The 20 Most Beautiful Beaches in South America

The coast near the oasis town of Ica in southern Peru is ruggedly romantic: outback-dry desert interspersed with rolling dunes running to dramatic craggy cliffs and long sweeps of sand. You’ll see more sea lions than people on the beaches – the most accessible of which lie around the little resort Paracas: where honey-yellow and coral-red bays are pounded by powerful Pacific waves. But at an average 15C the water is too cold for swims without wetsuit.

Chile is chilly – at least by South American standards – with temperatures in the country’s favourite beach resort of Valparaíso about the same as Brighton’s – on land and sea. And with the town’s long bays backed with skyscraper hotels, the sand is rarely empty. But if you’re after a seashore break from Santiago with plenty of bar-packed nightlife, there’s no better option. And with colourful colonial houses, steep, winding streets and edgy street art, the neighborhood of Cerro Concepción is a wanderer’s delight.

The lush coast east of Santa Marta city on Colombia’s Caribbean coast is pristine and protected as Tayrona National Park. Turtles nest on the sand, toucans perch in the trees and the sea is filled with coral. Many of the beaches are accessible only on long walking trails or by boat, but Concha is easy to reach from Santa Marta itself and while its southern end is parasol-packed, walk a kilometre north and you’ll see only sand crabs and seashells.

People don’t visit Playa la Piscina for the beach – which is a tiny shoal, topped with a ruin, set between two islets. They come for the bathwater-warm, waist-high Caribbean Sea, which stretches glassy-clear and gentle as a breeze over colourful coral and soft sand for hundreds of metres in every direction. Reachable only by launch from the Playa Colorada village on the mainland, you’ll rarely see more than a handful of other visitors except at weekends.

Barely a speck in the Caribbean Sea off the Nicaraguan coast and once a lair for British pirates, Colombia’s reef-fringed San Andrés is the resort island of choice for holidaying and weekending locals. With barely room for an airport it can get uncomfortably crowded in the high season between December and March. But come on weekdays between May and September before the rains, and the white sands and fish-busy reefs are tranquil.

Not all Rio de Janeiro’s beaches are busy with volleyball and backed with concrete towers. Prainha – in the far southern city limits is surrounded by lush rainforest and washed by powerful, bottle-green Atlantic waves. It’s a favourite for surfers who come for the curling breaks at the beach’s far southern end, then eat fresh fish or petisco bar snacks with a cold beer or caipirinha in the Mirante bar and restaurant that sits over the beach.

With pricey tickets and even pricier high-season hotels, Rio carnival can be a budget-breaker. But the festival is just as big and brash in Recife in the northeast, where the parades are all for free and plush rooms on the beach in Boa Viagem cost as much as a B&B in tourist-packed carnival Rio. The beach itself is long and broad and the party continues all night in the bars that fill the streets behind.

Located on Brazil’s paradise island called Ilha Grande, in other words Big Island, the beach in Lopes Mendes is a stunning white sand affair lined with almond and palm trees and crystal blue waters stretching for almost 2mi (3km). What’s best though, is this stretch of sand is very much untouched and undeveloped with not a single building in sight. All you need to bring is a good book, suntan lotion and snacks.

Situated on Ecuador’s famous Ruta del Sol, Montañita is a chill beach town that offers incredible surfing, scuba diving, bodyboarding, windsurfing and waterskiing opportunities. You see travelers from around the world enjoying the town’s laid back Rasta vibe with a ceviche or cocktail in hand, while relaxing under the sun, playing beach volleyball or football, and even watching surfers who proudly wear their dreadlocks. This is also the country’s only tolerant and liberal party spot where smoking marijuana is not illegal.

Paradise is a place, and it’s a beach called Jericoacoara, close to the city of Fortaleza, in northeastern Brazil. Unsurprisingly, travelers who rock up with the aim of spending a long weekend often stay for weeks. It’s not necessarily the perfect spot for swimmers, as the water is quite shallow, but what makes Jericoacoara so special is the multitude of sand dunes, all facing west. Climbing them is great fun – and when you reach the summit you’re in the perfect position to watch the sun set over the darkening Atlantic.

Florianopolis, the capital of Santa Catarina state, in southern Brazil, is immodestly endowed on the stunning-beach front: Brazilians clamour to holiday here, heading up a glamorous getaway cast from around the globe. Among the dozens of strands to choose from, photogenic Joaquina is always a winner. Being here is all about sand dunes and surf, which attract huge crowds of the young and the beautiful in summer, here to pick at fresh seafood, sip super-high-octane caipirinhas on the sands and generally look fantastic.

Totally on its own, thousands of miles out in the Pacific, Chile’s Easter Island is more famous for its moai standing stone heads than its sandy shores. But this is not only a place for anthropologists and the intrepid outward-bound brigade. Bring a bikini and you’ll look every inch the part on stunning Anakena Beach, with its blinding white sands. Mornings are the best time to head on down as you will have it almost entirely to yourself while most visitors tour those historic statues. Not that there’s no ancient eye candy – the beach is home to six intriguing moai, looking on as they have for centuries while you work on your so-this-season suntan.

Deep in the heart of Colombia’s astonishingly beautiful Tayrona National Park, El Cabo San Juan, or Cape San Juan, is a world-class paradise – even though it’s just a simple palm-backed sweep on the northeastern Caribbean coast. Its appeal lies in its remoteness. Yep, you have to earn your time in Eden, hiking for no less than an hour and a half. But no matter how sweaty you get, you’ll be as cool as a cucumber after a plunge in the pristine blue shallows. Unsurprisingly, people who’ve taken the trouble to come all this way end up hiring a hammock and staying for a starry night (or two). Pure magical realism.