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The best beach in America of 2022 is not in Florida, California, or Hawaii, but in North Carolina, says specialist Stephen Leatherman, known as Dr. Beach, who has published an annual list for more than three decades.
A professor of Environmental Science at Florida International University (FIU), where he directed the International Hurricane Research Center for more than ten years, Leatherman chose the wild Okrakoke Beach, which “was the home of Blackbeard the Pirate,” as the year’s best.
It is followed by Caladesi on the newly released list of the top 10 U.S. beaches in 2022, near Clearwater on Florida’s west coast, more accessible by sea than by land; and Coopers Beach in Southampton, New York.
Florida has another beach on the list, St. George Island State Park in the northwestern part of the state, ranked fourth; and North Carolina has another one too, Lighthouse Beach, ranked sixth, also located in the Outer Banks region, just like the number one beach.
Two beaches in Hawaii, Duke Kahanamoku (ranked 5) and Wailea (ranked 8), on the islands of Oahu and Maui, respectively; one in California, Coronado (ranked 7) in San Diego; one in South Carolina, Beachwalker Park (ranked 9), on Kiawah Island; and one in Massachusetts, Coast Beach Guard on Cape Cod (ranked 10), complete “Dr. Beach’s” list.
Leatherman publishes his famous list accompanied by spectacular photographs of the beaches and his commentaries for each one to coincide with the Memorial Day long weekend, the holiday on the last Monday in May, which in the United States is seen as the official opening of the beach season.
Thousands of tourists flock to beach areas throughout the country.
Of Okrakoke, “one of the wildest beaches in the country,” he says it is his favorite for a getaway; and of Caladesi, with its white sands composed of crystalline quartz that invite you to dive into its clean waters.
To make his list, the specialist says he considers 50 elements of a beach, that not only include the cleanliness or quality of the sand and water, but also the presence of wild or domestic animals, the noise, the distance from the parking spaces, and the usage level of floats and other inflatable objects by swimmers.
