You can find black sand beaches in Iceland and Tenerife, and pink sands in Florida, USA, red sandstone sand dunes in Utah, more pink beaches on Italian islands. Then there are turquoise waters in Sardinia, blue holes in Malta and elsewhere, and worldwide blue seas and green palms. Match your swimsuit and sandals to the beach for a fabulous photo, If sand is not your thing, or you've been there, done that, try gray pebbles or white cliffs as a wonderful contrasting backdrop.
ICELAND
You might think of Iceland as being white as snow but it has black.
Black sand beach.
INDONESIA
Black Sand Beach, Lovina, N Bali
Black sand from the foothills of the volcano.
ITALY
Pink Sands
Maddalena, island/peninsula, Italy Mediterranean
Speak or learn Italian
Sardinia
Speak or learn Italian
Costa Smeralda - smeralda is emerald (green) in Italian and Spanish.
turquoise seas.
I loved these cool but warm waters. So clear you could see right down to your feet.
MALTA
On mainland Malta we saw the smallest disappearing beach. In our hotel grounds. We picked a hotel which was advertised as having its own private beach. Unfortunately, it was tiny and when the tide was in winter the beach disappeared except for a tiny strip at the bottom of the steps (with a barrier to prevent entry at the top. I asked why. Dangerous rising water. You would not want to lie down and shut your eyes.
The outdoor pool was also closed seasonally. Fortunately the indoor pool opened . However, there was so much to do around the island that we had almost no time for swimming. I loved the architecture and subterranean wine bars. I am intermittently claustrophobic but I love rustic, local and photo opportunity. We took a day trip over to the island of Gozo and saw the Blue Lagoon.
Madeira (Portuguese speaking)
Black sand beaches. I must confess I was disappointed. We found one but it was more of a harbour than a beach. Black sand and black sea, boats and a crowd of people when I wanted to change into my swimsuit surreptitiously under a towel, which I think might have been forbidden by warning signs. An adjacent swimming pool charged entry. Not worth it for a ten minute stop, said my husband. We were only there a short time, and my husband stayed in the car. He did not want pay for yet another parking fee on our around the island last day, last look, end of hiking trip. It was not the tropical, tree-lined glamour photo opportunity, I was expecting and imagining. However I don't want you to think badly of Madeira. I loved it. A better photo opportunity was from the glass floor clifftop lookout point which showed blue sea - and green trees on the cliffside - if you angled your camera right. The glass floor underneath was a great unnerving novelty.
SPANISH
black sand
Tenerife
Speak or learn Spanish
One side of the island has rain and greenery. The other side is the black and white and gray side.
Do you hate sand? Prefer pebbles?
UK
Brighton beach, England. Shingle from flint.
White cliffs of Dover. Also on the south coast of England
As the popular WW2 song said, blue skies over the white cliffs of Dover.
Black and white houses,
Chester and Cheshier in England, UK
USA
Coral pink sand dunes
Under sandstone cliffs, Utah, USA. Visitor centre.
Brownstone buildings in New York.
To sum up, by COLOUR
BLACK/BLACK & WHITE
USA Black hills of Dakota. (Song.)
INDONESIA Bali,
SPANISH Tenerife.
If you are looking for black buildings, the Eiffel Tower is a popular photo opportunity, with a tourist pretending to lean against it holding it up. By the time you reach retirement age this is a cliche. But it is a delightful novelty to children and teenagers.
Art Deco, Miami, Florida
Art Deco, Napier, New Zealand
Art Deco, London, England
Art Deco, Chester, England
BLUE
Malta Blue Hole.
USA blue hole waterfall.
BROWN
Brownstone buildings in New York.
GOLD
Golden city of Amritsar, India.
GRAY
Granite cities of Scotland.
GREEN
Green cliffs
Ireland - Emerald isle
Wales Green fields and cliffs with white sheep in springtime (Novel - How Green was my Valley)
MULTICOLOR
One Season
SINGAPORE garden city
Garden city with green palm trees, rain trees. Magenta orchids, trees with orange and red flowers. Outside the city, motorways lined with green jungle, all year.
/Seasonal Flowers & Trees
USA - trees in the Fall, drive north USA to Canada, and south. USA newspapers in the Fall season will give temperature and sightseeing guides showing when leaves are changing colour and falling in each state. We drove north from Washington DC to the cooler states where cold weather brought in the autumn earlier. Then, when we drove back, we found that on our return the colour change had caught up in our nearer areas.
PINK
AMERICAS Sands
Caribbean: Harbour Island, Bahamas,
Harbour Island, Bahamas photo by Larry Deack
Bermuda;
Hawaii.
EUROPE
Greece, Santorini.
INDIA
Pink city of Jaipur.
RED
Australia
Ayers Rock, know to the Aborigines as Uluru, is sandstone. It appears red at sunrise and sunset.
UK
In the South of England universities outside the big three of London and Oxford and Cambridge are known as redbrick because they have red bricks. The red bricks come from London which has clay soil. In London you can see many houses built of red bricks.
Morocco
The Red City of Marrakesh, Morocco is where I spent my honeymoon. By day the city walls are pink, but they turn red at sunset.
If you like red earth, you will find it in Devon, England. Also in Singapore.
SILVER
Silver blob shape building at music school in Kawasaki, Japan.
WHITE
White cliffs of Dover, England, UK. Hawaii.
Photo from Wiki by Immanuel Geal.
Do you like clean, bright, white? Look for art deco houses, white with green rooftops.
Many Mediterranean cities have white buildings up the sides of harbour cliffs.
Greece has many Greek ruins which are now white, such as the Acropolis in Athens.
Italy has many white buildings, such as the Colosseum in Rome.
The USA in Washington DC has The White House.
Snow-capped mountains such as Japan's Mount Fuji.
Snow scenes - ski resorts in Finland, Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand.
YELLOW
UK Yellow daffodils featured by Wordsworth usually, who was in the Lake District, in Northern England. Daffodils usually arrive by March in London.
Useful Websites
Worldwide Black Sand
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_sand
Worldwide Pink Sand
12 Best Pink Sand Beaches in the World (vacationidea.com)
UK
Does Brighton in England have a Sandy Beach? – Jolly Explorer
USA
Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park – Travel guide at Wikivoyage
About the Author
Angela Lansbury has lived in the UK, USA, Spain and Singapore.
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