Rimmed by more than 60,000 kilometers of sun-soaked coastline, Australia is famous for its spectacular beaches. Many of these gleaming beauties grace lists of the best beaches in the world, and with more than 10,000 beaches in Australia to choose from, you're sure to find the perfect stretch of coast for your favorite activity, whether it's surfing, snorkeling, swimming, or sunbathing.
This perennially packed Sydney beach makes it onto most "Australia's best" lists -- for good reason.
Aside from its enticing union of white sand, curling waves and sandstone cliffs, Bondi also offers a host of diversions: achingly cool cafes and bars, an ocean pool chiseled into the rocks, weekend markets and an annual alfresco sculpture festival that sees larger-than-life installations erected in the surrounding parkland.
It also comes with significant history, being the birthplace of the Surf Life Saving Club -- the world's first was established here in 1907, the same year Bondi bathing suit protests paved the way for bikinis to become common beach attire.
Spanning seven kilometers along Whitehaven Island in the Great Barrier Reef, this stretch of sand is composed of 98% pure silica -- essentially, this means it is so impossibly white and powder-soft that it actually squeaks when you walk on it.
It also means that it doesn't get hot, which is a good thing, because the sun in this pocket of Queensland can be intense.
You can get to the island by boat or helicopter and spend the day hiking to lookouts, snorkeling in a blindingly turquoise sea the temperature of bath water, or sipping Champagne under casuarina trees.
This petite island, around 250 kilometers from the Aussie mainland, is home to some of the country's most spectacular shorelines.
In the middle of Freycinet National Park, a three-hour drive north of Hobart, Wineglass Bay's postcard-perfect harbor is where pink granite peaks meet a clamshell-shaped beach of powdery sand, fading into a sapphire sea that is eye-poppingly pretty -- but also pretty cold (Antarctica is the next landfall south from here).
It's regularly voted one of the top coastal coves in the world, let alone Australia, despite its rather gruesome past: The bay takes its name from the country's whaling era, when the waters here were stained red with blood.
While this seemingly endless beach on Queensland's Fraser Island is stunningly scenic, it's not one you should visit for sunbathing and swimming.
A landing strip for light aircraft and a designated highway, the long stretch of sand is commonly used by 4WD vehicles circumnavigating this slip of land -- the world's largest sand island and the only place in the world where tall rainforest grows from the sand.
Aside from being able to drive along it, the beach is known for its extremely photogenic Maheno shipwreck, not to mention dramatic volcanic rock formations at Indian Head.
If you do want to take a dip, turn off your engine at Champagne Pools, a series of sandy, shallow pools protected from the sea stingers and tiger sharks that patrol the open ocean.
As its name suggests, this sandy cove in Far North Queensland has long been a popular spot for those who like to snorkel and sunbathe sans swimming costumes.
While the state is the only one in Australia to not have a legal nudist beach, clothing here is optional, so put away your camera. Located on Fitzroy Island north of Cairns in the Great Barrier Reef, Nudey's combination of sand and bleached coral makes it a little harder under foot than most, but any discomfort walking -- just pack a pair of beach shoes -- is well outweighed by the backdrop.
This is a place where the rainforest meets the reef and then smudges into an artist's palette of blues, from ice-mint to azure and aquamarine. The good news is, you don't have to leave -- check in to the barefoot-luxe Fitzroy Island Resort and linger on Nudey as long as you like.
Never heard of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands? You'll want to familiarize yourself, because these remote Australian landfalls are home to one of the country's most scenic stretches of coastline.
Way out in the Indian Ocean (closer, geographically, to Indonesia than Australia), the archipelago's 27 tiny islands and coral atolls are like a beacon for white-sand beaches, palm trees and blissfully blue lagoons.
The star is Cossies on Direction Island, a favored pitstop for visiting round-the-world yachts. You can circumnavigate the entire islet in less than an hour, which leaves plenty of time for lying on the sand -- which you'll likely have entirely to yourself -- or snorkeling the teal waters in search of German ship SMS Emden, which sank here during the Battle of Cocos during World War I.