Let’s be frank. The best beach in the Caribbean is the one you’re on right now. That means choosing our favorite beaches in the Caribbean each year is an almost impossible task — and one that, we admit, is completely subjective. We all have our different tastes when it comes to beaches; some prefer the ultra-secluded, tucked-away beach; others are drawn to the all-day, bustling party beach. So which beaches made the cut this year? Our objective this year was o focus on beaches that are not just beautiful, but reachable.
That means just about every beach on this list can be driven to from a Caribbean airport — in other words, you won’t need to charter a boat, say a secret password and commandeer a dinghy to reach them. You may have heard of some of these beaches; others may be new to your radar. But all of them are the essence of what makes Caribbean beaches so enchanting: that ideal shade of blue, the right softness of the sand, the marvelous alchemy that occurs when white sand and green hills meet the sun.
Sandy Point, St Croix Our number one beach for 2024 is a stunner: Sandy Point, the spectacular stretch of sand on the far southwestern tip of St Croix, just south of Frederiksted. This is a wonder of the Caribbean, tucked away in a National Wildlife Refuge, where you’ll feel like you’ve discovered your own secret beach. It’s a reminder of the sometimes overwhelming natural beauty of the island of St Croix.
Long Bay, Antigua It’s not easy to choose in a destination that has 365 beaches, but we’re smitten with this stretch of sugar-white and sparkling turquoise water on the eastern coast of Antigua.
Eagle Beach, Aruba Aruba is filled with picture-perfect beaches, but nothing stands out quite like the seemingly endless, impossibly wide coastline that is Eagle Beach.
Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman There’s just something about Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman’s signature strand, the way the water feels beyond crystal clear, the way it always feels a few degrees warmer. True sandy perfection.
Long Bay, San Salvador, The Bahamas This is where Columbus was said to have landed in 1492, and when you get here, you’ll feel like no one has been here since. Deliciously empty, with soft sand, calm waves and the feeling of total privacy.
Grand Anse Beach, Grenada There’s an extra degree of sparkle in the water on Grenada’s most famous beach, dotted with lovely hotels and a few beach bars, perfect for long walks or longer swims. A sublime Eastern Caribbean beach.
Le Carbet, Martinique This volcanic beach is set in the northwestern corner of Martinique, just south of Saint Piere in the beach town of Le Carbet. The sand is deliciously soft, the water almost always calm and the beach bars, well, plentiful.
St Jean Beach, St Barth The Caribbean capital of people watching is also just a plain tremendous beach, with spectacular beach bars like Pearl Beach and Gypsea and wonderfully calm waves, perfect for afternoons of sunning and rumming.
Paradise Beach, Paradise Island, The Bahamas Tucked just past The Cove and The Reef on Paradise Island is this beach seemingly ripped straight out of a poster, where you’ll never find crowds and the sand and sea are just so. A reminder of why people came to Paradise Island in the first place.
Grace Bay Beach, Turks and Caicos Grace Bay has it all — the wide sand, the perfect shade of blue, and an infinite number of great resorts and restaruants dotting the coastline. This is the beach that made Provo into a travel hotspot, and it’s not hard to see why.
Pink Sand Beach, Harbour Island, The Bahamas There are more than three miles of, yes, pink sand at this legendary Harbour Island beach, dotted with colorful umbrellas from the hotels perched just above on the dunes.
Rendezvous Beach, Anguilla Anguilla doesn’t have any subpar beaches. What sets Rendezvous apart, beyond its blindingly white sand, are the impossibly beautiful views of neighboring St Martin; the imposing green hills just across the water make for an otherworldly, exotic, hard-to-describe feeling of wonder.
Tropic of Cancer Beach, Little Exuma, The Bahamas Little Exuma is accessed by a tiny bridge just across from the southern part of Great Exuma, and it’s home to this astonishing stretch of shoreline that just so happens to be directly on the boundary of the Tropic of Cancer.
Valley Church Beach, Antigua The color of the sea here is spellbinding, an almost neon turquoise color that has a special kind of sheen. That, coupled with the brilliant sand and Antigua’s green hills, make for an unforgettable visit.
Maho Beach, St John, US Virgin Islands The story here is not just the fantastic Maho Crossroads beach bar, but a postcard-perfect, palm-lined beach at the edge of St John’s National Park.
Magens Bay, St Thomas, US Virgin Islands You can’t do a list of the best beaches in the Caribbean without Magens, the signature beach on St Thomas and the sort of perfect crescent beach straight out of a Caribbean tourism poster. It’s just that beautiful.
Old Bight Beach, Cat Island, The Bahamas The Out Islands of The Bahamas are home to some of the most magnificent, uncrowded beaches in the hemisphere, and it’s hard to find one more idyllic than the five-mile-long Old Bight Beach, where, other than a tiny boutique hotel, you could go days without seeing another soul on the sand.
Gold Rock Beach, Grand Bahama Travelers are beginning to appreciate just how beautiful Grand Bahama Island is, and that’s nowhere more true than the island’s Gold Rock Beach, where the sand is soft and the water is shallow enough that you can wade out hundreds of feet into the sea.
Seven Mile Beach, Negril, Jamaica There’s no place in Jamaica quite like Negril, and there’s no beach quite like Seven Mile, an action-packed, fun-loving endless party filled with great little bars, lovely beach hotels and endless positive vibes.
Pinel Island, St Martin Accessed by a brief ferry from Cul de Sac in St Martin is this jewel, home to a pair of world-class beach bars (with the food to match) and a sliver of sand that feels like something in the South Pacific.
Mambo Beach, Curacao Curacao’s capital of fun is this energetic, always-bustling stretch of sand lined where the emphasis is on, well, enjoyment. The facilites are hard to beat, the food is great and the party simply never stops.
Mudjin Harbour, Middle Caicos, Turks and Caicos Hidden away on the island of Middle Caicos is this otherwordly gem of caves and cliffs and the visceral energy of nature. It’s also home to a terrfic little hotel, Dragon Cay.
La Sagesse, Grenada While Grand Anse rightly gets much of the renown, venture a bit further into Grenada and you’ll find this charming corner of sand tucked between green hills.
Reduit Beach, Saint Lucia Saint Lucia’s premier beach is a lovely stretch of golden sand on thenorth western coast of the island. It’s perfect for all-day beach retreats or long strolls, and it’s also home to the top floating waterpark in the Caribbean.
Bathsheba Beach, Barbados The Caribbean capital of surfing is this beach on the raw, rugged eastern coast of Barbados, where you’ll find stunning scenery, wonderful breezes and some of the best fried fish in the Caribbean.