Best Beaches in Australia

Vivonne Bay, on Kangaroo Island in South Australia, is an unspoiled stretch of bright, white sand and azure sea. You can sometimes spot seals bobbing in the cool, clear water.

About 70 kilometers from Twilight Beach in Cape le Grand National Park, Lucky Bay is another one of Australia's whitest stretches of sand. The explorer Matthew Flinders named this beautiful bay after he took shelter here during a fierce summer storm.

Fringing the Jervis Bay Marine Park, Hyams Beach is famous for its snowy-white, squeaky-fine sand. It's a popular weekend getaway from Sydney and a 2.5-hour drive south of the city.

Twilight Beach is Australia's version of the boulder-strewn beaches in the Seychelles. It lies about seven kilometers from the little beach town of Esperance, You won't find rustling palm trees here, but you will find crystal-clear turquoise water, a gorgeous slice of blinding-white sand flanked by smooth granite boulders, and typically safe conditions for swimming and surfing.

Fringed by palms, pandanus, and casuarina pines, Noosa Main Beach is an Aussie favorite. It lies about two hours north of Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast.

If you've ever seen a photo of people riding camels silhouetted against a fiery sunset on an Aussie Beach, you can bet it's Cable Beach. It's one of the most popular things to do along this 22-kilometer stretch of creamy white sand and turquoise sea.

On a clear day, it's hard to beat the beauty of Wineglass Bay in Tasmania's Freycinet National Park. Lay eyes on this luscious jewel from the lookout, with its curving bush-fringed shoreline, stark-white sand, and sapphire waters, and you'll be spoilt forever.

Imagine an idyllic South Pacific Islands beach: coconut palms bristling above a bone-white sliver of sand, and luminous aqua water lapping softly on shore. This is the delicious stretch of sand on Direction Island in the Cocos (Keeling) islands.

One of the most ravishing beaches in Western Australia, pristine Turquoise Bay is true to its name. Luminous blue-green water laps the powdery shores of this striking bay, which sits about 60 kilometers south of Exmouth in Cape Range National Park.

Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsunday Islands along the Great Barrier Reef is not just one of Australia's top stretches of coast, it often scores a place on lists of the best beaches in the world.