Toes in the sand, keys in the door.74 beach destinations across the Gulf, Atlantic, Pacific, and beyond.

A seven-mile Gulf-of-Mexico barrier island between Tampa Bay and Sarasota — three small towns (Anna Maria, Holmes Beach, Bradenton Beach), a strict 35-foot building height cap, and a free trolley running every twenty minutes

Anna Maria Island's southern city — Bridge Street's historic walking strip, Coquina Beach's Australian-pine canopy, and the Cortez Bridge bay-side fishing pier

A five-mile Gulf-of-Mexico barrier island at the northern end of the Sanibel chain — South Seas Resort, the Bubble Room, and shelling on Turner Beach

The World's Luckiest Fishing Village — sugar-white sand, emerald water, and the Gulf's largest charter fleet

Thirteen miles of Amelia Island shoreline, a 50-block Victorian downtown on Centre Street, and Fort Clinch's Civil War-era ramparts at the north end

Seven miles of Estero Island Gulf shore on Florida's southwest coast — the rebuilt Fort Myers Beach Pier, Times Square's restored downtown, and Lovers Key State Park's tarpon flats at the south end

Sugar-white quartz sand on Okaloosa Island and the Emerald Coast's longest pedestrian beach pier

Anna Maria Island's largest city — Manatee Public Beach, the 73rd Street pier, and the bike-friendly grid that runs the middle of the seven-mile barrier island

The eastern anchor of Scenic Highway 30A — Camp Helen State Park, the new 30Avenue lifestyle center, and a quiet sugar-sand alternative to Rosemary Beach

A 12-mile barrier island between Anna Maria and Lido — the quietest Sarasota-area Gulf-front strip, the Longboat Key Club golf-and-tennis resort, and a sunset-on-the-Gulf rental rhythm

The middle of the Florida Keys — Sombrero Beach, the Seven Mile Bridge, the Turtle Hospital, and a deep-water-canal-and-boat-slip rental scene built for the offshore sport-fishing tradition

South Florida's barrier-island playground — Ocean Drive's Art Deco strip, Lincoln Road, the Mid-Beach Faena and Alexander corridor on Collins, and a high-rise condo-hotel rental market unlike anywhere else in the state

The Sandestin side of the Emerald Coast — Baytowne Wharf, Silver Sands Premium Outlets, and the gateway to 30A

"Florida's Most Relaxing Place" — the longest pier on the Gulf, the protected Navarre Beach Marine Sanctuary, and twelve miles of low-rise sugar-white sand

National Geographic's #20 World Surf Town — the historic Flagler Avenue strip, 17 miles of drive-on Atlantic beach, and the Canaveral National Seashore at the south end

Twenty-seven miles of sugar-white quartz Gulf shore on the Florida Panhandle, anchored by the 1,500-foot Russell-Fields Pier at Pier Park and St. Andrews State Park's jetty channel

Charlotte Harbor's pool-home capital — South Gulf Cove canal homes, Charlotte Harbor's tarpon-and-snook fishery, and a 12-mile drive to Boca Grande's beaches

Charlotte Harbor's chef-driven small-city anchor — the historic Punta Gorda Riverwalk, Fishermen's Village marina, the Punta Gorda Isles canal-home network, and a 25-minute drive to Boca Grande Pass

The shelling capital of the United States — the J.N. "Ding" Darling Wildlife Refuge, the 1884 Sanibel Lighthouse, and 25 miles of paved island bike trails

The largest 30A community — Grayton Beach State Park, the WaterColor and WaterSound neighborhoods, the Dune Allen coastal-dune lakes, and a 19-mile bike path through Seaside

Florida's cultural arts capital — the Ringling Museum, Selby Botanical Gardens, Siesta Key's #1-ranked quartz-white sand, and the St. Armands Circle shopping ring

An 8-mile barrier island south of Sarasota — Siesta Beach's 99% pure quartz sand (the whitest in America), the Sunday drum circle, and the largest Sarasota-area condo-rental cluster

