*splash*
August 17, 2013 11:37 AM   Subscribe

 
Love it, bucket listed.
posted by fungible at 12:03 PM on August 17, 2013 [2 favorites]


I want to go to there.
posted by fancyoats at 12:07 PM on August 17, 2013 [5 favorites]


A very good day on MeFi--birds, beaches and sausage dogs. Ah yes--Saturday.
posted by rmhsinc at 12:13 PM on August 17, 2013 [3 favorites]


Medford Beach, Nova Scotia. This is a video taken at low tide. Since it's on the Bay of Fundy, the water is way, way far off at low tide, like the one in India.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:28 PM on August 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


Our planet is so strange and mysterious and beautiful. The Marieta islands hidden beach is absolutely wonderful!

Related: the alien landscapes of Socotra Island.
posted by byanyothername at 12:34 PM on August 17, 2013 [4 favorites]


Been to glass beach, those pictures make it look way more interesting than it really is.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 12:43 PM on August 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


Nice post. I would maybe add the wild beach horses of Assateague Island, on the coast of Maryland.
posted by four panels at 12:47 PM on August 17, 2013


Hey, I've been to Playa de Gulpiyuri. Now I need to dig out the disc with those pictures on it.
posted by mollweide at 12:49 PM on August 17, 2013


brb going to The Marieta islands
posted by mannequito at 12:58 PM on August 17, 2013 [2 favorites]


Copalis Beach Airport on the Washington coast is another beach that's also used as a runway when the tides are right. The Olympic coast to the north is another marvelous expanse of beach - the mountainous rainforest meets the sea along a thin strip of sand replete with crashing waves. Of course, it's not typically ideal for sunbathing.
posted by lantius at 12:59 PM on August 17, 2013


FWIW, #2 'San Alfonso del Mar' is widely seen as a super tacky, aspirational resort for people with more money than taste. The 'pyramids' are set up as two perpendicular 'wings', so that every apartment looks straight into the apartments in the other wing. It's a seen and be seen sort of place, even when you're lounging around in your PJs. They gave away apartments to minor celebrities (tennis players, reality show people) to encourage people to buy.

Basically the genius of San Alfonso's promoter was buying dirt cheap beachfront property in front of a completely unusable beach (as in its dangerous to walk along the beach because a wave might pull you in and drown you, this happens every year) and turning it into a resort. And bribing the right people so he could build over the wetlands that used to be behind the beach.
posted by signal at 1:15 PM on August 17, 2013 [3 favorites]


Re: Assateague wild ponies. I was there for a week last month, and didn't see a one. I missed the annual Pony Swim and Auction, so I believe there are such ponies, but don't count on seeing them. My son has been living on Chincoteague since the Spring, and except for the Swim & Auction, he's seen zero wild ponies. The Assateague beach is a nice one, though.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 1:17 PM on August 17, 2013


Also, Assateague and Chincoteague are in VA, not MD.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 1:19 PM on August 17, 2013


The beaches on Socotra are pretty average, really. Nothing like any on this list. The usual white sands, perfect aquamarine color, stunning reefs and fish and such. The reason Socotra is so interesting is because it contains such an incredible variety of landscape and terrain within such a small landmass. Beach and desert and caves and rolling mountains and verdant forests. And the high levels of endemism in both the flora and fauna.
posted by mykescipark at 1:42 PM on August 17, 2013


Kirth - Assateague Island National Seashore is (primarily) in Maryland.

I was just there camping for a week, last week. Not only did we see the horses (it's hard to call a ~1000lb stallion a "pony") on the beach, we saw them in our campsite. Seven of them. At 1:30 in the morning. Trapping us in our tents. Opening our coolers with their lips (no, really) and eating our marshmallows, potato chips, and the like.

My fiancee now refers to this as "the night the Horses ate my graham crackers."
posted by namewithoutwords at 1:52 PM on August 17, 2013 [10 favorites]


The blurb for Chandipur Beach in India needs some tweaking by a tourism bureau or something: "Tourists visiting the place never like to go back."
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:20 PM on August 17, 2013 [3 favorites]


Been to glass beach, those pictures make it look way more interesting than it really is.

I beg to differ. When I went there as a kid I was absolutely enchanted by the place. Granted, adults may only see a bunch of old beer bottles, but I thought it was the coolest thing. And very symbolic of nature's ultimate triumph over man, if you're in a poetic mood, I suppose. Or man's carelessness if you're in a bad one.
posted by quincunx at 2:44 PM on August 17, 2013


I've flown out of Barra airport before. It's a really odd place - when the tide's in there's a nice terminal building with everything a small airport needs... except a runway! Given that there's only a couple of flights a day (the schedule changes depending on the tides), you can wander around the "runway" most of the time.
posted by leo_r at 2:49 PM on August 17, 2013


The same site has 15 Spectacular hidden beaches which seem to have leapt out of one's imagination.

Not mentioned in either link is my personal favorite, the Red Sand Beach in Maui. Imagine driving to the end of a narrow road, pulling over by the side, and walking through an open field belonging to a community center. Then through some palm trees and down a short slope onto a narrow strip of beach made up of small pebbles. They're equal parts red cinder, black lava, and white coral, reminiscent of bone. You're staring across windswept Kaihalulu Bay but this isn't the red sand beach yet. You walk along the rocks and follow the trail up along the cliff until you round a bend and see the most dazzling shades of turquoise and deep blue in the rough water. Then a little farther and there it is.

The beach itself formed from a partially collapsed cinder cone so there's a natural sea wall that blocks the surf and forms two pools of calm, clear water, one large and one small. Few people know about it, and even fewer go so if you're there early enough, you can have it to yourself. It's not very hard to get to. To this day I don't think I've ever seen colors as vibrant as the ones there.
posted by euphorb at 9:21 PM on August 17, 2013 [4 favorites]


Love it, bucket and spade listed.

Visited the hot springs beach in NZ a few years ago - it's pretty and intriguing, but its not quite "top 15" level. But then, it was so full of people it was hard to really enjoy it.
posted by sodium lights the horizon at 9:07 AM on August 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


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