Every year Tripadvisor announces their Traveller's Choice Awards which are based on the ratings and comments from millions of users, and yesterday they published the rankings for the best beaches in Europe, which includes one beach here in the Canary Islands, and two in Spain.
In the list there are golden sand beaches, black sand beaches, beaches on steep coasts, some with atmosphere and some totally natural.
Here is this year’s Top 10 winners which are the favourites of travellers to enjoy all kinds of activities, whether taking a long walk along them or ending the day admiring the sunset.
1 REYNISFJARA, ICELAND.
The most unique in Iceland, but also in Europe, according to the Tripadvisor ranking, is a volcanic sand beach in the south of the country with three unusual trolls, the Reynisdrangur, which appear in front of it and which, according to mythology, were converted to stone at the appearance of the first rays of sun.
You must climb the unusual basalt columns that decorate this beautiful enclave near the picturesque city of Vik where the movie Noah was filmed.
2 FALESIA BEACH, PORTUGAL.
The second beach on the Tripadvisor list is in the Algarve. A spectacular sandy area in Olhos de Agúa that stretches for no less than 8 kilometres in length and receives its name from the cliffs that surround it, a reddish colour that becomes even more intense at sunset. A paved track first and then some wooden stairs give access to it, along which you have to take a pleasant walk observing the different shapes that the wind and erosion have carved over the years on the cliff.
3 SPIAGGIA DEI CONIGLI, ITALY.
This Sicilian beach of Lampedusa has featured several times in the ranking of the best beaches in Europe and the world. The wide bay of Conigli is lined with white cliffs and if we did not know that it is in Sicily, it would be easy to think that it is in the Caribbean, due to its dazzlingly white sand, gentle slope and a transparent sea with shades ranging from turquoise to emerald.
In addition to seeing the loggerhead turtles that come here to lay their eggs every year, the place is also a refuge for a species of striped lizard typical of northwest Africa, the Psammodromus algirus.
4 LA CONCHA, SAN SEBASTIAN.
The Gipuzkoan capital has four magnificent beaches, but the most iconic is placed fourth in the Tripadvisor ranking. The very long sandy beach, a common place for people from San Sebastián to walk along with its famous railing, draws one of the most beautiful urban landscapes in the world, framed by the Igeldo and Urgull mountains and the island of Santa Clara facing the bay.
5 MURO BEACH, MAJORCA.
Five kilometres long, it is the second Spanish beach on the Tripadvisor list, fantastic for its turquoise colour and its shallow crystalline waters and part of a protected area: the S'Albufera Natural Park. It has several areas, one equipped with all services, where hotels, beach clubs and piers that jut out into the sea are located; the virgin area of Es Comú, with dunes and pine forests, and the area known as Ses Casetes des Capellans, with a small group of fishermen's houses on the same sand.
6 FALASSARNA, GREECE.
Not one but five beaches – the main one is Pacheia Ammos – make up the first of the Cretan sandbanks in the ranking, and one of the most exotic, which is easily accessed from Chaniá or Kissamos. Exposed to the wind, surfers enjoy its waves, its white sand and turquoise blue water and, due to its orientation to the east, its incomparable sunsets. Its beauty grows when contemplating at one end the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Falassarna.
7 NISSI BEACH, CYPRUS.
Cyprus, the third largest island in the Mediterranean, has an idyllic coastline with fantastic beaches with warm, transparent waters, among which Nissi Beach, in Ayia Napa, occupies an outstanding position. Because of its white sand, its palm trees, bright blue water, its absence of waves and its microclimate, where the sun almost always shines, and also, it is surrounded by cliffs, mountains and islands, but also because of its environment, which It attracts both families and lovers of partying or water sports.
8 BALOS LAGOON, GREECE.
Crete has some of the most stunning beaches in Greece (Triopetra, Vai, Falasarna, Elafonis), but Balos is one of the perfect picture postcards, located in the northwest of the island, between Gramvousa Cape and the small Tigali Cape. Regularly featured on the cover of magazines, this photogenic beach, near Kissamos, dazzles with its incredible shallow, vibrant turquoise waters, its white sand with coral and its nature, as it is part of a natural park, with unique flora and fauna, which is also a refuge for monk seals and turtles.
9 LEEWARD, FUERTEVENTURA.
In ninth position on the ranking is Sotavento de Fuerteventura, which is actually a succession of calm and extensive beaches that extend along one of the two coastal strips of Jandía, the elongated peninsula located to the south of the island. Between ravines, fine sand and chromatic eruptive rocks give colour to a natural space of excessive beauty that is adopting various names: Costa Calma, Esquinzo-Butihondo, Solana Matorral and Morro Jable. A paradise that windsurfers particularly enjoy.
10 SILLON BEACH, FRANCE.
Not one but three sandy beaches make up Sillon beach, in the Brittany region: Grande, Hoguette and Rochebonne, which, at three kilometres long, is the largest sandy beach in Saint-Malo. A dam borders the first, proposing a pleasant promenade lined with numerous villas built at the end of the 19th century. When the wind blows, it is ideal for kites or windsurfing while admiring the castle of Saint-Malo and the forts built within the walls of this former corsair city.
