The 19 Best Coastal Escapes in Asia

The Maldives is an archipelago of 1,200 coral islands scattered across the Indian Ocean, where pristine white sand, crystal-clear turquoise lagoons, and overwater bungalows create the archetypal tropical paradise.

The islands sit just above sea level, making them one of the world's most climate-vulnerable nations.

Halong Bay's emerald-green waters are scattered with thousands of limestone islands and karsts rising sheer from the sea.

Traditional junk boats still work the channels between the towering formations, while caves, floating fishing villages and hidden lagoons fill the bay's quieter corners.

The misty, ethereal atmosphere, especially at sunrise, gives the bay an almost mystical beauty.

An overnight junk-boat cruise through thousands of limestone karsts rising from emerald water, one of Vietnam's defining landscapes.

Days include kayaking into hidden lagoons, cave visits, and swimming off the boat's stern, with meals fresh-cooked on board.

Traditional red-sailed junks still appear among the modern steel-hulled boats.

Karst silhouettes at sunrise and sunset are the reason most people book the trip in the first place.

Sheer limestone karsts rise straight out of turquoise lagoons around this Palawan town, often ranked among the world's most beautiful island landscapes.

Hidden lagoons reachable only by kayak or narrow swim-throughs open onto still, mirror-flat water walled in by cliffs.

Island-hopping boat tours string together beaches, lagoons, and reefs that are rarely anything less than spectacular.

Raja Ampat's four main islands and hundreds of smaller limestone islets sit at the heart of the Coral Triangle, the most biodiverse marine environment on Earth, with reefs holding far more coral and fish species than the Caribbean.

Above water, karst islands draped in jungle ring turquoise lagoons; below, divers and snorkelers find manta rays, reef sharks, and dense coral gardens largely undamaged by mass tourism.

Reaching it takes real commitment, but few marine destinations compare.

Volcanic islands rise steeply out of turquoise water in this remote Indonesian archipelago, the only place on Earth with wild Komodo dragons.

Padar Island's ridge walk looks down on three separate curved bays at once, and Pink Beach takes its colour from crushed red coral mixed through the sand.

The surrounding waters are among Indonesia's best for manta rays and drift diving.

A two-kilometre arc of white sand on Havelock Island backed by dense rainforest, with water that shifts from pale turquoise to deep blue at the reef line.

Time magazine once named it Asia's best beach, and sunset here - sun dropping straight into the Andaman Sea with no development in sight - remains the main draw.

It takes real effort to reach, which keeps it far less crowded than its reputation suggests.

Limestone cliffs plunge into an impossibly turquoise bay at Maya Bay, made famous by the film The Beach and now managed with timed entry after years of coral damage.

The viewpoint above Tonsai village looks down on two curved beaches meeting either side of a single narrow isthmus.

Snorkelling among the karsts, longtail boat trips and a loud late-night bar scene make up the rest of the island.

Railay is a small peninsula near Krabi cut off from the mainland by sheer limestone cliffs, reachable only by longtail boat despite technically being attached to the mainland.

Towering karst formations ring beaches of soft white sand and clear water, and the cliffs themselves have made Railay one of the world's best-known rock-climbing destinations, with routes for complete beginners up to experienced climbers.

Ölüdeniz's Blue Lagoon is a sheltered curve of turquoise water pinched off from the open Mediterranean by a long sand spit, backed by pine-covered mountains rising straight from the shore.

It's one of Turkey's most photographed beaches and also its paragliding capital — hundreds of tandem flights launch daily from Babadağ mountain and drift down over the bay.

The beach itself is calm and shallow, better for swimming than surf.

A signed cycle path links Onomichi on Honshu to Imabari on Shikoku across six small islands in the Seto Inland Sea, crossing seven bridges over open water.

Riders follow dedicated blue lane markings past citrus groves, fishing harbours and turquoise straits, with the cable-stayed Tatara Bridge and the towering Kurushima-Kaikyo suspension bridge as centrepiece crossings.

Rental terminals at either end let you start and finish where you like.

Four kilometres of powder-fine white sand lined with resorts, beach bars, and sunset boat cruises, split into three "stations" by how developed each stretch is.

It's the Philippines' most famous beach and one of Southeast Asia's busiest, powdery enough that the sand squeaks underfoot.

A government-mandated cleanup and visitor cap in recent years has kept water quality noticeably better than its reputation from a decade ago.

Umluj sits on Saudi Arabia's northern Red Sea coast, where a scattering of uninhabited islands and sandbars sit in water shallow and clear enough to earn the coastline the nickname 'the Maldives of Saudi Arabia'.

Boat trips out to islands like Jabal Hassan reach coral reefs largely untouched by mass tourism, and the coastline remains quiet even as new mega-resort developments rise further south along the same coast.

Ringed by limestone cliffs and turquoise lagoons, Coron is best known for some of the world's best wreck diving — a dozen Japanese naval ships sunk here in a single 1944 raid now sit intact on the seabed, accessible to both certified divers and snorkelers.

Above water, Kayangan Lake's cliff-top viewpoint and the island's hot springs round out a destination built around striking limestone-and-water scenery.

The Farasan Islands are a low-lying Red Sea archipelago off Saudi Arabia's southern coast, ringed by coral reefs that draw divers and snorkellers to waters that see whale sharks pass through seasonally.

The main island holds crumbling coral-stone merchant houses from an Ottoman-era pearling boom, now mostly abandoned, alongside mangrove channels sheltering gazelles found nowhere else, with ferries from Jazan the only way in.

Steep, arid mountains drop straight into the sea along this remote Omani exclave, earning the nickname the Norway of Arabia for its fjord-like inlets.

Traditional wooden dhows cruise between the peninsula's narrow channels, where dolphins are a near-daily sighting.

Fishing villages built into the base of sheer cliffs remain reachable only by boat.

The Philippines' surfing capital centers on Cloud 9, a powerful reef break that draws competitive surfers from around the world, but the teardrop-shaped island has plenty beyond the waves — the tidal Magpupungko rock pools, palm-lined lagoons, and a laid-back beach-town scene around General Luna.

Island-hopping trips reach nearby uninhabited islets with genuinely empty white-sand beaches.

A remote island in the Arabian Sea, isolated for millions of years, home to the umbrella-shaped dragon's blood trees found nowhere else on Earth.

Pristine beaches, alien-looking flora, and a culture largely untouched by mass tourism define one of the world's most singular landscapes.

Tanah Lot's Hindu sea temple sits on a small rock outcrop just offshore, cut off from the mainland at high tide and reachable on foot when the water recedes.

Built around a natural spring the Balinese consider sacred, it's one of several coastal temples protecting Bali from sea spirits, and among the most photographed silhouettes on the island at sunset.

The temple interior is closed to non-worshippers, so the visit is really about the setting and the ritual crowds gathering for dusk.