Everglades National Park

Everglades National Park

 

Location: Florida

Established: December 6, 1947

Size: 1,542,526 acres

A short parade of visitors follows a ranger on an Everglades nature walk. For more than an hour she has shown them the living wonders around them—butterflies and snails, alligators and fish, and bird after bird. Near the end of the walk, she gathers the visitors around her. She points to a string of nine white ibis coursing a cloudless sky.

“Imagine seeing ibis in the 1930s,” she says. “That would have been a flight of about 90 birds. We are seeing only about 10 percent of the wading birds that were here then. When you get home, write your congressmen and tell them we have to save Everglades.” Though park staff may not lobby Congress, in this threatened national park, lobbying happens on nature walks and appears in official literature.

The park is at the southern tip of the Everglades, a hundred-mile-long subtropical wilderness of saw-grass prairie, junglelike hammock, and mangrove swamp that originally ran from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay. Water, essential to the survival of this ecosystem, once flowed south from the lake unhindered. But as the buildup of southern Florida has intensified, canals, levees, and dikes have increasingly diverted the water to land developments and agribusinesses. Vast irrigated farmlands have spread to the park’s gates. The waning of the ibis carries a warning: Watery habitats in the park are shrinking because not enough water is getting to Everglades.

The park’s special mission inspires the crusade to save it. Unlike early parks established to protect scenery, Everglades was created to preserve a portion of this vast ecosystem as a wildlife habitat. The park’s unique mix of tropical and temperate plants and animals—including more than 700 plant and 300 bird species, as well as the endangered manatee, crocodile, and Florida panther—has prompted UNESCO to grant it international biosphere reserve status as well as World Heritage site designation.

Everglades environmentalists and crusaders urge the purchase of privately owned wetlands east and north of the park. This would further protect the ecosystem and give the park a larger claim to the water that Everglades shares with its thirsty neighbors.

The diverse life of Everglades National Park, from algae to alligators, depends upon a rhythm of abundance and drought. In the wet season, a river inches deep and miles wide flows, almost invisibly, to the Gulf of Mexico. In the dry season, the park rests, awaiting the water’s return. The plants and animals are a part of this rhythm. When humans change it, they put Everglades life at risk.

Did You Know?

Everglades National Park is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles co-exist.

During the Seminole Wars, the Everglades served as refuge for the Seminole and Miccosukee peoples, who found safety in the land’s vast prairies and mangrove swamps.

Everglades National Park was the first national park established to preserve biological diversity and resources, not for scenic views.

Everglades National Park

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park

Location: California

Established: October 1, 1890

Size: 747,956 acres

In a high-country meadow two hikers crouch near the edge of a mirroring lake and watch a pika as it harvests blades of grass for a nest deep within a huge rock pile. When they resume walking, there is no other person in sight for as far as they can see. And on this sparkling summer’s day, the view seems endless.

In the valley’s crowded mall, families stroll by, eating ice cream, dodging bicycles. People pile in and out of buses. Shoppers hunt for souvenirs. Kids hang around a pizza place. Rock climbers, coils of rope slung over their shoulders, swap stories over beer on a patio. On a summer’s day about 14,000 people are in Yosemite Village.

Both the solitude of the alpine ridge and the throngs of the valley are part of the experience when you visit Yosemite National Park. “No temple made with human hands can compare with Yosemite,” wrote John Muir, whose crusading led to the creation of the park. To this temple come 4 million visitors annually. And about 90 percent of them go to the valley, a mile-wide, 7-mile-long canyon cut by a river, then widened and deepened by glacial action. Walled by massive domes and soaring pinnacles, it covers about one percent of the park. In summer, the concentration of autos brings traffic jams and air pollution.

Beyond the valley, some 800 miles of marked trails offer hikers easy jaunts or grueling tests of endurance in the High Sierra wilderness. Even the casual visitor can explore this solitude without getting outfitted for a backpack expedition.

This park, roughly the size of Rhode Island, is a United Nations World Heritage site. Here, in five of the seven continental life zones, live the mule deer and chipmunks of the valley and the marmots and pikas of the heights; the brush rabbit and chaparral of the near desert; the dogwood and warblers of mid-elevation forests; the red fir and Jeffrey pine of mile-high forests; the dwarf willow and matted flowers of Yosemite’s majestic mountains.

Did You Know?

Towering more than 350 stories above Yosemite Valley, El Capitan is the largest exposed granite monolith in the world.

The park’s giant sequoia trees can live to be more than 3,000 years old.

