We are in the middle of summer and the vacation days with the protagonists. Although the choice of destinations is endless, the most chosen is usually the beach, betting on days of rest in the sun, near the sea and in calm. However, those places that were once paradisiacal have today become overcrowded destinations to which tourists are starting to stop going. Cloudwars, a website specialized in data analysis, has conducted a study based on tourists’ comments on Tripadvisor, with the objective of finding the worst beaches in the world.
With a sample of more than 200 of the most popular beaches in the world, the analysis was carried out based on four main terms: overcrowding, lack of cleanliness, noise, and waiting time. The list of the 10 worst beaches in the world includes some like Waikiki Beach in Hawaii, Venice Beach in California, Manuel Antonio in Costa Rica, Clearwater Beach in Florida, Bournemouth Beach in the United Kingdom, La Jolla Cove in California, Elafonissi Beach in Greece, Magens Bay Beach in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Bondi Beach in Australia, and Maho Beach in Sint Maarten.
All of them share the dissatisfaction of tourists for not being able to enjoy silence, a clean environment, being overcrowded, and having to wait in endless lines to enjoy some of their services like food.
One of the favorite spots
With the arrival of summer vacation also come trips to the beach. Although summer also offers other options, most tourists choose to spend their vacation period by the sea, under the sun, and enjoying the calm that a beach can provide. However, tourist overcrowding, as well as the lack of management regarding the arrival of so many people, are destroying these types of destinations. Those places that were once more secretive or paradise-like have become points of tourist overload where it is barely possible to enjoy the vacation.
Cloudwars Study
The website Cloud Wars conducted a study aimed at finding the worst beaches in the world, based on tourists’ opinions. To do this, it relied on reviews from the website Tripadvisor, taking into account factors such as poor cleanliness, noise, overcrowding, and wait times. More than 200 beaches considered the most popular and visited in the world were chosen, and the result was a list of the 10 worst beaches in the world.
The top 3 includes, in first place, Waikiki Beach in Hawaii, which is noted for its poor location, noise, lack of cleanliness, and excess of tourists. In second place was Venice Beach in California, mainly due to the lack of cleanliness and the presence of waste in public areas. The third place went to Manuel Antonio in Costa Rica, where the waiting times to enjoy the services offered and the overcrowding of tourists make it one of the lowest-rated.
Top 10 worst beaches around the world
The top 10 worst rated beaches includes several beaches from the United States, but it also features some European beaches:
- Waikiki Beach, Hawaii,United States.
- Venice Beach, California, United States.
- Manuel Antonio Beach, Costa Rica.
- Clearwater Beach, Florida, United States.
- Bournemouth Beach, United Kingdom.
- La Jolla Cove, California, United States.
- Elafonissi Beach, Greece.
- Magens Bay Beach, U.S. Virgin Islands.
- Bondi Beach, Australia.
- Maho Beach, Sint Maarten.
This list was created based on more than 6,000 reviews found by applying the filters ‘noisy’, ‘crowded’, ‘overrun’, and ‘dirty’. The objective of this report was not to create this list and leave it there, but to highlight how mass tourism is destroying destinations that were once considered paradise, and to bring to light the lack of management in receiving such a large number of tourists by the authorities.