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From black sand beaches to sands dotted with forgotten diamond mines.
What makes a perfect beach is easy to ascertain: Soft white sand, a fringe of palm trees, maybe a smooth boulder at the edge, and crystal-clear water lapping at its hem. A surreal beach, however, can come in many guises, and its surrealness could stem from its color, make up, or experience.
Generally speaking, a surreal beach may have elements taken from a perfect beach, just with something different thrown into the mix. Here are 10 examples of truly surreal beaches from around the world.
1 OF 10
Diamond Beach
WHERE: Iceland
To be fair, Iceland has a good selection of surreal beaches, but the loveliest surely must be Diamond Beach, also known as Breidamerkursandur Beach. Found in the south of the island, roughly a four- to five-hour drive from Reykjavik, it is a black-sand beach that would be stunning on its own. But this beach is also sprinkled with hundreds of ice fragments, fallen from the nearby Jokulsarlon Glacier. Glinting in the sunshine, these large pieces of ice do look, you’ve guessed it, like diamonds, and shine in perfect contrast to the black sand.
2 OF 10
Seaglass Beach
WHERE: Fort Bragg, California
Considering that glass is made mostly from sand, this beach is one step ahead. Instead of sand, the beach is made up of millions and millions of tiny, colorful pieces of glass. Sea glass is basically disposed-of glass washed and smoothed over the years by the waves, and can be found on beaches around the world. This beach, though, is unique because of the sheer amount of sea glass found here. Left over from a nearby city garbage dump, with the discarded glass long washed into the sea, only to have emerged on this one beach, it proves the theory that one man’s garbage is another’s treasure. But alas, even the most dedicated collectors are not allowed to take even one piece off the beach.
3 OF 10
Papakōlea Beach
WHERE: Big Island, Hawaii
Green sand is not something you see often. In fact, there are only four beaches in the world that have green sand: the Galapagos Islands, Guam, Norway, and the Big Island of Hawaii. Admittedly, green is not necessarily the most inviting-looking color of sand, but it sure makes for a surreal sight. The green or olive color of the sand comes from the crystal olivine, found in certain lava flows. This beach was formed by prehistoric volcanic eruptions from the Pu’u o Mahana volcano. And to make it even more surreal, it sits within the collapsed crater of the former volcano.
4 OF 10
Mosquito Bay
WHERE: Vieques Island, Puerto Rico
While Mosquito Bay does not have the most inviting name, it does have something else going for it: bioluminescence. Acknowledged as the world’s brightest bioluminescent bay, it is not so much the beach that is surreal but the water lapping at it. Countless dinoflagellates, microscopic plankton, live in the ocean here. When they bump into each other, through wave action or simply putting a hand in the water, they emit a burst of light, illuminating the entire stretch of the beach. Best experienced during the New Moon phase, but visible at most other times, the spectacle is truly surreal.
5 OF 10
Whitehaven Beach
WHERE: Queensland, Australia
Whitehaven Beach could easily fit into the category ‘prettiest beaches’ as well as the most surreal. Located on Whitsunday Island on the Great Barrier Reef in northern Queensland, this 7-mile stretch of beach landed in the surreal category because of its ethereal swirls of blue water mixing with blindingly white silica sand at the Hill Inlet end of the beach. This tidal lagoon offers a sight best appreciated from above, whether by walking up to the Tongue Point Lookout or by helicopter. The ever-changing swirls of white and blue are utterly mesmerizing.
6 OF 10
Driftwood Beach
WHERE: Jekyll Island, Florida
A beach littered with seemingly an entire forest’s worth of dead trees is a sight to behold. The aptly named Driftwood Beach is literally that: A beach strewn with dead trees, bleached white, scattered along the coast forming a surreal display of natural sculptural art. This beach at the northern end of Jekyll Island is subjected to a wide tidal range, causing the trees growing alongside the beach to regularly fall afoul of erosion and fall into the ocean. The trees, complete with roots and branches, create an eerie and otherworldly atmosphere, especially in the twilight or in bad weather.
7 OF 10
Maho Beach
WHERE: Saint Martin
Not all surreal beaches are surreal because of natural phenomena; manmade experiences can make a beach truly weird as well. Look no further than Maho Beach on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin. Before some smart cookie decided to build an airport right by the sea, the beach was probably nice but unspectacular. Now, located right at the end of the runway, the beach is spectacularly surreal, with planes flying over so low that you feel as if you can touch them, and wave to the passengers while you’re at it. Noisy? Yes. Surreal and a great spot for selfies? For sure.
8 OF 10
Boulders Beach
WHERE: Simon’s Town, South Africa
You get an inkling that the waves could just be a little too chilly to swim in when you see penguins waddling past you on the beach. Boulders Beach, just outside of Cape Town, is a lovely, quite normal beach, but the chances are good that you will share the water with a penguin or two. While most of the resident penguin colony nestles together on the stretch of the beach that is now a nature reserve, on the public stretch of beach right next to the reserve, you can still encounter regular stragglers, and they don’t seem to be too fazed by sharing their neighborhood with human visitors. Surreal, but very cold.
9 OF 10
Playa del Amor
WHERE: Islas Marietas, Mexico
Sometimes man’s destructive nature can result in something good. A rare case of that phenomenon is the Love Beach, or Hidden Beach, on the Marieta Islands off the coast of Mexico near Puerto Vallarta. In the early 1900s, the uninhabited islands were used for target practice and bombing tests. One of those bombs created a perfect crater that later eroded further, filling with sand and water, and at low tide becomes a perfectly surreal hidden beach that cannot be seen from the open water. Despite resulting in a gorgeous and hidden beach, the islands are now a Biosphere Reserve and protected from further destruction.
10 OF 10
Skeleton Coast
WHERE: Namibia
This isolated stretch of coastline on the western coast of northern Namibia is where the dunes of the Namibian Desert meet the icy waters of the southern Atlantic Ocean and form a surreal and treacherous coast, essentially a 310-mile-long beach. Strewn with shipwrecks, whale bones, and abandoned diamond mines, this is not a typical destination for a beach vacation, but it certainly offers truly unearthly sights. The vast, empty wilderness is best appreciated either by off-roading or by flying over, and swimming is discouraged. Just look what happened to the ships.