El Cielito- Cozumel, Mexico- December 30, 2020- 9.5 out of 10

 

El Cielito: WOW!!!

This has to be one of the most beautiful locations in the world. They named this location, "El Cielito" correctly. This is not a beach; this is a region of the waters just off of Cozumel. But I just had to include it because it is just so beautiful! I have a thesaurus but the only word that comes to mind is beautiful. 

The only way to get here is by boat from Cozumel and it costs between $50 to $100 per person. There is an actual shoreline visible from el cielito but deep, kelp forests ring el cielito on all sides making it very difficult to reach without a boat. 

I began with snorkeling. First, I snorkeled in a place with extremely deep water. My group and I saw what appeared to be a 6 foot barracuda, tons of reef fish of different colors, and tons of jellyfish. Then, we went to a location called "El Cielo." "El Cielo" deserves a post of its own because it is equally as beautiful as "El Cielito" but it is around 10 feet deep. The water is diaphanous, cerulean, and staggeringly beautiful. And there are dozens of giant starfish and a few stingrays.

Then, I arrived at "El Cielito." Honestly, this has to be one of the most stunning locations I have seen. Simply dumbfounding. The water is completely translucent. Salsa music is playing on all the boats in the area, the current is weak, and the beautiful people by whom you are surrounded make your experience feel like heaven. The captain of the boat gave free drinks and food but I didn't eat too much.

Small Issues:

You have to either charter a boat to get out here or take a tour from Cozumel. So it is not easy to access. Also, it is not a beach, so you can't just laze around. Eventually, you will have to leave with your boat. However, these are issues inherent in "El Cielito's" location in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. 

The only real problem was that small jellyfish or medusas were all over Cozumel. They were everywhere in the regular beaches and deep sea snorkeling. I got stung a few times as well. "El Cielito" had the fewest medusas by far but there were still one or two. Interestingly, I saw a few fish eating the jellyfish, which was its own entertainment. 

Overall:

My wife and I were in Mexico for around 10 days. Five in Isla Mujeres and five in Cozumel. Isla Mujeres was by far better for beaches but this trip to "El Cielito" made everything equal. This region of the sea was among the most staggeringly beautiful I have ever seen. It is a once in a lifetime location and of all the places I have ever been, only Turks and Caicos has better water. The only reasons I cannot give this place a 10 out of 10 are: (1) there is no sand and you have to take a boat to get out there, which means you are at the mercy of the captain, (2) there were a few jellyfish here though far fewer than in anywhere else in Cozumel. 

I highly recommend this place. Second most beautiful water ever!! As of January 2021.

-          CRITERIA

-          Size of beach

o   Length of shoreline- N/A

o   Distance from water to sand- N/A

-          Sand type: White

-          Water Appearance: Sky Blue

-          Cleanliness: Very Clean

-          Water Temperature; Warm

-          Shade availability: None

-          Safety: Moderately dangerous

-          Available Activities: Swimming, drinking, and snacking. Lots of beautiful people.

-          Level of Calm:   Swimming great- no surfing possible light waves

-          Animals: Loads of fish, stingrays, a few jellyfish

-          Plant Life/ Other: Kelp forest

-          Access: You have to take a boat there

-          Price: $100 USD

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Playa Centro/ Playa Norte, Isla Mujeres- Mexico's Caribbean islands- 8.5

 

Overall Beach Vibe

8.5. 

These beaches are awesome. The sand and beach are beautiful. I give the entire experience an 8.5/9 out of 10. The beach is a 10 minute walk from most hotels and airbnbs on the island. If you are staying on the South side of the island, then it is 20 mins by golf cart. Playa Centro and Playa Norte are really the same beach and they are 5 mins walk from each other. The sand is white, the water is calm, there are no dangerous currents within the buoys and as you can see from the video, this beach is beautiful. If you and your family want an intimate beach, then this one fits the bill.

Small Issues:

There are multiple vendors walking past you on the beach selling all manner of things. None are pushy, which is different than other places, but after a while it detracts from the calm. You have to rent benches rather than having them provided for free. 

