Beach Sand

ByLisa Dworkin Hours

Santa Rosa Beach photo courtesy of Lisa Dworkin. All rights reserved.

Beach sand comes in a wide range of colors. The most common colors fall into the neutral family of tans and beiges, with white sand beaches being highly prized. But did you know that there are also more unusual sand colors such as black, green, pink, and red?

Black sand beach photo courtesy of Wikimedia. All rights reserved.

Black Sand Beaches

Where can you find a black sand beach? There are actually quite a few black sand beaches found around the world. That’s because the most common type of black sand is made of basalt fragments from volcanic eruptions. There are black sand beaches in…

Europe

  • Santorini in Greece
  • Tenerife in Spain
  • Azores in Portugal
  • Vik i Myrdal in Iceland

United States

  • Prince William Sound in Alaska
  • Lost Coast in California
  • Punalu’u Beach on the Big Island in Hawaii
  • Kehena Beach on the Big Island in Hawaii
  • Honokalani Beach on Maui in Hawaii
  • Wai’anapanapa Beach on Maui in Hawaii
  • Naupaka Beach on Maui in Hawaii

Mexico

  • Nayarit Beach on Mexico’s Pacific Coast

Central America

  • Playa Negra in Costa Rica
  • Las Lajas in Panama

Caribbean

  • Richmond Beach in Saint Vincent
  • Buccament Bay in Saint Vincent
  • Mt Wynne in Saint Vincent
  • Petit Byahaut in Saint Vincent
  • Sandy Bay in Saint Vincent
  • Black Point Beach in Saint Vincent
  • Most beaches in Montserrat
  • Conaree Beach in St. Kitts
  • Dieppe Bay Beach in St. Kitts
  • Pump Bay in St. Kitts
  • The beaches on Nevis’ south coastline
  • Most beaches in Dominica
  • Anse Chastanet in St. Lucia
  • Anse Cochon in St. Lucia
  • Black Bay Beach in Grenada
  • Devil’s Bay Beach in Grenada
  • Duquesne Beach in Grenada

South Pacific

  • Kariotahi Beach in New Zealand
  • Muriwai Beach in New Zealand
  • Piha in New Zealand
  • Raglan in New Zealand
  • Tautira in Tahiti
  • Point Venus in Tahiti

Indian Ocean

  • South coast of Java in Indonesia

Green sand beach courtesy of popista.com. All rights reserved.

Green Sand Beaches

Where can you find a green sand beach? There are only four green sand beaches in the world. That’s because green sand comes from the presence of the mineral olivine. The reason there are so few green sand beaches is because olivine is extremely susceptible to weathering. Of the world’s four green sand beaches, Papakolea is by far the greenest. The four green sand beaches are…

  • Papakolea Beach on the Big Island in Hawaii
  • Talofofo Beach in Guam
  • Punta Cormorant on Floreana Island in the Galapagos Islands
  • Hornindalsvatnet in Norway

Pink sand beach photo courtesy of matadornetwork.com. All rights reserved.

Pink Sand Beaches

Where can you find a pink sand beach? There aren’t a lot of pink sand beaches in the world, but I can’t give you an exact number because there’s some disagreement over what beaches are actually pink. For the purposes of this article, I researched every beach listed as pink individually and then narrowed it down to the ones that could actually be verified as pink either through pictures or a reliable source. Another interesting thing about pink beaches is the lack of creativity shown in naming them. These are the beaches that I feel are genuinely pink sand beaches…

  • Elafonisi Beach near the island of Crete in Greece
  • Spiaggia Rosa (translates to Pink Beach) on the island of Budelli in Italy
  • Horseshoe Bay Beach in Bermuda
  • Pink Beach on the island of Barbuda in the Caribbean
  • Pink Sands Beach on Harbor Island in the Bahamas
  • Tangsi Beach on the island of Lombok in Indonesia
  • Pantai Merah (translates to Pink Beach) on the island of Komodo in Indonesia
  • Pink Beach on Great Santa Cruz Island in the Philippines

Red sand beach photo courtesy of hawaiitopten.com. All rights reserved.

Red Sand Beaches

Where can you find a red sand beach? There are only four red sand beaches in the world, making them equally as rare as green sand beaches. Red sand is formed when a beach is near cliffs rich with the mineral iron. When the cliffs erode onto the shoreline the beach becomes red. The four red sand beaches are…

  • Kaihalulu Beach on the island of Maui in Hawaii
  • Kokkini Beach on the island of Santorini in Greece
  • Cavendish Beach on Prince Edward Island in Canada
  • Rabida Island in the Galapagos

To many joyful beach experiences!

— Lisa Dworkin

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