America's oldest city — Spanish colonial Castillo de San Marcos, 42 miles of Atlantic beach, and Flagler's Gilded Age Hotel Ponce de León

Bogue Banks's Crystal Coast anchor, Fort Macon State Park, and the Atlantic Beach Causeway across Bogue Sound

The third-oldest town in North Carolina (1709), Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge wreck site, and the boat dock to Cape Lookout National Seashore

Brunswick Plantation Golf Resort's 27 holes, the Calabash-style seafood capital, and the Sunset Beach causeway five miles south

Pleasure Island's Boardwalk-and-Britt's-Donuts anchor, Carolina Beach State Park's Venus flytraps, and the Fort Fisher Civil War earthworks 8 miles south

Down East Carteret County, the Cape Lookout National Seashore Visitor Center, and the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum's decoy-carving heritage

The 1870 Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the Graveyard of the Atlantic, and the free 60-minute ferry to Ocracoke

Eight-mile South Brunswick barrier island between Wilmington and Myrtle Beach — a 35-foot building cap, no high-rises, and one of National Geographic's family-beach picks

The North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores, the Theodore Roosevelt Natural Area, and the quietest village stretch on Bogue Banks

Three miles of Atlantic strand between Surfside Beach and Murrells Inlet — the oceanfront 690-foot Garden City Pier, Sam's Corner soft-serve, and a working family-condo strand without the high-rise density of Myrtle Beach proper

South Carolina's third-oldest city — a 1729 working colonial port at the convergence of five rivers, Hobcaw Barony's 16,000-acre research preserve, and DeBordieu Colony's private oceanfront gates twelve miles north

South Carolina's foot-shaped barrier island — Sea Pines Resort and the Harbour Town Lighthouse, 12 miles of Atlantic strand, and 60+ miles of paved bike paths through the Lowcountry maritime forest

The "Seafood Capital of South Carolina" — the half-mile MarshWalk boardwalk, eight working-waterfront seafood houses, and the pirate-history salt-marsh estuary at the southern end of the Grand Strand

The Grand Strand's 60-mile Atlantic crescent — the 1.2-mile Boardwalk and Promenade, the 200-foot SkyWheel, and the only oceanfront amusement park on the east coast

Nine miles of Atlantic strand from Cherry Grove to Windy Hill — Carolina Shag's birthplace on Main Street, the rebuilt Cherry Grove Pier, and Barefoot Resort's four championship golf courses

"Arrogantly Shabby" since the 1700s — a four-mile Lowcountry barrier island of weathered grey-shingle cottages, the True Blue Golf Resort, and the original Pawleys Island Rope Hammock

The self-styled "Family Beach" of the Grand Strand — two miles of stilted beach cottages between Myrtle Beach State Park and Garden City, anchored by the rebuilt Surfside Pier

A one-square-mile coastal village on the Monterey Peninsula — Carmel Beach's white sand and Monterey cypress, Pebble Beach two miles north, and the Big Sur Highway 1 driveway

A Santa Barbara County beach town with the world's safest beach, a harbor seal rookery, and a downtown Avocado Festival every October

Seventy-five miles of Pacific coast, twelve micro-cultures from Venice to Highland Park, and a movie-industry studio system woven into the daily life of half the city

Ten miles of Orange County coast — Balboa Island ferries, the Wedge bodysurf break, the Newport Pier dory fleet, and the largest small-boat harbor in the country

A 1875 Methodist tent-revival town turned Monterey Peninsula seaside village — Asilomar State Beach, Lovers Point, and the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary, all on a 17-Mile-Drive-adjacent coast

Endless summer, with a personality

A San Diego County beach town with the Cedros Avenue Design District, Fletcher Cove's bluff stairs, and the Belly Up Tavern's nightly headliner stage 25 miles north of downtown San Diego

The Bolivar Peninsula's main beach community — drive on the sand at Crystal Beach, take the free Galveston ferry, and feast on Stingaree fried shrimp

