Unique beaches you need to experience: from penguins to planes

Everyone quite fancies a beach break every now and again, but for even the biggest beach bums amongst us, all that warm, white, pristine sand and crystal clear waters can get a bit…samey. Jokes, a white sand beach and blue waters is a classic and we’d take one any day! That being said, if you do wanna mix it up a bit, here’s a few of the world’s most unique beaches, from penguins (seriously) to planes coming into land just metres from your head. Might wanna leave the beach read at home for that one.

First up on our list of unique beaches, we’re heading to a remote part of the Bahamian islands called The Exumas (just south of Naussau), where you’ll find Big Major Cay. Population: 0. Well, that’s if you don’t include the pigs.

But where did these guys come from? No one really knows. Left by sailors? Washed ashore from a shipwreck? There’s even a rumour they were brought here as prep for the Y2K crash! But, basically, no one has the foggiest.

They’re big fans of being visited (mainly because visitors = food) but they have pretty poor eyesight, so approach them slowly and carefully, and if you do give them food, make sure it’s all natural and unprocessed. If you come with a tour guide, they’ll have some prepared for you.

You can do day trips from Nassau, and try to time it in the morning as they’re more likely to be up and at ‘em then. If you want more quality one on one time with the pigs, try coming in September or November as that’s the low season here.

Pigs might not fly, but they defo swim, and you can go for a dip with them with our cheap flights to the Bahamas.

This place might be called Boulders Beach because of all the, er, boulders, but we don’t care about those. When it comes to unique beaches, one with a resident colony of African penguins ranks pretty high.

A bunch of them (more than 3000!) hang out here, and they’re absolutely thriving after their numbers dwindled right down to a lonely single breeding pair back in the 80s. You can watch them from afar, or you can even join them in the water, but unlike the pigs over in the Bahamas. remember not to touch them or feed them.

Now, logistics. You can get to one of the world’s most unique beaches from Cape Town by taking the scenic MetroRail route, and then take a taxi or walk 30 mins to the beach, or you can just grab an Uber or Bolt to take you the whole way. And if you’re gonna go, then you’ve gotta go in January – that’s when the babies start moulting on the beach. Just thinking about it is too cute – get us on a plane already!

What’s that? Cheap flights to Cape Town? Say no more!

In the Komodo National Park, a group of islands in the east of Indonesia, you’ll find Pink Sand Beach on Komodo Island – yep, the place where Komodo Dragons come from!

This isn’t the only pink sand beach in Indonesia – for a pretty rare phenomenon, Indonesia has a fair few of ‘em – but it’s one of the most popular, thanks to being surrounded by hills and mountains, with a bunch of great viewing points too. And about that pink-ness – apparently it comes from the teeny tiny foraminifera, an organism that lives in the coral reef and then washes up on the beach. Save that for the pub quiz.

To get there, you’ll need to hop on a boat from the fishing town of Labuan Bajo in Flores – about 25 minutes away. Or if you’re based in Bali, you can actually catch a flight to Komodo Island with AirAsia.

If you need a hand getting to Indonesia in the first place, we’ve got a bunch of cheap flights to Bali.

Sometimes we forget that Tahiti’s actually a real place. The largest island in French Polynesia, it isn’t content with just having your run-of-the-mill, jaw-droppingly beautiful white sand beaches, it’s also got a bunch of black sand ones too.

You’ll find those white sand ones over on Tahiti Nui, the larger, western part of the island, whilst the black sand beaches are on the eastern side of the island, Tahiti Iti (can confirm that saying that out loud 5 times doesn’t make it any less funny.)

Lafayette Beach is one of the most popular black sand beaches on Tahiti, near the island’s capital, Papeete. Secluded and more on the tranquil side, it’s good for both swimming and sunbathing. Its sands are said to be so soft you can sink knee deep into them (erm, is that a valid enough reason to get our boss to pay for us to go and confirm if it’s true? All in the interest of research, you understand), and they get their black hue from the two volcanoes that Tahiti sits on top of.

It’s a ten minute bus ride from Papeete to reach the beach, and we can get you the first bit of the way with our cheap flights to French Polynesia. Let us know about the knee-deep thing, yeah?

Pink and black sand beaches might be rare, but if you want really unique beaches, find yourself a green sand one. Papakolea, on Big Island, is one of only four green sand beaches in the world.

Mega secluded, Papakolea used to be – brace for a quick science lesson – a cinder cone volcano way back when. The lava it produced when erupting was rich in something called olivine, a mineral found in huge quantities in Hawaii’s volcanic rock. This rock is then eroded by the ocean and weather, leaving millions of green crystals behind.

It’s not exactly a fly and flop sorta place – the surf is pretty intense, and there’s nada in the way of facilities here, either. It’s tricky to get too as well, after a long drive to the southernmost point of the States, you’ll have to walk 2 miles from the carpark to reach the beach itself.

The easy bit will be bagging some cheap flights to Hawaii.

This one’s for the lovebirds… There’s a gaping hole on Mexico’s lush green Islas Marietas that leads to a hidden beach, with sun, shade, and crystal clear waters. The perfect place to sneak off to with your other half and dot dot dot…

There’s a reason it’s called Playa del Amor, you know. Only accessible through a long water tunnel that comes directly from the Pacific Ocean, it’s got less, er, romantic origins. It’s said the hole was formed from military testing on the uninhabited island, going back to the early 1900s.

To get here, you’ll have to hop on a boat from the coast of Puerto Vallarta, about an hour away, with plenty of tour companies offering day excursions.

We’ll get you the first step of the way with our cheap flights to Puerto Vallarta.

Maho Beach On Sint Maarten (it’s on the Dutch side of the island) is a pretty average beach. It just happens to be right next door to an international airport.

Incoming planes fly just a few metres over the burning heads of beachgoers who squint up into the sun to watch them coming into land, over and over again. Way better than standing on wet concrete behind a wire fence at Manchester Airport…

It’s not all about plane-spotting here, though. There’s a bunch of bars and restaurants nearby to keep you well-watered and fed whilst you get your inner aviation nerd out for a bit. Oh, and to avoid the crowds, skip the days when the cruise ships dock!

We’d tell you how to get there from the airport, but well…we don’t think you’ll get lost.

Cheap flights to the Caribbean right this way.

Translated as the Turkish Steps, these aren’t actually steps but really, really white terraces that have been eroded into a cliff face that’s made of a soft clay-like rock called marl.

The terraces, located along the stretch of sea between Realmonte and Porto Empedocle, about 8 miles outside Agrigento, overlook the Sicilian waters as you’ve always imagined they would be – clear, blue, and completely gorgeous.

The Scala themselves don’t lead to down to beach, just a straight drop into the water, but there is a main beach about a ten minute walk away along the coast with a couple of private beach clubs if you want to grab something to eat or drink.

Due to the delicate nature of the rock, the Scala have been closed off to the public recently to protect them, so whilst you can’t climb on them directly, you can still admire them from the water or the main beach.

You’ll be seeing Sicily soon with our cheap flights to Italy.

Go on, mix up your next break with one of these unique beaches. We’ll sort the flights.