10 best beach cities

Jan 20, 2011 10:43:18 AM

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If you’re thinking about your next getaway but aren’t sure whether to take a city break or a beach holiday, then we may have the answer. These sunny cities sit conveniently on the coastline, meaning you can take your city break with some sunbathing on the side.

Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona is Spain’s most cosmopolitan city and one of the Mediterranean’s busiest ports. Restaurants, bars and clubs are always packed, as is the seaside in summer. A series of lively beaches stretch northeast from the Port Olímpic marina. The southernmost beach, Platja de la Nova Icària, is the busiest. Behind it, across the Avinguda del Litoral highway, is the Plaça del Campions, site of the rusting three-tiered platform used to honour medallists in the sailing events of the 1992 games. Barcelona’s beaches may be largely artificial, but this doesn’t stop an estimated seven million bathers from piling in every year!

Cape Town, South Africa

Good-looking, fun-loving, sporty and sociable. If Cape Town was in the dating game that’s how her profile would read. And – for once – it’s all true. As well as magnificent Table Mountain the city is famed as a beach hot-spot. Dotted around the coastline you’ll find a beach for every occasion. The stylish set flock west to join their cocktail sipping counterparts at Camps Bay, while families head east to Fish Hoek Beach for rugby games on the sand.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Be warned: Rio’s powers of seduction can leave you with a bad case of saudade – a Portuguese word for an indescribable longing – when you leave. Copacabana and Ipanema are the most famous but a visit to the Buzios peninsula, and its hard-working fishermen, offers a more traditional taste of Brazilian beach life.

Tangier, Morocco

From its extraordinary position perched on the northwesternmost tip of Africa, Tangier looks in two directions, at once facing Europe and Africa. With the recent arrival of a new city governor, the town beach now sparkles, the hustlers are off the streets and even the taxi drivers are polite. As a stylish new Tangier is being created, travellers are discovering the delights of its beaches, where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean. Here you can take a seaside stroll, watch as the local children play beach football or hop on a camel for a different view of the sands.

Sydney, Australia

Definitively Sydney, Bondi is one of the world’s great beaches – this is where ocean and land collide, the Pacific arrives in great foaming swells, and all people are equal, as democratic as sand. It’s the closest ocean beach to the city centre, has consistently good (though crowded) waves and is great for a rough ‘n’ tumble swim. Don’t be fooled into thinking this is the city’s only beach, however. A hike over the heads will bring you to Coogee, Bronte and Cronulla. Sydney’s Northern Beaches make a deliciously sandy day trip. Extending north from Manly, they form a continuous stretch of laidback ’burbs, craggy headlands and over twenty beaches, finishing at Palm Beach.

Valencia, Spain

One of Lonely Planet’s top 10 cities for 2011, Valencia sits coquettishly and confidently along Spain’s Mediterranean coast offering plenty of choice for beach-lovers. Spread your towel on broad Playa de la Malvarrosa or neighbouring Playa de las Arenas, each bordered by the Paseo Marítimo promenade and a string of restaurants. One block back, lively bars and discos thump out the beat in summer.

Tel Aviv, Israel

Tel Aviv is the total flipside of Jerusalem, a modern Sin City on the sea rather than an ancient Holy City on a hill. When the weather is warm Tel Avivans flock en masse to the city beaches. You’ll find young and old soaking up the Mediterranean rays, kitesurfing and knocking back and forth little rubber balls during friendly matches of matkot. The beaches are safe and clean, and there are changing rooms and freshwater showers scattered along its length. The main beaches are packed with people most days, especially on Saturdays, when the crowds descend to pick a prime spot. Get here early.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

No matter whether you’re a trendy urban nomad, a jetlagged jet-setter or travelling with the tots, you should find all your needs and expectations met in Dubai. Tiny but turbo-charged, the city-state is a highly developed tourism destination that offers world-class shopping, lodging, eating, sports and relaxation. Make the most of sunny skies with a trip to the beach – favourites are Jumeirah and Palm Beach – but public beaches are at a premium. Top-end hotels own most of the sand so bronzing can come at a cost.

Miami, USA

What makes Miami beautiful, from the bodies on the beach to the structure of the skyline, is diversity. Every neighbourhood has its own stereotypes and its own exceptions to those rules. This is true of the city’s stretches of sand, too. Yes, South Beach is where the pretty people are, but they’re gawked at by seething mobs of tourists. North Miami Beach is where real people live. Windsurfers should head to Hobie or Virginia Key beach and for a view over all of Miami’s many beaches helicopter tours take off from Watson Island – connected to downtown Miami by the MacArthur Causeway.

