World's Most Unusual Beaches

No disrespect to gorgeous beaches with powdery white sand, but sometimes the standard-issue paradise starts to feel, well, bland. It's time to set off for shores with strange hues of sand, alarmingly low-flying aircraft, and hot pools you can dig yourself. From Florida to New Zealand, these 10 picks take you to some peculiar beaches, all worth a visit.

Giant's Causeway
Near Bushmills, Northern Ireland

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Take a beach walk in the footsteps of a mythical giant. Along Northern Ireland's coast more than 38,000 interlocking basalt columns descend like a huge stepping-stone highway that disappears into the sea. Volcanic eruptions fashioned the perfectly shaped hexagonal towers grouped in honeycomb-like clusters. As the legend goes, the giant warrior Finn McCool built this causeway so he could walk across the sea and face his Scottish rival, Benandonner. Apparently, Benandonner had the same idea; there are similar basalt columns on Scotland's isle of Staffa. You can explore the causeway, a UNESCO World Heritage site, on coastal and cliff paths or stop in at a new visitor center set to open this summer.

Glass BeachGlass Beach in Ft. Bragg, California (Photo: Visit Mendocino County)
Ft. Bragg, California

What was once the town dump is now a treasure that sparkles in the northern California sunlight: Glass Beach. Until the late 1960s, Ft. Bragg residents would hurl their garbage from the overlooking cliff into the sea. But decades of wave action tumbled the old car taillights, perfume bottles, six-packs of beer, and other refuse, transforming it into tiny, translucent, smooth-edged pebbles of every imaginable color and shape. This beach has the highest concentration of sea glass in the world. And it's so tempting to pocket. Unfortunately, collecting is off-limits, as Glass Beach lies within the protected MacKerricher State Park.

Red BeachRed Beach in Santorini, Greece (Photo: Thinkstock/iStockphoto)
Santorini, Greece

Santorini's unusual beaches are the stuff of sci-fi novels. Volcanic explosions and collapses have left behind swaths of black sand, lunar-esque landscapes, and one sandy stretch that looks like it belongs on Mars: Red Beach. Towering red lava cliffs drop right down to a smallish red-sand beach and into the Aegean Sea. From a distance, even the shallowest water looks like blood. Despite its remote location, the beach still gets crowded with sunbathers basking on the warm, dark sand. Exceptionally clear waters make this an interesting spot for swimming and snorkeling. Avoid visiting midday in summer, when the beach underfoot can be scorching.

Maho BeachMaho Beach in St. Maarten (Photo: Thinkstock/Medioimages/Photodisc)
St. Maarten

Don't expect to get uninterrupted time with your Kindle on this beach. At the end of St. Maarten's airport runway, Maho Beach gives beachgoers a thrill every half hour: jumbo jets taking off and landing nearly within arm's reach. Only a narrow road separates you from the runway at Princess Juliana International Airport, the second-busiest airport in the eastern Caribbean. With the heat from the jet blast and winds of up to 100 mph whipping the sand, every takeoff and landing feels like a close call. The peak arrival time for the long-haul heavies, Boeing 747s and Airbus 340s, is between 1 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Petroglyph BeachPetroglyph Beach in Alaska (Photo: Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau, photographer Ivan Simonek)
Wrangell, Alaska

It's anyone's guess what the 40 rock carvings on Wrangell's Petroglyph Beach mean, and that's part of the intrigue. There's a strong indigenous Tlingit influence here on the tiny island of Wrangell, tucked away on the Inside Passage of southeast Alaska. And scientists believe it was the original local Tlingit who etched out the rock artwork some 8,000 years ago. Visible at low tide, unique faces, spirals, birds, salmon, and a killer whale appear on boulders and bedrock near important salmon streams. Want to speculate on interpretations? For some petroglyphs, slanted light at sunrise or sunset improves visibility; others are easier to see when rain leaves the rocks shiny and wet.