of fine sand between Nissi and Makronissos, with Nissi's water and none of its speakers.

Kilfarrasy Beach on Ireland's Copper Coast under a heavy grey sky: a small cove of tan Atlantic sand below a low headland cliff to the left, a dark rock outcrop on the beach, Atlantic surf breaking on the shore, and rocky sea stacks standing offshore

3.9

Waterford, Ireland

Kilfarrasy Beach

A small Atlantic sand beach on the Copper Coast, tucked under low cliffs near Annestown. Cold water, real wind, rock pools at low tide, no tour buses.

View along Nea Vrasna Beach on the Strymonian Gulf: a broad shelf of pale coarse sand and fine pebble in the foreground, calm blue water reaching out to a long mountain range on the far side of the gulf, a few swimmers in the shallows under a clear deep-blue sky

4.0

Central Macedonia, Greece

Nea Vrasna Beach

A long, shallow sand beach an hour east of Thessaloniki. The Greek-mainland answer to the family-bay brief: no foreign coach tours, lots of tavernas, water flat enough for the toddlers.

Aerial view of Galissas Bay on the west coast of Syros: a horseshoe-shaped sandy beach wrapped around turquoise shallows, a white sailboat anchored in the deeper blue water at the mouth of the bay, sunbeds along the shore with the village and parking set back behind the sand, and bare Cycladic hills rising on either side

4.2

Syros, Greece

Galissas Beach

The beach on Syros that locals send you to when you ask. A semi-enclosed sandy bay on the west coast, tamarisk shade, a small village behind, and water that stays warm into October.

Aerial view of the Cavtat peninsula south of Dubrovnik: a small old town with terracotta roofs, two sheltered bays full of moored sailboats, and pine-forested coastline running out to the open Adriatic

4.2

Dalmatia, Croatia

Cavtat Beach

Dubrovnik's quieter southern neighbour, with small pebble coves on a peninsula and an old town that hasn't been overrun.

Aerial view of the Punta Skala peninsula at Petrčane, with Aleppo pine trees over the curving pebbly shoreline and swimmers in the clear Adriatic water below

4.1

Dalmatia, Croatia

Petrčane Beach

A pine-shaded Dalmatian village 10 km north of Zadar, with pebbly entries that turn to sand once you're in the water.

Aerial view of a sandbar with two bangka outrigger boats moored in clear turquoise water off Palawan, with forested headlands behind

4.0

Palawan, Philippines

Port Barton Beach

A sleepy fishing-village bay on Palawan's west coast: the slower, dimmer answer to El Nido.

Loukkos Tou Mandi Beach in Ayia Napa, Cyprus: a rocky cove with the steel ladder pier on the left and a wooden viewing platform on the right, looking out at the south-Cyprus turquoise water

4.1

Cyprus, Cyprus

Loukkos Tou Mandi Beach

A small cliff-jump cove 100 metres from the Ayia Napa harbour, with crystal-clear water and a ladder pier for entry.

Amnissos Beach in Heraklion, Crete: long curving golden sand with waves on the left and the Paliochora hill rising at the east end of the bay

4.0

Crete, Greece

Amnissos Beach

Heraklion's nearest sandy bay, with Minoan ruins behind and the airport runway at one end.

Tolo Beach in Nafplio, looking down the long sandy crescent with sunbeds and umbrellas along the shore and the headland of the bay behind

4.2

Peloponnese, Greece

Tolo Beach

The full-service holiday beach 15 minutes from Nafplio: long sand, shallow water, two small islands offshore.

Agni Bay in Corfu, seen from the hillside through olive branches, with motorboats anchored in turquoise water and the mainland mountains beyond

4.1

Corfu, Greece

Agni Beach

Three tavernas, a pebble cove, and the boat taxi from Kalami.