The 10 Most Bizarre, Weird and Surprising Beaches on Earth | Amazing Earth

The 10 Most Bizarre, Weird and Surprising Beaches on Earth | Amazing Earth

1. Black Sand Beach of Vik, Iceland

Located next to the Katla Volcano, this beach features a beautiful black sand caused by the hot lava that flowed into the ocean. There are also several stunning, jagged, basalt sea stacks and is populated by puffins.

2. Bowling Ball Beach, California

This unique stone orbs in Schooner Gulch State Park look very mysterious when you see them for the first time. At low tide, visitors can see these spherical objects known to geologists as “concretions” eroded out of the Cenozoic mudstone.

3. Glass Beach, California

Located near Fort Bragg in California, the Glass Beach is popular for its surreal looking shoreline filled with smooth pieces of glass. Created by years of dumping garbage into an area near the coastline, everything was pushed over the cliffs into the ocean. The beach gets many tourists and there’s a Glass Festival held annually on Memorial Day Weekend.

4. Hidden Beach, Marietas Islands, Mexico

There´s a hidden sandy turquoise beach in the Marietas Islands in Mexico called Playa del Amor which was once a bomb site. The bombs are believed to have created holes in the rocky landscape creating this beach and many caves.

5. Hot Water Beach, New Zealand

Hot Water Beach on the coast of the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand is characterized by tourists digging holes on the sand and soaking in their personal hot springs. The underground hot water (64°C) filters through the sand which can then be used to enjoy as a hot spring.

6. Maho Beach, St. Maarten

Looking for a great place for plane spotting, the Maho Beach is famous for literally being very close to the Princess Juliana International Airport. Planes arriving fly very low over tourists giving the opportunity to watch closely, but be careful to not get caught in a jet blast.

7. Pink Sands Beach, Harbour Island, Bahamas

Romantic pale pink beaches are found in the Harbour Islands. Composed of bits of coral, broken shells, minute rocks and calcium carbonate, this pale pink sand gets its color from microscopic shelled animals called Formaminifera that are found in the shore.

8. Punaluu Black Sand Beach, Hawaii

Punaluu Beach is famous for its black sand made of basalt and created by lava flowing into the ocean. Besides this bizarre looking black beach, tourists are also attracted to this destination to watch the Hawaiian green sea turtles.

9. Shell Beach, Australia

Shell Beach is not a sand beach, it is covered by trillions of tiny bleached white shells. All of these shells come from the Hamelin Cockle, a very numerous species living near the area. Shell beach is one of only two shell beaches in the world.

10. Zlatni Rat Beach, Croatia

This unique shape-shifting beach on Croatia called Zlatni Rat (“Golden Horn”), is a white narrow beach that shifts with the changes in tide. With currents and wind, the beach can extend out like a tounge for 634 meters long.

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