Hey Heather..

Thanks for stoping over. I am heading out to San Diego next month for business and will be staying in Del Mar near the beach. Black beach does not sound like my type of beach (<: but I will check out Torrey Pines, Del Mar and La Jolla while I am there. I am also going to South Beach in October for strictly pleasure and cannot wait. Spending some time in South Beach and then taking a cruise.

Haulover Beach.
Nice sand. Legally au naturale, Friendly People, Not too many gawkers. Places to stay nearby with great facilities.

Katie...when are we running away to Negril? Man...white sand, bath tub like water, lobster tails, jerk, ice ice cold Red Stripes, and 30yr old Appleton rum sound like heaven right now!!

i'm a california girl, through and through. (also, not very well traveled, so my experience is limited). my favorite beaches are what we called 5.6 mile beach just north of santa cruz (5.6 miles north of the city limits) -- one of those along hwy 1 where you have to hike down a cliff to get there. this isn't one of the more seculded beaches -- it was fairly well populated on warm days.

also, the strip of sand between the hermosa and manhattan piers, if only for the teenage memories...

hey amy, you familiar with "old mans beach". its off the 5 and la costa avenue. its this incredible surf spot that mostly only the locals know about. i would go down there with my board when i lived there and it was just a big group of friends. everyone knew everyone, hardly any tourists ever came down. its this secluded beach surrounded by cliffs you have to walk down this long staircase to get to it and there was this single old beach shack in the cove where some old beach bum lived. the whole thing was private property, this old guy owned it all from way back when and would never sell it, but he always allowed anyone who wanted to to come down and surf or swim or whatever...
some of my fondest memories while i lived in san diego were at that beach.
that and la jolla have to be my two favorite san diego sand spots. used to enjoy the sea life in the tide pools in la jolla, and learned to surf at old mans in la costa.

Are we talking in the states or in the world?

In the states, anywhere on the gulf side of Florida. But to chill it at home with no tourist for me it's China beach in SF. Baker is always fun when I want to sunbath topless.

Globally speaking my favorite beaches tend to be in the Indian Ocean. These islands or Atolls sparkle like jewels from the air and below. The Maldives are divine, so are the Seychelles and Comoros Islands.

Hey Megs last time I swam in Ft. Lauderdale I had to wash the oil and tar off my body with gasoline. Is it still like that or was that just a passing thing. It was pretty bad . However a cool thing that happened though .One day at the same beach the lifegaurd started to blow his whistle and as I looked down the beach a wave of people started to run ashore, and then I saw a huge dark shape swimming parallel to the beach.Well our lifegaurd grabbed his board and paddled out to greet this dark strange object , he then abandons his board and disapears for a minute. Soon he comes back to shore and his legs and arms are bleeding a bit. I aproach him and ask what the hell was that and he tells me it was a Manati or Sea Cow that got a little lost ,it is supposed to stay in the cannalls he said , and he got cut when he went for a ride on its back from the barnecles (sic) . Shit I wish I could spell better ..Anyway the only thing we get on da beach here is ,Blue bottles ,small jelly fish that get blown into the shallows when the winds are strong durring the rainny season.

My favorite beach is on the west coast of Mexico, and it's called Kapa Sapuda. I used to go there twenty years ago with Ruth, and she looked very relaxed in the white sand.

Makaiwa Bay, Big Island, Hawaii

Just returned from a MSC cruise that stopped in Cayo Levando, a private island, off the Dominican Republic. Some of the finest sand I have seen anywhere. Picture posted.