Pluses:

Your things are safe and Isla Mujeres is almost Japan-level safe. There are always people approaching you offering drinks and food and if you stay there all day, that is a plus. There are bathrooms very close and- notable for Mexico- use of the bathrooms is free. You don't have to buy anything; you don't have to speak Spanish but it helps; and you can still enjoy this beach. The buoys really are helpful especially if you are traveling with kids. If you want to swim laps, you can simply parallel the buoys. 

Final Verdict:

Playa Centro and Playa Norte are worth the flight. These beaches are fully fledged Caribbean beaches with all of the attendant beauty you would expect. The beauty of the sand and surf is on par with that of Antigua, Barbados, and Grenada. I am a Trini and I love Trinidad but the transparency of the water is far and away above anything in Trinidad, Tobago, or "down the islands." There is something of a "wow factor" missing from this beach that is present in Antigua and definitely Providenciales and compared those islands, Isla Mujeres as a whole is just beneath. However, these two beaches are the Fourth best I have seen in Mexico and top tier in the world. If I had not visited Antigua, Grenada, or Turks, I would have given this beach a 9.5. However.... Nonetheless, these beaches are beautiful and well worth the trip to Isla Mujeres. 8.5.

 If you enjoy beaches in general, Isla Mujeres provides a better experience than Cozumel. It is a very small island so unless you stay on the South end of the island, you are never more than 10 minutes from a 

Size of beach: Approximately 1 mile of shoreline. 200 meters from the sand to the water. Hotels and restaurants have set up chairs, tables, and benches on which visitors can rest.

Sand Type: White

Water Appearance: Aquamarine/ blue

Cleanliness: Very clean. Although restaurants are selling food and drinks, staff is always patrolling the beach cleaning it

Shade Availability: The restaurants provide large parasols under which you can sit but you have to rent them. About $5 or $100 pesos for 3 hours. 

Safety: Very safe. Lifeguards around. There are two levels of precautions for swimmers. Around 20 yards into the water there are buoys roped together warning swimmers to go past at their own risk. Then around 50 yards further into the ocean, there is a large, floating buoy warning swimmers not to pass at all.

Activities: Relaxing only. No jet skis, etc. This is a calm beach without surf. People are selling alcohol and food regularly. No one is playing sports on the sand but there is ample opportunity to do so.

Level of Calm: It depends. If Playa Norte is rough, Playa Centro will be calm as it would be on the leeward side of the island and vice-versa.

Animals: Pelicans diving for fish and seagulls. NO pests. 

Plant Life: The hotels or the government itself have roped off the beginning of where seaweed begins. For the first 20 yards, there is no seaweed growing at all and the water is a beautiful aquamarine/ sky blue. Then the water becomes darker: reflecting what looks to be a mini-kelp forest extending into the deeper sea. It is actually fun to swim through the kelp forest because there are numerous fish hanging out and eating the growing seaweed.

Access availability: Extremely easy. Getting to Isla Mujeres from Cancun requires taking the ferry; however, if you stay anywhere near the ferry, all of the most beautiful beaches are a 10 minute walk from your hotel.

Price: Free. Isla Mujeres does this correctly. The beach is free but the restaurants and hotels set up chairs and benches for you to rent and you should do so. The first reason is that it makes your experience way more comfortable and gives you the option of lazing around. The second, is that the hotels are paying to maintain the beach and it only costs $5 to have benches and a parasol all day.

Jolly Beach Antigua- July 31, 2017- Solid 9!!!!!!

 

Pic 1

-          Size of beach

o   Length of shoreline

§  Approximately 2 miles

o   Distance from water to sand

§  50 feet

-          Sand type

o   White

-          Water Appearance

o   Blue

o   Transparent to how many feet

§  At least 10 feet depth- there are buoys which denote where the water loses its transparency

-          Cleanliness

o   The beach is completely clean. It is a marvel!

