15 Bucket List Beaches

You'll feel like the luckiest castaway standing on these postcard-perfect shores.

- By Kristi Valentini

1 Phra Nang Cave Beach

KRABI, THAILAND

With its jagged limestone cliffs and emerald water, this remote beach looks like the kind that pops up in your daydreams. Monkeys dart around, and long-tail boats the only way to get there-line the shore. If you can tear yourself away from the view, hike a one-mile trail to a jade green lagoon or seek out the sacred cave that honors the princess Phra Nang.

2 Muizenberg Beach

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA Known as the birthplace of surfing in South Africa, this spot is ideal for learning how to hang ten thanks to its consistent waves and gently sloping sandy bottom. (Have no fear, there are professional shark spotters keeping watch!) What may be even more popular than the surfing: the beach's iconic row of colorful and extremely photogenic beach huts.

Sea glass is formed when shards of broken glass are smoothed out by waves, salt, and sand over many years.

3 Glass Beach

MACKERRICHER STATE PARK, FORT BRAGG, CA Until 1967, this location was one of three city dumps where residents pushed their garbage off cliffs into the ocean. Now, after decades of clean-up efforts, the only thing that blankets the shore is the trash Mother Nature has turned into treasure: smooth blue, green, red, and amber sea glass.