Party Beaches

Organised daylife or nightlife on the sand itself.

The distinction that matters is between a beach where something is organised and a beach near a town that has bars. This collection is the first: sound systems, clubs, and a day that is scheduled rather than happened upon. Those cluster in a small number of places for reasons that are economic rather than geographical — Ibiza, Mykonos, Bali's south-west, Tulum, the Croatian and Bulgarian coasts, and a handful of Caribbean strips. Almost all of them are seasonal to a degree visitors underestimate: the same sand in November is empty and everything on it is dismantled. Several have also been the subject of regulation — amplified music restrictions in Goa produced the headphone parties there, and Boracay's 2018 closure ended beach parties by policy.