Brighton and Hove, England

Brighton is the most vibrant seaside resort in England. Just an hour from London, it is a thriving, cosmopolitan city with a Bohemian spirit; home to an exuberant gay community, a dynamic student population and a healthy number of ageing and new-age hippies, as well as traditional candyfloss fun. The beach is made up of pebbles, not sand, but that doesn’t stop the crowds heading here in their droves. Whether it’s midday sunbathing or midnight partying, Brighton beach seems to be in use at all times.

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Comments

21 January 2011 11:14PM khandelwal Report this comment
Some of the other famous Beach Towns are Mobasa/Malindi in Kenya for white sands, Kovalam beach in Kerala(India), Beaches in Goa (India), Beaches in Bali (Indonesia), Almost all beaches in Spain
22 January 2011 12:31AM jimstewart Report this comment
Yeah ... all your locations are aimed at attracting tourists ... the best beaches are those which have none of them ... tropical islands such as maldives , seychelles and andaman and nicobar islands ( india ) are absolutely breathtaking ... even the beaches in goa which is famous throughout the world is missing out !
22 January 2011 5:30AM ritajoao Report this comment
some of them... are not so good! Avoid that beaches pleaseeeeee.... the best beach are in all that exotic places in asia, latin and south america, Baleares islands (spain), all portugal cost and islands...
22 January 2011 6:02AM celticrover Report this comment
The article is about beach CITIES - that doesn't include tropical islands like the seychelles and maldives.
23 January 2011 10:17PM tigris330 Report this comment
I would have liked this article to be a bit less obvious. As if travellers who follow the LP website do not know that Cape Town, Rio and Miami are close to the beach!
24 January 2011 12:54AM rixs Report this comment
In Europe next to Barcelona I would put also Rome, it is only 30 minutes from the Mediterranean with suburban train. You might spend the same time to reach the beach in Barcelona too if you dont live in the center. Maldives and other resorts and islands of course have better beaches than the cities,but many people think resorts are boring, and I also love to spend my beach holidays in actually a proper cities. So I guess this list makes sense. In Morocco, the best is Essaouira for beach holiday. In Brazil especially for younger people I would pick Florianopolis a city for a beach holiday.
28 January 2011 5:52PM jameskydd Report this comment
I love Barcelona, but I don't think a city with an man-made beach should qualify for pole position.
29 January 2011 5:15PM manonthelam Report this comment
The article title is "10 Best Beach Cities" so I would have to agree with the author's choices there. If it were called "10 Best Beaches', well, I don't think half of those places would've made the cut...just sayin' is all...
www.manonthelam.com
31 January 2011 2:56PM zigazag Report this comment
It's not a very big city, but it is classed as a city - so I'd have to add Bunbury in South West Autralia. We have some awesome beaches here - uncrowded, great for swimming and surfing, and within a two-block walk of the main street. Take a look and see if you agree at zigazag australia.
1 March 2011 7:02PM judybehrens Report this comment
The beaches in the Eastern Cape South Africa are unspoilt and beautiful, one would have to go a long way to find anything better. Especially my home village of Gonubie.
1 March 2011 8:41PM das1951 Report this comment
To reiterate the point: This is about cities by the beach. This means having sea, sun, sand and urban culture all rolled into one.
I doubt Kovalam Beach (mentioned by khandelwal) qualifies.
In more recent years I have been at three of the listed ones and agree with their appearance here, namely Tel Aviv, Cape Town (though some of the beaches could be considered a little far from the centre of activity) and Miami/Miami Beach.
Durban, South Africa, has been left off, but maybe it isn't such a great cultural centre.
Anyway, it's a debate.
1 March 2011 10:28PM mijb Report this comment
Two of these stand out as being far from worthy:
Barcelona's poor man-made beach is not great at all(LP seems to have some fixation in continuously promoting over-touristy, un-Spanish Barcelona in so many of these features!). Nice and Alicante are way better in every way in this category.
Brighton.......you've really got to be joking! Most establishments along the seafront are pretty tatty these days, the view is of a rusting broken pier (why don't the council remove it?!) and the beach is way below average.