Thirty-two miles of beach, a Victorian downtown, and a Texas town that never quite forgot 1900

The quiet hamlet at the east end of the Bolivar Peninsula — Rollover Pass, the Audubon-bordered bayside flats, and an unhurried alternative to Crystal Beach

Mustang Island's drive-on Gulf beaches, the Lydia Ann Lighthouse, and the Texas State Aquarium across the Lydia Ann Channel

The west tip of the Bolivar Peninsula at the free Galveston ferry — Fort Travis, the North Jetty, and the Bolivar Lighthouse

Texas's southern barrier island — the Queen Isabella Causeway, Isla Blanca Park's south jetty, and the Laguna Madre flats off Andy Bowie

Two active volcanoes, four climate zones, and 266 miles of coast on a single island

The Garden Isle — Na Pali sea cliffs, the Waimea Canyon, and Hanalei Bay on a single island circuit

The valley isle, where the road slows down and the ocean takes over

Paradise where the Pacific meets the trade winds

A 14-mile barrier island at the mouth of Mobile Bay — Fort Gaines on the eastern tip, the Audubon Bird Sanctuary's 137 acres of maritime forest, and Alabama's officially designated Sunset Capital

Alabama's Pleasure Island west side — sugar-white quartz sand, the Hangout on the public beach, Gulf State Park, and the 22-mile Fort Morgan peninsula

Alabama's Pleasure Island — sugar-white quartz sand, the Wharf entertainment district, and the Phoenix tower row on Perdido Pass

Ten miles of Atlantic beach, a three-mile boardwalk, and the wild horses of Assateague

A sandy arm of New England, beach towns end to end

Ocean View Beach on the Chesapeake Bay — seven miles of bay-side shoreline, the world's largest naval base, and the Battleship Wisconsin docked downtown at Nauticus

700 islands of turquoise water — Eleuthera's pink sand and the Pitons-of-the-Atlantic Glass Window Bridge, Paradise Island's Cabbage Beach, and Exuma's swimming pigs

Ambergris Caye and the Belize Barrier Reef — a 185-mile UNESCO reef system, the Great Blue Hole, and golf-cart-only San Pedro

The Hermosa Palms gated beachfront community south of Jaco, the Central Pacific surf coast from Esterillos to Manuel Antonio, and 11 private-pool villas with full Costa Rica jungle-and-ocean access

Roatán's Mesoamerican Reef — the world's second-largest barrier reef, a 75-foot wall dive at West End, and powdery sand at West Bay

Negril's Seven Mile Beach and Rick's Cafe sunset cliffs, Montego Bay's Doctor's Cave Beach, Dunn's River Falls in Ocho Rios, and a private-villa cluster in Ironshore

Riviera Maya — Mareazul resort condos three kilometres from Playa del Carmen's Quinta Avenida, with Cozumel ferries and Tulum cenotes on the doorstep

The Algarve coast — Falésia's red cliffs, Albufeira's old town, and Vilamoura's marina, with Faro airport thirty kilometres away

Buck Island National Monument's underwater snorkel trail, Christiansted's 18th-century Danish colonial harbor, the Cruzan Rum Distillery, and 10 gated-condo Caribbean View rentals 15 minutes from the Christiansted town walk

Barbados's Platinum Coast — Holetown, Sandy Lane, Mullins Beach, and 200+ rentals on the calm Caribbean side of the island

The Pitons UNESCO twin peaks above Soufrière, the drive-in Sulphur Springs volcano, and 49+ private-pool villas from Cap Estate to Marigot Bay

Speightstown's 'Little Bristol,' the Cherry Tree Hill mahogany road, St. Nicholas Abbey, and the calm-water beach strip from Mullins to Six Men's Bay

The Ritz-Carlton Club at Great Bay, Sapphire Beach Resort & Marina, the Red Hook ferry to Saint John, and the calm-water beaches of the eastern Smith Bay strip