| It is too easy for a tiny beach to be swamped with unwanted exposure. The four beaches listed here all cope with an already high usage and there is no reason to think they can't continue to do so.
Two on this list - The Baths on Virgin Gorda, and Anse Source d'Argent on La Digue, Seychelles - are curiously similar in appearance although they are in very different parts of the globe. Each combines a bed of white sand with massive granite boulders the size of a house and strewn in irregular piles along the coast in what, in each case, appears to have been a mighty volcanic explosion. Over the years these massive boulders have been worn smooth by the action of wind and sea into what now looks like a giant, avant-garde sculpture garden. The Seychelles version is the prettier and more verdant of the two, while its counterpart has better snorkelling. Both, however, are incontrovertibly worth the visit.
At the southernmost tip of Baja California, where the Sea of Cortés merges into the Pacific Ocean, two steep outcrops of rock add a topographical full stop to the peninsula and, in the course of doing so, hide an exquisite little beach of reddish-gold sand. Because of its seclusion, it has become known as the 'love beach', the Playa del Amor. A regular shuttle carries young lovers from the marina of Cabo San Lucas.
Frenchman's Cove in Jamaica is the fourth choice. The river here is the key. First it flows through woodlands where long ago tall specimen trees were planted. Then it
meanders down to the coast creating a cove of exceptional depth contained on either side by low cliffs. More broad-leafed trees bring shelter from the sun. On the headland above is the once-famous Frenchman's Cove hotel. |