-          Water Temperature

o   Warm, not even cold when you first enter

-          Shade availability

o   Seating and Resting available

-          Safety

o   There are no lifeguards but there are no dangerous riptides. No dangerous animals either

-          Available Activities

o   Swimming distances

§  YES

o   Free diving

§  YES

o   Surfing

§  No- no waves to speak of

o   Snorkeling

§  Yes

o   Scuba

§  NO

o   Partying/ beautiful women congregating

§  No. This is an intimate family beach

o   Food and drink/ disposal

§  Yes. The beach remains completely clean

o   Sports

§  Soccer and volleyball are both available and arranged

-          Level of Calm

o   Swimming great- no surfing possible light waves

-          Animals

o   Are there fishing birds

§  YES

o   Are fish visible

§  YES

o   Jellyfish

§  NO

o   Sea eggs

§  NO

o   Crabs

§  NO

o   Horseshoe crabs

§  NO

o   Turtles

§  NO

o   Sea ants- other biting animals

§  NO

o   Barracuda

§  NO

o   Sharks

§  NO

o   Coral- sharp or otherwise

§  YES but not sharp

-          Plant Life/ Other

o   Seaweed/kelp

§  NO

o   Sharp stones

§  NO

o   Sharp shells

§  NO

o   Coconut trees/ providing shade but also crabs

§  NO

-          Access

o   Is it public/private

§  This is a public beach but it adjoins an all-inclusive hotel and resort. I was staying at the resort and had ready access.

-          Price

o   Free

-          Land Pests

o   None

-          Other

-          Overall Beach Vibe

o   This is my first beach review in years and I picked the perfect beach. Jolly Beach is a delight! It is 2 miles of white sand and truly transparent, calm, waters. This really is almost the ultimate cozy beach and its natural beauty actually surpasses that of the beaches found in Tobago. People wax poetic about the Mona Lisa or the works of Picasso or Raphael but those works pale in comparison to what God created when he made Jolly Beach.

o   First, the sand is pristine. Despite the numerous hotels abutting the coast, there is no trash anywhere on the sand or in the water. The water is stunningly azure and once you submerge yourself, it drapes over your body like a diaphanous gown.

o   When the sunlight hits this beach, you will believe that you are in a computer simulation. Especially if you are unfamiliar with Antigua, you will not believe that beaches can become this beautiful. This beach is simply breathtaking.

o   I stayed here as part of an all-inclusive resort. The beach is a 5 minute walk from my room and the hotel provides towels and chairs. At any time, there are maybe 30 people sharing this 2 mile space so this is almost an ideal intimate beach for families or lovers.

o   I want to give this beach an unequivocal 10 out of 10; however, there are some small issues.

o   First, there are jet skis that sometimes approach relatively close to the shore, and this can be annoying. Also, on the beach there are solicitors selling jet-ski trips, trips circumnavigating the island, horseback riding, and other similar eco-tourist opportunities, and these solicitations get old fast.

o   However these are slight annoyances and ultimately weigh little against the seductiveness and beauty of jolly beach.

o   PROS

§  Spectacular beauty that left me breathless and happy to be alive for quite a while.

§  Easy accessibility from the adjoining resort.

§  Free for Antiguans and tourists alike

o   CONS

§  People trying to sell all kinds of stuff

§  Antiguans can be more blunt and aggressive than tourists are used to.

§  There is a bit of competition between the resort and local people who are competing to sell catamaran trips around the island and shuttles to different places, which makes for awkward explanations when you ask the hotel for details.

Varadero Cuba- April 2016 Varadero Bay 7 out of 10

 

This is a stock image, because for some reason I could not upload the actual picture I took while at the resort.

-          Size of beach

o   Length of shoreline- 2 miles

o   Distance from water to sand- about 200 meters

-          Sand type

o   White and artificial

-          Water Appearance

o   Blue but not transparent and with seaweed

-          Cleanliness

o   It is clean with numerous trash cans and people patrolling

-          Water Temperature

o   Super nice

-          Shade availability

o   Benches and shade available everywhere

-          Safety

o   Not safe for swimming long distances. In addition, there are free drinks available everywhere including 100 feet from the edge of the water so swimming for a long time is not recommended.

