Caribbean Sea Beaches

A warm, shallow, largely enclosed sea with coral through most of it, which is why its beaches share a family resemblance that the Atlantic and Pacific do not. Reef offshore takes the swell down, so the defining Caribbean beach is calm, pale-sanded and shallow-entering. The differences within that run along two axes. Geology: coral islands like Barbados and Anguilla have white sand and clear water, volcanic ones like Saint Lucia and Martinique have dark sand and steeper shores. And development: this sea holds both the densest resort strips in the register and some of its emptiest cays. Two conditions apply almost everywhere — a hurricane season from June to November, and sargassum arriving on eastern-facing coasts between roughly April and August. Practically, access law differs by territory and is worth checking: Mexican, Cuban and Dominican beaches are public by statute, while access from the road may run through hotels, and several islands defend public rights more actively than others.

They spread across eight beach worlds, the largest group being nine palm-fringed island beaches. Together they account for 61 km of shore. · computed from the 20 records below