The World’s Sexiest and Most Beautiful Beaches for 2008, Part 2

Here is the seven remaining beaches on the list of 2008′s most sexy beaches.

St. Philip, Barbados

It’s only 21 miles long, yet Barbados has a bit of everything: Fine dining and bawdy beach shacks, cricket matches and Mount Gay Rum tours, the posh Caribbean Platinum Coast and the rough-and-tumble (and Highland-like) Scotland District up north. Gauge your partner’s whims and go.

Been fantasizing about pink-sand beaches while sitting in your beige work cubicle? Imagine waking up, running out of the hotel with your lover, and straight onto Crane Beach, backed by tall cliffs and baby powder–fine sands that glow pink. It’s a primal place that might encourage a detour back to the hotel.

Privacy rating: 8.3. The western coast packs ‘em in, leaving your side of the island just as it should be: empty.

Unless you’re desperate to hang around the crowds, the Crane‘s remote location—on an east-coast cliff overlooking Crane Beach—is ideal for intimacy. You have a choice between the rooms in the original section (built in 1887) or the new private residences, which come with private plunge pools.

Crane Resort
Tel: 800 223 9815 (toll-free)
Tel: 246 423 6220
Doubles from $150

Gotland, Sweden

The funny thing about Stockholm is that when it finally gets warm, all the Swedes leave. They make for their summer homes on the thousands of islands that dot the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland. There they roast in saunas, sit by the shores of lakes and the Baltic, and drink bottomless bottles of aquavit. If you think the Swedes are good-looking people, and you would like to get to know them and their mating rituals better, get thee to the thousands of islands in the Åland Archipelago.

[Not sure I get this one, Sweden is not where I usually think of a beach vacation.]

Gotland is the biggest island in the north Baltic Sea, drawing ruddy-cheeked visitors from around Sweden. The countryside is a riot of greenery, and as the sun never sets in the summer, you can spend as much time as you like on the miles of empty beaches.

Privacy rating: 10. The Åland Archipelago is packed with 6,500-plus islands.

While the medieval town of Visby is the place to go out at night, better to base yourself in Gotland’s countryside. Hotel Toftagården is close to the water, has its own sauna (an important thing to the Swedes), and has both cute little private cabins and traditional hotel rooms to choose from.

Hotel Toftagården
Tel: 46 498 29 7000
Doubles from $215, cabins from $316

Natal, Brazil

So your globe-trotting friends have Brazil-beach-hopped from Salvador, Bahía, all the way south to Florianópolis, but we bet none have been to the northerly city of Natal. Imagine a sea of sculptured sand dunes that push up against the perfect blue waters of the Atlantic—the juxtaposition is fantastic. Take a thrill ride on the dunes (pictured) with one of the region’s lunatic buggy drivers before diving in the warm sea among the black dolphins. And expect an all-nighter in the town’s ready-for-anything Alto de Ponta Negra neighborhood.

The sexy crowd hangs out at Morro do Careca, where you’ll find fine bodies working up a thirst playing beach soccer and volleyball, and then quenching it with ice-cold Brahma beers while chilling under yellow umbrellas.

Privacy rating: 1. This scene is all about showing off. [Eh, personally, I like a bit of privacy.]

Natal can be a bit rough around the edges, so go for the service and comfort of the Pestana Natal, which has three pools just off the beach and a staff that mostly speaks English. It’s also where you can hire a dune-buggy driver who’s less maluco (“insane”) than most.

Pestana Natal
Tel: 55 84 3220 8900
Doubles from $110

Lake Nyasa, Mozambique

This is the interior of Africa, but looking over a sealike expanse of clear liquid blue, you wouldn’t believe it. The ninth-largest freshwater lake in the world touches Mozambique, Tanzania, and Malawi (where it’s called Lake Malawi). Gaudy beach tourism? Not a whisper of it—remote, pristine, sublime.

