10 Caribbean Beaches to Walk

A walk on the beach in the early morning is one of the Caribbean’s loveliest experiences. The dawn is cool and often completely still. And without other people about, you can take time to observe the quiet life of the beach - the tracks of animals that appeared overnight, the scallop shapes in the sand, left by the wave action, and the shape of the waves themselves as they rise, furl and roll onto the sand. Beware though, it can be hard work, walking along the beach in the Caribbean - on some the sand is so thick and deep that walking becomes aerobic exercise…

Here are my favourite beaches to walk in the Caribbean. It’s a personal list and not intended to be exhaustive, just the result of 35 years of visiting Caribbean beaches and counting grains of sand…

1 Negril Beach, Jamaica
There’s nowhere like Negril Beach - five uninterrupted, sunset-facing miles (not seven, as you’re always told) of superb sand, backed along almost its entire length by small hotels (just one or two large hotels at the top end) and restaurants and bars – walk it in the morning and return for entertainment in the afternoon – or of course the sunset. The sand can get quite narrow in places but it shelves gradually into beautifully swimmable, always calm water.

2 Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman
Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman (similarly more like 5 miles long) also faces due west, giving it superb sunset views. Again it has lovely light, soft coral sand sliding into superb blue sea. It too is backed mostly by development – increasingly taller hotels and condominiums interspersed with smaller buildings - bars, restaurants and watersports shops. Even the island Governor’s Official Residence is there. It’s lovely to walk in the early morning (you probably won’t be alone) - and then you can return at the end of the day, for a chance of seeing the Green Flash…

3 Meads Bay, Anguilla
Meads Bay, on the northern side of Anguilla, really is an aerobic challenge – in places the sand is so thick you’ll be stumbling along up to your ankles. The beach is steadily being developed, but it is by no means full and there are some lovely sections of empty sand to walk. But it is most magical for its clear sea, particularly when the fish fry come out to play – as the waves rise, faces like marbled green glass, these tiny fellers ‘sew’ in and out of the face of the wave in a miniature stream of darts. Anguilla has so much sand, that you can just as easily try the south coast, where Rendezvous Bay, another mile of excellent sand, segues into Cove Bay.

4 Alabaster Bay, Eleuthera, The Bahamas
The Bahamas is a challenge when it comes to choosing, because there are so many stretches of sand, they are all beautifully bright and white, the sea is almost always turquoise and because there are so many of them they are almost all deserted… So I have chosen Alabaster Beach on Eleuthera near Governor’s Harbour not so much because you can walk along it but because you can walk out into the water for about 500 yards and still only be waist deep….

5 Grace Bay, Provo, TCI
The Turks and Caicos Islands have the same superb limestone sand as the Bahamas, and they have plenty of long deserted stretches too, but the sand on Grace Bay, the huge curve of sand and surreal blue sea on the north side of Providenciales is among the finest beaches in the region. It is developed, but the sand is fantastic and there is about twelve miles of it, so you can walk to your heart’s content.

6 Barbuda
The southern shore of Barbuda is one long beach, miles and miles of uninterrupted, barely developed blond sand giving onto superb, shallow water, running from the island’s southern tip, at Coco Point in the east, 12 miles westwards (past the ferry terminal) to Palmetto Point in the west, where the beach is a barely believable hundred metres broad. So that’ll keep you going most of the day. Unless you decide on the 17 almost uninterrupted miles of sand of Barbuda’s west coast, which runs almost uninterrupted to North Point.

7 The Baths, Virgin Gorda, BVI
This is a walk of a different kind. Do not expect a stretch of uninterrupted sand, nor to be alone (unless you go very early in the day). Instead there are five tiny beaches divided by a giant’s playground of boulders stacked and jumbled on one another. No problem, just climb over them, or clamber through them, into caverns of luminescent green, where the waves roll in and wash around your feet. You can walk nearly a mile in all, starting at Valley Trunk Bay in the north, heading through Spring Bay and to the Baths themselves, before finishing up at a delightfully named cove - Devil’s Bay.

8 Long Bay, St Martin
St Martin is ringed with good beaches, each with its distinctive character, and several long enough for a fine walk. Perhaps you’d like the busy-ness of Orient Beach, with its beach clubs and watersports, or the off-beat Simpson Bay, with its cool bars and, well… airport (it gets noisy as the big planes take off). Even the capital of the Dutch side, Philipsburg, sits on a mile of decent sand. But Long Bay tops them all - for its mile of magnificent, relatively undeveloped but excellent sand, excellent calm blue sea and romantic view of distant islands.

9 Grand Anse, Grenada
For its view of the mountainous interior of Grenada  – and of course its mile and a half of sumptuous blond sand and sublime blue sea - Grenada’s Grand Anse (literally ‘Big Bay’) is best walked from the western end, and preferably at the beginning of the day. As you approach, the attractive island rises green and topped with cloud ahead of you. And perhaps, once you have made the walk to the east, you might enjoy walking back the other way with the sun on your back.

10 Samana Peninsular the Dominican Republic
The palms sprout so wildly along the north coast of the Dominican Republic that in places they are like a fan – and along the lovely Samama peninsular in the north of the Dominican Republic you can walk on the meandering sand (with just a few breaks around rocky outcrops) for miles, under palms at all angles – some laid back, leaning inland, some standing vertical and others leaning out over the sand almost reaching down to touch the sea.