Top 15 World’s Most Beautiful Beaches with Seashells

These amazing destinations represent the most beautiful seashell beaches in the world. They will amaze you!

Sanibel Island, Florida

Recognized (by Travel & Leisure magazine) as the best place to find seashells in North America, Sanibel Island – located near Fort Meyers in the Gulf of Mexico – is a paradise for seashell lovers.

“The east-west topography of this area makes it an ideal place to discover an incredible variety of seashells,” says Gabe Saglie, editor of Travelzoo. There are 400 kinds of shellfish thrown up by the thousands every day by the sea. Florida Pleuroplocas, anomies, giant cockles, calico scallops… the choice is yours. The Junonia is the locals’ favorite. Sanibel Island is home to the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum, the only shell museum in the United States.

Warning to all well-meaning collectors: Collecting seashells from a beach can disrupt the local aquatic ecosystem as they serve as a home for hermit crabs, provide hiding places for small fish, and provide material for birds to build their nests… Better to just admire them, take pictures of them, and leave them in their natural habitat.

Shell Beach, Saint-Barthélémy

To deserve the name of shell beach, you have to have an imposing array of shells… And that’s exactly what Shell Beach in the capital city of Gustavia has to offer. There are so many shells buried several centimeters deep that you won’t be able to walk there barefoot. “Shell Beach represents a part of the island where a ton of shells have accumulated on the shore,” says Sveva Marcangeli, owner and founder of travel blog Svadore.

Shell Beach, Australie

“Shell Beach” is fortunately not a registered trademark, as there is another place worthy of the name in the Shark Bay area of ​​Western Australia. If this beach seems from a distance made up of fine white sand, there is not a single grain of it.

It is completely covered with billions of tiny white shells of the cockle family, buried up to 10 meters deep in some areas.

Tybee Island, Georgia, USA

Located 20 minutes from downtown Savannah, Tybee Island is a five-mile-long beach. Perfect for strike beaters. You’ll find a variety of shells here, including Atlantic whelk, olive, and shark’s eye in a wide array of colors.

For example, arches – among the most common bivalve mollusks – range from gray and white to dark red, orange, and gold. Due to its changing tides, it’s impossible to know where the best places on the island are to find seashells, but you’ll occasionally discover large accumulations just by walking through the sand. You will find the more fragile shells (such as giant clams, hams, razor clams, and piddocks) in quieter areas of the beach.

Punta Umbria beach, Spain

In the autonomous community of Punta Umbria in Andalusia, southern Spain, the beach is overflowing with bivalve mollusks.

“Low tides very often leave behind an incredible display of seashells,” says Carlos Quintero, founder of Andalusia Lifestyles, a company that helps American citizens plan their retirement in Spain. Often belonging to the same family, such as the large clams, however, seashells come in many sizes, colors, and shapes. It sometimes looks like a huge carpet of shells covering the beach. It is truly spectacular!”

San Blas Islands, Panama

Archipelago on the Caribbean coast of Panama, the San Blas Islands are among the most beautiful remote beaches in the world with their coral reefs and shells in abundance.
“Because these reefs are right next to the beaches and the tides are virtually non-existent, it’s possible to search for shells anytime,” says Jorge Bastos, editor of Travel Drafts. The most impressive ones I saw in San Blas were sand urchins. The sheet they had imprinted in the sand was so well-defined that it seemed too good to be true.

Although it is very tempting to bring shells home, it is forbidden to do so in San Blas.

Kite Beach, Dubai

A privileged place for kitesurfing enthusiasts, Kite Beach in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, can also delight lovers of beautiful seashells. “I heard the best time to see seashells there was at low tide, but I went in the afternoon and found some easily,” says Christabel Lobo, a born freelance author and designer. and having grown up in Dubai.

Cameron Parish, Louisiana

Most people don’t think of Louisiana beaches, but the seashells in Cameron Parish, on the west side of the state, offer plenty of surprises. This isolated area called “Louisiana’s Outback” is full of natural wonders… and alligators (there are 10 per person!).