[OK, it's a lake, not an ocean. I'm not sure about this one.]

A clean white beach that squeaks as you walk along it, this is unlike any lakefront you’d recognize. And with waters so clear they cry out for snorkeling expeditions to see bright fish, it’s unlike any lake you’ll find in North America, either.

Privacy: 6.9. The lake is quiet, with just the occasional fisherman gliding by, and the Manda Nkwichi Lodge accommodates only 14 at a time. With the leopards about, however, it might be best not to wander into the woods alone.

An eco-lodge that can only be reached by boat over the lake, Manda Nkwichi has seven modest cottages amid the trees. They have outside showers and hammocks, and the staff will set up private dinners on the shore.

Manda Nkwichi Lodge
E-mail: mdw01@bushmail.net
Doubles $480 per person per night, including meals and some activities

Fire Island, New York

If the Hamptons can feel stuffy or elitist, 31-mile-long Fire Island, along Long Island’s south coast, is the friendlier, easygoing alternative. Each stretch of beach attracts its own demographic—Fire Island Pines, the gay crowd; Ocean Beach, the young professionals—but instead of long lines at nightclubs, it’s all about house parties. Drinks in the hot tub, anyone?

[Still not my idea of a good beach vacation. I'm not about partying, I'm about relaxing and enjoying the beach.]

Which demographic are you looking for? Both Ocean Beach and the Pines see some very outré goings-on along the surf—and it’s easy to take the action back to the rental house. For a wide, classic East Coast beach that attracts all kinds, the five-mile stretch in Robert Moses State Park is a good bet.

Privacy: 0. The other people in the house will know everything by morning.

This is a house-rental world. You can book a week at a time, or for the entire summer. A good place to start is to take a look at FireIsland.com or a directory such as vacationrentals.com, which allows you to contact the owners directly.

VacationRentals.com
Two-bedroom cottages from $1,000 per week

Peter Island, British Virgin Islands

Eight miles long and a half mile wide, this private island’s sole apparent purpose is to provide you with a postcard-perfect backdrop for making out with the one you love (or at least the one you brought).

Deadman’s Bay (pictured) is the beach to beat, and it’s right out your door. A classic U-shaped stretch of golden sand with views to Tortola, it’s the kind of place you’d wash up on after walking the plank of a pirate ship—if you also happened to be starring in a Hollywood movie.

Privacy rating: 5. Deadman’s Bay is bustling, but make your way to White Bay Beach on the windward side for pounding surf and private nooks. Resort staff will set up a fancy picnic lunch on the sand and then leave.

Peter Island Resort is the only option. Happily, it’s a good one, with fewer than 150 guests and lots of space to play in. The simple A-frame villas have bright splashes of Caribbean color inside—more fun than chic. And nobody will mind if you spread the sand around.

Peter Island Resort
Tel: 800 346 4451 (toll-free)
Doubles from $575, including meals and on-island activities

Krabi, Thailand

Get a load of all that drama: those lances of limestone that tower hundreds of feet out of the sea; the sea caves; the intense color of the water. Love at first sight.

The embarrassment of sandy riches is the main reason people travel so far to Krabi and its neighboring Andaman Sea islands—and the reason they return time and time again. But once you arrive, you’ll find that the best beach, Phra Nang (pictured), can only be reached by boat.

Privacy: 5. Krabi is no longer off the map, so you’ll have to share. Once you get back to your private balcony, though…

Rayavadee is mad fancy, with 98 two-story rooms spread over 26 verdant acres; there’s a spa, four restaurants, and yada, yada, yada. What you’ll most care about is the to-die-for location, at the very edge of Krabi Marine National Park.

Rayavadee
Tel: 66 2301 1850
Doubles from $600

So what do you think? Do you think some should have been added? Or some that shouldn’t be on here?

Let me know in the comments.

Posted on August 25, 2008 - Filed Under Beach Vacations, Beaches to go See, Travel

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