What better way to spend the holidays than in the sand, sipping frozen drinks and working on a tan to make your coworkers envious? Escape the chilly winter in exotic locales like Puerto Rico, Australia, and Thailand, and in chillier but equally gorgeous spots like Denmark and Ireland. Here's a roundup of the best beaches to relax on during your holiday, made in partnership with Beach Tomato. Dig out that swimsuit from your summer storage—you’re going to need it.
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Tucked between Condado and Isla Verde, the beach at quaint Ocean Park is the cream of this island’s coastal crop. A top spot for young and beautiful Sanjuaneros to strut their stuff, Ocean Park—to the east of San Juan’s city center—has a Rio-esque flaunt-it beach vibe. With bags of Caribbean charm, we’ve got a lot of Latino love for this city’s sand.
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Sitting on the Eyre Peninsula on the South Australian coast, Coffin Bay Beach’s sheltered dunes, limestone cliffs, and white surf beaches are truly something spectacular. Picture your ideal Australian beach—this is what you’re imagining. With reefs that extend out to the sea and islands dotting your view from the beach (when the odd kangaroo doesn’t interrupt it), this is one relaxed, and not at all eerie, beach hole-up.
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If you want to swap the well-trodden tourist traps in Thailand for picturesque privacy with the shore at your door, then look no further. Chaba Villa, a mere two-and-a-half hour-drive south of Bangkok in the Aleenta Hua Hin—Pranburi Resort and Spa, is a luxury bolt hole on the sandy golden stretch of Pak Nampran Bay. The resort is spitting distance from the town of Hua Hin, discovered in the early 1920s by King Rama VII, which consequently became popular among Siam’s nobility and upper-class. Posh digs—we like that.
Stroll through the deep green of its neighboring Nordic forest and stumble upon secluded little Aakrogen Beach. Just beyond Aarhus, Denmark's second-largest city, Aakrogen's waters are a mini Mecca for windsurfing types and though come summertime its sands are the sprawling place of ever-liberal Danes who believe less-is-more when it comes to beach attire, there is a winter charm about this breezy beach spot that isn't lessened by the necessary sartorial layers.
Food? Check. Booze? Check. Beach? CHECK. Home to a fully functioning farm that provides artisan produce for the likes of Harrods, as well as an independent whisky distillery, Inish Turk Beg—which means Small Island of the Wild Boar—lures you to it and never gives you a reason to leave. Just five minutes off Ireland’s County Mayo on the Atlantic west coast, it’s a place of bracing shoreline walks and cozy sea views. With five houses scattered across the 65-acre island, accommodating up to 25 people, bring your friends to be dined, wined, and whiskied by the dedicated island staff. And if the Irish weather gets the better of you, retreat to the main house where a screening room, indoor infinity pool, and games room make the great outdoors slightly redundant ... until a glance of its sweeping views will have you running for the beach once more.
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