“Taking the Creole Nature Trail is a wonderful way to discover the area which offers 42 kilometers of wild but easily accessible beaches. This makes them perfect places to find whelks, cockles, piddocks, cat’s eyes, olives, scalas, lumachelles, and periwinkles,” says Anne Klenke, tourism director for the Lake Charles/Southwest Louisiana Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“Rutherford Beach east of Cameron Parish is a very beautiful site, and the smaller beaches west of Holly Beach are also great areas for collecting seashells,” she adds. Why are there so many? Located west of the Mississippi Delta, the beaches are constantly fed by the southwestern Mississippi tidal current, carrying rich deposits of driftwood and a wide variety of seashells. The low tide that follows a storm system brings its share of superb shells.

New Smyrna Beach, Florida

The beautiful, long stretch of New Smyrna Beach, south of Daytona Beach, is picture-perfect, but it’s the thousands of different seashells that cover multiple areas of the beach that make it a seashell-hunting paradise.

“Many of them are in excellent condition,” says Rhonda Weaver, founder of travel blog Roaming Red Feather. They can be of different sizes, have rounded edges, and have colors ranging from red to white through brown and even pink. With so many seashells everywhere, it’s wise to bring shoes.” And be careful if you enter the water, as this beach is also known as the shark attack capital of the world.

Cape Lookout National Seashore, Caroline du Nord

You might recognize the iconic lighthouse at Cape Lookout National Seashore on North Carolina’s Crystal Coast. Still, it’s the succession of wild, shimmering beaches stretching 90 kilometers – accessible only by boat – that will catch your eye. seashell lovers.

Nodule conch, bay scallops, gritty helmets, and other types of shells wash up on shore. A helmet the size of a basketball, four times larger than the average, was discovered there recently! Try to comb the beach early in the morning, at low tide, after a storm, or during low tourist season, during the winter months for example, to see more.

Aveiros beach, Portugal

Praia dos Aveiros Beach nestles in the town of Albufeira in the Algarve region near the southern tip of Portugal. Known for its fine golden sand and flanked on either side by cliffs and rock formations, you will also find an impressive assortment of seashells here.

“If you go there when the waves are breaking, you can see the shells in the water,” says Gareth Edmondson-Jones of the Portugal Tourist Board. It fills with sea snail shells, clams, and all kinds of fancy seashells.”

Keewaydin Island, Naples, Florida

Are you looking for many beaches lined with shells? The Gulf Coast of Florida is the perfect region for you. “Keewaydin Island in Naples, Florida, is largely uninhabited,” says Charles McCool, traveler happiness advocate. If you visit the island on a weekday morning by private shuttle boat or on an ecotourism expedition, you will enjoy at least a kilometer of wild beach just for you. I found dozens of magnificent flat sea urchins perfectly intact.”

Low Bay, Barbuda

If pink is your favorite color, you’ll be amazed at the pink sand beach of Low Bay in Barbuda (one of the two main islands that make up the Caribbean nation Antigua and Barbuda). Tiny iridescent pink shells give it that shade. Sometimes, so many of them rattle when the waves recede.

Jeffreys Bay, South Africa

A goldmine of seashells awaits you in this world-famous city in South Africa. Although you can find them all year round, some claim that winter is the best time to find shells of all shapes, sizes, and colors.

If your search proves fruitless, you can visit the Jeffreys Bay Seashell Museum, which features more than 600 species from around the world. And to meet people who share the same passion as you, don’t miss the annual shellfish festival held there every fall.

Somerset Creek Beach, Bahamas

Stretching a mile and a half across the island of Andros – an archipelago in the Bahamas – Somerset Creek Beach is home to millions of tiny pastel-colored seashells, sand dollars, conch, and other species.

After a big storm, you’ll find plenty of it in shallow puddles.