Florida lands 2 beaches in TripAdvisor’s annual Top 10 list
Florida beaches made their annual foray into TripAdvisor’s best beach lists in 2023, with Siesta Beach near Sarasota once again near the top.
The oft-lauded public beach on Siesta Key that has in the past claimed the travel website’s top U.S. ranking for the TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards, came in at No. 2 this year behind Ka’anapali Beach in Maui, Hawaii. It was one of two Sunshine State beaches in the Top 10 with Henderson Beach State Park in Destin in the Panhandle coming in at No. 6.
Siesta Beach was also the state’s only entrant into the global best beach list coming in at No. 11. The best beach in the world was named Baia do Sancho in Fernando de Noronha, Brazil. Rankings are based on the quantity and quality of reader reviews in the TripAdvisor community.
The state ended up with eight U.S. beaches in the Top 25, one down from the 2022 ratings, with entrants from along the Gulf Coast near Tampa Bay, the Panhandle, the Atlantic coast and the Keys.
Ranked 13th was St. Augustine Beach, 14th was St. Pete Beach, 18th Panama City Beach, 20th Pensacola Beach, 22nd Sombrero Beach on Marathon Key and 23rd Clearwater Beach.
Siesta Beach with its quartz sand that makes it cool to the feet even in the blaring sun has been named the best beach in the U.S. twice in the annual Dr.
Beach rankings that come out around Memorial Day.
In his past reviews of the beach for his Dr. Beach list, Stephen Leatherman, the Director of Florida International University’s Laboratory for Coastal Research said “Siesta Beach in Sarasota boasts that it has the finest and whitest sand in the world, and I cannot argue with this claim. The beautiful blue-colored water is
clean and clear, making it so inviting to bathers and swimmers.”
The massive stretch of sugar-white sand that is part of a county park with ample parking and facilities was previously named TripAdvisor’s top U.S. beach in 2020 and came in 2nd last year.
Sombrero Beach was the only new entrant for 2023 while Fort Lauderdale Beach and Treasure Island Beach
fell out of the Top 25.
The top 10 in the U.S. are No. 1 Ka’anapali Beach in Maui, Hawaii, No. 2 Siesta Beach in Siesta Key, No. 3 Driftwood Beach in Jekyll Island, Georgia, No. 4 Hanalei Beach in Kauai, Hawaii, No. 5 Ho’okipa Beach Park in Maui, Hawaii, No. 6 Henderson Beach State Park in Destin, No. 7 Cannon Beach in Cannon Beach, Oregon, No. 8 Coronado Beach in
Coronado, California, No. 9 Ogunquit Beach in Ogunquit, Maine and No. 10 La Jolla Cove in La Jolla, California.
This is the 11th year of the TripAdvisor awards, during which a Florida beach has topped the U.S. list seven times.
The full list from the reader-review website covers more than 300 beaches in not just U.S. and global rankings, but also by region
including Asia, Europe, Africa, South Pacific, South America, Middle East, Caribbean, Central America, Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Thailand, Turkey and the U.K.
To view them all, go to www.tripadvisor.com /TravelersChoice-Beaches.