The 10 Most Stunning Beaches in North America

Grace Bay is a 19-kilometre arc of powder-fine white sand fronting calm, turquoise water, protected from waves by an offshore barrier reef that also makes for easy snorkelling right off the beach.

It's regularly ranked among the best beaches in the world, and the water's clarity is the main reason why: shallow, current-free, and visible to a striking depth close to shore.

The beach is lined with resorts, so it's easy rather than remote.

Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur is a dramatic California coastline beach famous for its purple-tinged sand, caused by manganese garnet washed down from the surrounding hillsides, and for Keyhole Rock — a sea arch through which the setting sun shines in spectacular alignment during November and December.

Eagle Beach is a wide sweep of white sand on Aruba's leeward coast, known for the wind-bent silhouettes of its fofoti trees, now the island's unofficial symbol.

Consistently rated among the best beaches in the Caribbean, it's calmer and less built-up than Aruba's Palm Beach strip, with hotels set back from the sand rather than crowding it.

Steady trade winds keep the heat manageable and the shallow, turquoise water easy to wade into.

Flamenco Beach, on the small island of Culebra off Puerto Rico's east coast, is a crescent of white sand and clear turquoise water regularly rated among the best beaches in the Caribbean.

A rusted, graffiti-covered US Army tank sits abandoned on the sand, left from the island's former use as a bombing range, and has become an unlikely landmark.

Reaching it requires a ferry or small plane, which keeps crowds lighter than mainland beaches.

Playa del Amor, better known as the Hidden Beach, sits inside a collapsed volcanic crater on the uninhabited Marietas Islands off Mexico's Pacific coast, reachable only by swimming or kayaking through a short rock tunnel at low tide.

The result is a circular pocket of sand open to the sky, surrounded by high rock walls, despite being a well-known stop on tours from Puerto Vallarta.

Visitor numbers are strictly capped inside this protected marine park.

A long, wide stretch of soft white sand on Oahu's windward coast, with the Ko'olau mountain range rising green and jagged directly behind it.

It's popular with locals rather than tour buses, so it stays uncrowded even close to Honolulu, and the water is generally calmer than the island's surf-famous North Shore.

Bellows Beach next door adds a second, quieter option within the same bay.

Cuba's premier beach resort stretch runs for roughly 20 kilometers along a narrow peninsula east of Havana, its powder-white sand and calm, clear turquoise water backed by a dense strip of all-inclusive resorts.

It's a more polished, tourist-oriented side of Cuba than Havana or Trinidad, built primarily around sun, sand and watersports rather than culture or history.

Siesta Key Beach is known for sand that's almost pure quartz crystal, so fine and pale it stays cool underfoot even in Florida's summer heat, a genuine rarity among beaches.

Wide and gently sloping into the Gulf of Mexico, it's an easy, low-key beach day with lifeguards and picnic areas rather than dramatic scenery, a reliable family choice rather than a bucket-list stop.

Sunset draws crowds for a nightly drum circle.

Guatemala's Pacific coast is defined by volcanic black sand, and Monterrico is its best-known stretch, backed by mangrove canals and a sea-turtle hatchery that releases hundreds of hatchlings each season.

The strong surf and undertow make it a beach for walking and sunset-watching rather than swimming, and boat trips through the adjoining reserve add caimans and waterbirds to the appeal.

A string of sandy beaches just 20 minutes east of Havana, Playas del Este is where the capital's own residents go to swim, making it a far more local scene than Cuba's resort-heavy north coast.

Santa María del Mar is the best-known stretch, with warm shallow water, beach shacks selling grilled fish, and none of the all-inclusive walls found at Varadero or Cayo Coco.

It's an easy half-day escape without leaving the Havana area.