What’s the Definition of the World’s Most Perfect Beach?
Posted on April 23, 2008
Filed Under Beaches |
No brainer – white powder sand, turquoise water, no crowds. But wait, I’d really like some clear water & reef to do some snorkeling, so maybe a little rocky offshore – but keep some of the bottom sandy for playing on without stubbing a toe.
And I’d like to do a little body surfing too, but then the kids can’t handle the big stuff. Oh yeah, what about shade, maybe there should be a few palm trees placed strategically – but don’t block the sun. Better make sure it’s wide enough for some volleyball too – don’t want the beach disappearing whenever low-tide comes around.
Speaking of low-tide, those tide-pools left behind are cool for finding little critters, so maybe some more of those reef rocks up on shore – not too many though……
Hmmm, maybe this isn’t such a no-brainer after all. I suspect everyone has some sort of fuzzy notion in their mind of what the perfect beach looks like, but when it comes time to actually pick one out as a destination, it becomes a bit more complicated.
The real answer is it depends – it depends on what you want to do at the beach. And that answer will no doubt have several parts that change with every trip, not to mention ages of the travelers.
Lets go a step further and really complicate things. If you were going to pick a beach to settle or retire on, which would it be?
Now you have to start considering other things, like how often will you be blown away by hurricanes, how far from groceries and other stores, how far from services like doctors and hospitals, and a hundred other typical home buying questions.
Sort of takes the fun out of it eh? Not really, but makes for a much more thought provoking question. For instance, while I really like being right on the beach, I might not like it during bad storms, or potential flooding.
In fact I might want to get off the beach and live high up where I can enjoy cool breezes and a panorama view of the ocean. There was great illustration of such a place in a film called “The Thomas Crown Affair” starring Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo. (Actually was a remake of the original with Steve McQueen.) It was filmed in Martinique where Crown had a cottage up a couple thousand feet, on top of a mountain. It was totally secluded with a magnificent 360 degree view out over the ocean.
As much as I like the idea of stepping out the back door and walking to the beach, I’m becoming more interested in something like Crown’s place where I get the breeze and view, but would have a longer walk down to the water. Probably more sensible in hurricane areas and would certainly save on insurance as well as property cost.
Another reason for considering locations not directly on the beach would be that no beach will likely provide for all the different activities I might want to do. These range from sunning, reading in the shade, taking long walks, surfing, snorkeling, scuba diving, sailing, finding shells, searching tide-pools, enjoying both calm seas and crashing waves, and on and on.
There just isn’t one place to do it all, which is a bit frustrating because the reason one goes to the effort and expense of living on a beach is to do beach things. So not being able to do all of them would be rather annoying.
And the end of the day, there will no doubt be compromise involved. What do you think – what comes to mind when thinking about a “perfect beach”, or have you already found you place in the sun?
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