Sinclair's Bay, Caithness, Scotland. 'The white sand and sparkling blue sea of Sinclair's Bay look more like the Caribbean - at least when the sun comes out.'


Porto da Barra, Salvador, Brazil. 'The location is stunning, at the entrance of the magnificent Bahia de Todos os Santos, with a small, white colonial fort at one end and a whitewashed church sitting up on a hill at the other.'


Arambol, Goa's northernmost beach. 'The spectacular sweeping stretch of sand is so beautiful it wins over even the most jaded and cynical of travellers.'


Tayrona National Park, Colombia. 'I've never been as instantly impressed by a beach as I was the moment I set eyes on Tayrona'.


'The western island group of Palawan, which even Filipinos describe as their country's last frontier, is inconceivably exotic and tropical.'


Palawan, the Philippines. 'Although Alex Garland's backpacker odyssey The Beach is set in Thailand, he took much of the inspiration for the location from the Philippines.'


Whitehaven Island, the Whitsundays, Queensland, Australia. 'For sheer, drop-dead gorgeousness Whitehaven is pretty special, with its super-fine, white silica sand surrounded by warm, clear azure waters'.


Las Islas Cies, Galicia, Spain. 'The wilder, stunning Atlantic coastline of Galicia, just north of Portugal, has far more dramatic praias - with far fewer people on them.'


The Cook Islands, south Pacific. 'It takes forever to get to this coral atoll, necklaced by an azure lagoon.'


Nungwi Beach in Zanzibar Tanzania. Gavin McOwan writes: 'The powder-white sand is so fine it literally squeaks between your toes.'