The World’s 50 Best Beaches 2026: 1,000 Travel Experts Crown the Most Idyllic Shorelines

The World’s 50 Best Beaches has revealed its annual rankings for 2026. Driven by first-hand exploration by The World’s 50 Best Beaches team as well as collaboration with over 1,000 travel professionals worldwide, the list highlights the planet’s most spectacular strands of sand.

This Year’s Winner: Entalula Beach in the Philippines was named the best beach in the world for 2026.

Top Three: Rounding out the top three were Fteri Beach in Greece and Wharton Beach in Australia.

Beach Bounty: Greece, Thailand and Australia are hotspots in 2026 with 3 beaches each on the list.

First-Timers:  Beachies in Fiji, Cambodia and Colombia appear on the annual list for the first time.

Last year’s winner, Sardinia’s Cala Goloritze, moves to the ‘Best of the Best’ list.

“Being recognized by millions of travellers and global media as the definitive authority on beaches is a responsibility we take incredibly seriously,” said Tine Holst, Co-Founder of The World’s 50 Best Beaches. 

“To uphold that uncompromising standard, we’ve elevated our methodology for 2026. For the first time, our core team is personally visiting and evaluating hundreds of beaches year-round. By combining this new level of on-the-ground verification with the insights of our 1,000 industry experts, we take tremendous pride in sharing this list of the world’s most incredible beaches.”

Global nominations were evaluated across eight essential criteria: unique characteristics, wildlife, untouched nature, natural soundtrack, ease of water entry, frequency of calm conditions, lack of overcrowding, and consistency of idyllic settings. 

To maintain a continually evolving global guide, The World’s 50 Best Beaches employs a “Best of the Best” Hall of Fame. Former #1 beaches are permanently retired from the annual voting pool. Rather than competing year after year, these unparalleled destinations graduate to the “Best of the Best” archive. 

The full list of The World’s 50 Best Beaches 2026, is available here.