The World’s Best Beaches in 2026

Every year the beach conversation gets a little more scientific, and 2026 pushed that further

than ever. The World’s 50 Best Beaches — long considered the definitive authority on the

category — overhauled its methodology this year, pairing votes from more than 1,000 travel

professionals with the organization’s own team physically scouting hundreds of beaches

year-round, scored across eight criteria from water clarity to how rarely you’ll share the

sand with a crowd. The result is the most rigorously verified beach list the industry has

produced. Here’s where it landed, along with a few other rankings worth knowing about.

The New World Champion: Entalula Beach, Philippines

For the first time, a beach in Palawan has taken the global top spot, unseating last year’s

winner, Cala Goloritze in Sardinia, which has since been retired to the list’s “Best of the

Best” hall of fame. Entalula sits on a small, wild island accessible only by boat, and that

seclusion is precisely what earned it the crown — untouched, uncrowded, and genuinely

difficult to reach, which in 2026’s ranking criteria counts as a feature, not a flaw. Palawan

has been building toward this moment for a while, increasingly recognized among travel

experts as one of the most compelling remote, nature-driven destinations on the planet.

The Rest of the Top Five

2. Fteri Beach, Kefalonia, Greece — A dramatic combination of white pebble-and-sand

shoreline framed by towering limestone cliffs, on an island that rewards the effort of

reaching it.

3. Wharton Beach, Western Australia — Wild, remote, and known for dolphin sightings

just offshore, with surf conditions that draw a different crowd than the Mediterranean and

Caribbean beaches dominating most lists.

4. Nosy Iranja, Madagascar — Two islets connected by a two-kilometer sandbar that

vanishes entirely at high tide, making this one of the most genuinely unusual entries on the

list.

5. Grace Bay Beach, Turks and Caicos — The most accessible name in the top five,

protected by a barrier reef a mile offshore that keeps the water calm enough to resemble an

infinity pool, with near-year-round good weather.Beaches Worth Knowing Beyond the Top Five

The 2026 list spans far wider than its top entries. Greece, Thailand, and Australia each

placed three beaches on the full ranking, making them the year’s biggest hotspots.

Flamenco Beach in Puerto Rico placed fourth on a separate data-driven ranking from

Beach.com, earning its spot through some of the strongest sentiment scores of any beach

analyzed. And in Barbuda, a pink sand beach named for Princess Diana continues to draw

attention as one of the more romantic, lesser-known entries making the rounds this year.

A Second Opinion: Tripadvisor’s Travelers’ Choice

Not every ranking agrees, and that’s part of what makes 2026 an interesting year for beach

travel. Tripadvisor’s own Travelers’ Choice awards, built from millions of traveler reviews

rather than expert votes, crowned a different winner entirely: Isla Pasión off Cozumel,

Mexico, a private island known for crystal-clear water and marine life encounters. On the

domestic side, La Jolla Cove in California claimed the top US spot, prized for its marine

sanctuary setting. The gap between the two lists is a useful reminder that “best” depends

heavily on who’s doing the ranking — remote and untouched wins with the experts, while

accessible and consistently excellent wins with everyday travelers.

Planning Around the Rankings

The clearest theme running through 2026’s results is that seclusion is currency. Every

beach at the very top of the expert-driven list shares the same traits: hard to reach, rarely

crowded, and largely undeveloped. If a beach vacation is the whole point of the trip next

year, the smartest move is booking around one of these harder-to-reach entries rather than

defaulting to the most famous name — the best beaches in 2026 are, almost without

exception, the ones that still require a boat to get to.

The World’s 50 Best Beaches 2026: Top 25

1. Entalula Beach — Philippines

2. Fteri Beach — Greece

3. Wharton Beach — Australia

4. Nosy Iranja — Madagascar

5. East Beach, Vomo Island — Fiji

6. Shoal Bay East — Anguilla7. Dhigurah Beach — Maldives

8. Playa Balandra — Mexico

9. Koh Rong Beach — Cambodia

10. Donald Duck Bay — Thailand

11. Cayo de Agua — Venezuela

12. Cala Macarella — Spain

13. One Foot Island — Cook Islands

14. Princess Diana Beach — Barbuda

15. Turquoise Bay — Australia

16. PK 9 Beach — French Polynesia

17. Grace Bay Beach — Turks and Caicos

18. Cala dei Gabbiani — Italy

19. Saadiyat Beach — United Arab Emirates

20. Canto de la Playa — Dominican Republic

21. Wineglass Bay — Australia

22. Pink Beach — Indonesia

23. Paradise Beach — Thailand

24. Anse Source d’Argent — Seychelles

25. Kalanggaman Island — Philippines

Ranking source: The World’s 50 Best Beaches 2026, compiled from votes by over 1,000

travel professionals combined with year-round on-the-ground scouting.