Palm-Fringed Island Beaches

The tropical archetype: palms or sea grape standing close to pale sand, warm water, and a horizon with nothing built on it. Development can run from a single fishing village to a line of low-rise resorts — what defines the world is that the vegetation and the water, not the buildings, decide how the beach looks from the waterline. Development within this world ranges from a fishing village to a line of low-rise resorts, and the register records that in the development layer rather than by splitting the category. What it does not include are beaches whose fame rests on what was built: if the hotels are the reason people come, the record sits in the developed group instead. Water is warm and generally reef-protected throughout this world, which is why it holds a large share of the register's calm-water and family records. Natural shade is more common in this world than in any other, which matters more than it sounds.