Top 5 unusual beaches around the world

Not all beaches are stereotypically beautiful – some stand out for other reasons. From Hawaii’s Barking Sands Beach to the pink shores of The Bahamas, pay a visit to some of the world’s most unusual beaches.

Punaluu Beach, Hawaii

Take the perfect white-sand beach of clichéd brochure covers, then imagine the complete opposite and you’ll have some idea of what Punaluu looks like. It’s rocky and entirely black; its basalt sand being the product of ancient volcanic lava cooled by the sea. All of this seems to appeal to endangered Hawksbill turtles, who are regular frequenters of this curious cove.

Pink Sands Beach, The Bahamas

(photo: Thinkstock)

White, yellow, brown and even black (as above) are all common sand colours – but pink? Yes, pink. Three miles long, gentle and wonderfully wide, this otherwise textbook Bahamian cove is a weird Barbie-colour due to microscopic coral insects called Foraminifera; when they die they leave their pink shells behind to be crushed into the sand by waves.

Glass Beach, California, USA

(photo: Thinkstock)

For much of the 1900s locals in the coastal California town of Fort Bragg threw garbage onto their local shoreline, a place known subtly as ‘The Dumps’. In 1967, the area was closed for a long, gradual clean-up, aided by the ocean’s waves wearing down all the leftover glass into smooth, multi-coloured trinkets. ‘Glass Beach’ reopened in 2002 as part of the MacKerricher State Park and it is now a confirmed tourist attraction. If you love a bit of bling, then this beach is for you…

Hot Water Beach, New Zealand

(photo: wikimedia commons)

Set on the Coromandel Peninsula, this strip is the seaside equivalent of under-floor heating. Subterranean hot springs filter up through the sand and at low tide, visitors can burrow down and create their own hot-water pool in which to soak. A sort of DIY thermal-bath experience, Hot Water Beach is the most literal of ‘bucket-and-spade’ holidays.

Barking Sands Beach, Hawaii

(photo: Thinkstock)

How about a beach that sounds like a dog? Yes, you did read that right – the squeaky golden grains on Hawaii’s Barking Sands Beach emit, when rubbed, a canine-like sound. This is a phenomenon caused by a particular kind of quartz, and is actually present on beaches in the British Isles. But Barking Sands ramps the weirdness factor up numerous notches by also housing a rocket-launch site. Oh, and a missile-defence testing centre. There’s barking, and there’s barking mad!

Compiled by Holidaysplease.co.uk .Visit their site to find out how to get to these beaches!

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