Apart from Rio, Tel Aviv & Tangier it's a pretty uninspiring list overall. What about some Asian & Central American ones? There are numerous candidates. Get adventurous when you do these things! This list is nearly as boring as your dreadful Valentine's Day list. Don't LP staff ever get out to anywhere more exciting and less obvious?
2 March 2011 1:55AM letsgetouttahere Report this comment
Brighton? Ha! Lovely city, but not even remotely on the world-class scale.
Where is Vancouver on this list???
2 March 2011 3:48AM caroline6 Report this comment
Barcelona "the most cosmopolitan city in Spain"???? Please, and this is Lonely planet???? You have been little in Madrid... if at all. X_X
2 March 2011 7:32AM mejensen1 Report this comment
i don't travel as much as i would like, but the city of honolulu and the island of oahu are one county, in my mind something like a city, and together has some pretty nifty beaches...the state pop. is about 1.3 million but get 7 million visitors, so beaches may be a big draw
2 March 2011 11:49AM dunkin2012 Report this comment
Same, Rayong,Thailand is superb ..... Clean white sand with a tropical climate...
2 March 2011 8:34PM kikaaa Report this comment
hello..?? have you ever been to Athens Greece? definitely better than Brighton, Tel Aviv and Barcelona...
6 March 2011 8:24PM robylp Report this comment
definitely San Diego and Vancouver cannot miss the list. So Salvador de Bahia and Santa Catarina in Brasil. Brighton can't compete with Cagliari, sardinia. better climate, warmer and cleaner water and food of course. What about LA?
2 August 2011 6:37PM wilderness_explorer Report this comment
How did Byron Bay, Australia miss the list? It is probably one of the world's most amazing coastal towns, with great beaches, diving, surfing, rainforests, waterfalls and some of the best nightlife in the area. Definitely a must for all those beach bums out there!
2 August 2011 7:08PM khushboo200 Report this comment
the beach in dahab, Egypt is very cool. less people, clean sands, blue waters..it is just picture perfect.
2 August 2011 7:21PM wildwingssafaris Report this comment
Nice to see Cape Town up there. One thing I would say is that Cape Town's beaches are great, but the water is freezing cold, so if swimming is part of the beach experience for you, rather head to Durban in South Africa. The Durban coastline up to 50km north and south of the city has some of the best holiday beaches on the planet, and the water is warm all year round. An additional bonus for Durban is that the game reserves and Big 5 safari destinations of northern kwazulu-natal province are a mere 3 hours away.
2 August 2011 8:10PM ulyssesep Report this comment
It's amazing that Surfers Paradise, QLD, AU was not included in the list. How about Cable Beach, Nassau, Bahamas? Or Kitsilano Beach, Vancouver, BC, CA?
2 August 2011 8:15PM yrissarri Report this comment
Gran Error!!! poner la playa de Barcelona en vez a La Playa de Las Canteras, una playa natural abierta al atlántico, una barrera de roca natural que la protege de las olas, una fauna marina increíble, lugar perfecto para hacer submarinismo, aguas cristalinas... en fin!!! nadie es perfecto, todos cometemos errores, pero no digais que Barcelona es una de las 10 mejores playas del mundo:
http://www.josemariabarrientos.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/canteras.jpg
No hay color
2 August 2011 11:46PM ryanrob Report this comment
Hmm you seemed to have left out Portobello Beach in Edinburgh, seriously though I couldn't disagree with your list.
3 August 2011 7:16AM dipperrk Report this comment
San Diego is a great beach city. There's PB, OB and even a beach especially for dogs as they are banned from the other beaches.
3 August 2011 3:22PM arunasworld Report this comment
For me, the best beach can not be near some city. It should be somewhere in the wild nature. www.arunasworld.com
4 August 2011 12:46PM jazzybabe Report this comment
wilderness_explorer, you've answered your own question. Byron Bay misses out because it is a coastal town, not a city. This article is best beach cities.
20 December 2011 2:42PM lg2011 Report this comment
Cartagena, Columbia, absolutely one of the greatest beach cities in the world.
9 January 2012 5:42PM jeanprytyskacz Report this comment
Long Island, NY has some of the best beaches in world: http://www.loving-long-island.com/long-island-beaches.html
12 January 2012 5:50AM johnq32 Report this comment
I've been in 8 beaches from the list, and i must say as someone who travels alot: that list is ridiculous, there's much better city beaches you can chose (England, seriously??) - except one place and its Tel Aviv! it is a wonderful place, as a beach city its in another level than the rest of the cities in the list, it has an wicked style and a very cool atmosphere. about Brazil i think Florenapolis is way better than Rio. John, Denmark.