-          Available Activities

o   Partying/ beautiful women congregating

o   Food and drink/ disposal

o   Sports

§  Soccer and dancing led by hotel staff

-          Level of Calm

o   Current too strong for swimming

-          Animals

o   I did not see any

-          Plant Life/ Other

o   Seaweed/kelp

o   Coconut trees/ providing shade but also crabs

-          Access

o   Is it a private beach and the Cuban police do not play

-          Price

o   Included in the resort

-          Land Pests

o   None

-          Other

-          Overall Beach Vibe

o   This beach is something of a conundrum in that the water is blue but it is not transparent. Also, the Cuban government transported the sand from Havana to Varadero, which has altered the quality of the beach, and makes the sand rock hard past 6 inches. Also, this beach is attached to an all-inclusive resort, so free drinks, and cups and straws, abound. The staff is diligent about keeping the beach clean but there is still some trash as there is in all party beaches. That said, the partying is off the chain.

o   The reason that I rank this beach lower than Maracas in Trinidad is that the government restricts access to this beach to tourists who are there specifically to party. Maracas is mostly for Trinidadian people who are not there only to party. It is more of a mix of the general population. There are very few Cubans who are not working for the resorts on this beach.

o   Here, the reason this party beach is actually so good is because people visit specifically to party and the drinks are free and ubiquitous. Moreover, although a tourist CANNOT hook up with a Cuban woman or man in Varadero, the police explicitly forbid this, people go there to party and hook up.

§  PROS

·         Blue waters

·         Free drinks

·         Friendly people there to party

§  CONS

·         Seaweed

·         Strong current

Restricted beach access

 

Hawaiian Beach

Grace Bay, Providenciales, Turks and Caicos

 Wow!!!!
Just wow!! I cannot imagine a more beautiful beach!!! The water really is turquoise and transparent out to hundreds of meters. Dolphins swim into the bay so frequently that the restaurants name them. Staff of the restaurants and hotels that dot the seven-mile-shoreline ensure that the sand and the water are immaculate. Just take a look at the video:

Some details: My fiance and I stayed in an Air BNB rather than booking one of Provo's expensive hotels. Renting a house is orders of magnitude less expensive but that means we have to travel to the island's different beaches. We are 3 blocks from Long Bay, which I reviewed earlier, but a car ride away from Grace Bay. We did not rent and just planned to laze the day away on Long Bay when our guide Audley volunteered to take us to Hemingway's on Grace Bay. Wow!!!

Grace Bay is seven miles of white sand and turquoise waters. There are multiple hotels right on the beach and the staff keeps the beach clean. The hotel staff places parasols and beach chairs on the sand which are only for use by hotel patrons. This is the least enforced rule ever and also nothing stops you from bringing your own chairs. The numerous hotels also sell food and  drinks. For people used to Antigua, Grenada, or the Dominican Republic, the price of food and drinks is exorbitant. But no one is forcing you to buy any of it.

Now to the beach itself. I have been visiting beaches all my life. I have visited beaches in the following countries: Antigua, Barbados, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Italy, Jamaica, Malaysia, St. Lucia, Tobago, Trinidad, Thailand, and the US- New Jersey, and Florida. Grace Bay Turks and Caicos is the most beautiful beach I have ever seen.

I created this blog so that I could remember all of the beaches I visited, especially since no one reads it but me. I also created this blog because there is no such thing as the world's most beautiful beach as beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I thought the joy would be in finding beautiful beach candidates and then I found this beach.

This is the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. I am always changing the rankings. Before visiting Antigua, I gave Tobago's beaches scores close to 10 out of 10. After visiting Jolly Beach, I had to move them down, not because they are any less beautiful but because I had to make space for Antigua's beaches. I took a catamaran around the entire island of Antigua and its beaches are all just a bit more beautiful than those of Tobago. Now that I have seen Grace Bay, I  have to be convinced that there is a beach out there more beautiful than this!

9.99999 out of 10.
There's food and drinks available, jet skiiing, parasailing, it is calm, and you have to approach people rather than being accosted by them. The only conceivable issue is that if you go swimming to far, you could run into the boats which circumnavigate the island.