Yosemite Falls usually stops flowing in late August. The cascade is fed solely by snowmelt, so the peak flow is in late May, when high snows in the Sierra Nevada melt. Over the warm summer months the flow dries up—but returns around October, when snow again begins to fall.

Yosemite National Park

Places for tourist:The Best Bagel Shops in America

The Best Bagel Shops in America

 

T he beloved chewy yet tender staple of the New York City breakfast has set a standard that cities across the country strive to match.

In a quest to find the best bagels the United States has to offer, we enlisted the help of food writers and restaurant critics across the country. Our research proved harder that we anticipated: Journalists in San Francisco, New Orleans, and Philadelphia claimed defeat to the mighty New York version, claiming their cities just didn’t have much to offer in the way of the esteemed holey breadstuff.

In that light, some of the top bagels we found in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and St. Louis are deemed “the best” solely because they come closest to re-creating the magic baked up in the Big Apple. These shops turn out versions with that New York appearance, New York density, that New York je ne sais quoi. We also encountered an opposing school of thought that opts for the less-famous, wood-fired Montreal-style bagel. Excellent examples of these smaller, denser bagels can be found in cities like Seattle and Burlington.

The good news is that there are first-class bagels to be found in ten American towns spread out over the map. And if you can’t find a proper specimen near you, try making your own with our step-by-step guide to bagel making at home.

Alpharetta, Georgia: BB’s Bagels

According to John Kessler of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, unless you head north about 30 miles, you won’t find anything resembling a “real boiled bagel” in Atlanta. To get a taste of the northeast down South, you’ll need to make an “expedition to the burbs” for BB’s Bagels in Alpharetta. It’s the only place in the entire Atlanta area offering hand-rolled, kettle-boiled bagels, and earns Kessler’s respect as “the city’s best”—even if they do require a bit of a hike to enjoy. As a self-described “boring bagel fresser” who typically orders sesame or everything with plain or scallion cream cheese, Kessler acknowledges the beauty of BB’s olive-pimiento schmear: “It has a nice sense of place because it seems kind of like Jewish pimiento cheese.” (770 McFarland Pkwy.; 770- 475-1818)

Austin, Texas: Wholy Bagel

Rachel Feit of The Austin Chronicle believes the longhorns have proven themselves capable of producing a quality bagel. “I look for a slightly glossy, firm, almost crunchy exterior, with a soft, chewy interior,” says Feit. “It’s also important that the bagels have some salt in the dough.” Wholy Bagel, opened in 2010 by New Jersey transplant and former bakery-supply salesman Scott Campanozzi, stands up to Feit’s high standards. The bagels are kettled and baked on the premises, and by about 1 p.m., the shop is usually sold out of most varieties. Specialties include salt, everything, sesame, and onion, along with real pork roll flown in from back East. Wholy Bagel also takes pride in its location, offering a Texas-style baker’s dozen of 14. Campanozzi’s reasoning? Everything’s bigger in Texas. (4404 W. William Cannon Dr.; 512-899-0200)

Brookline, Massachusetts: Kupel’s Bakery

Although the “smaller and much softer” Boston bagel can’t beat that nice chew you find in New York, Boston Magazine’s contributing food editor Annie Copps says Kupel’s Bakery in nearby Brookline, Massachusetts, makes a bagel that is somewhere in between, and offers “crazy-good cream cheese spreads.” Opened in the late 1970s by the Kupelnik family, Kupel’s has new owners who continue the tradition of making imperfectly shaped bagels. They offer more than 20 bagel varieties but sesame, egg, and poppy seed are their “calling cards.” The extensive cream cheese selection includes scallion, honey walnut, dill, and green olive. And Copps reports that Kupel’s also bakes up classic Jewish breads like rye, pumpernickel, and several kinds of challah. (421 Harvard St.; 617-566-9528)

Burlington, Vermont: Myer’s Bagels

New York transplant Melissa Pasanen, who writes for the Burlington Free Press and Vermont Life, insists that nothing compares to a real city bagel, which is why she rejects imitations in her new hometown. “Myer’s Bagels are Montreal-style,” says Pasanen. “I like them very much—but they’re different.” Owned by Montreal native Lloyd Squires, Myer’s Bagels serves up salt-free, thin, chewy bagels. They’re boiled then baked in a wood-fired oven and come out fatter and thinner than the New York variety. Embracing the unconventional, Pasanen loves Myer’s Cheddar-dill bagels and olive-pimiento cream cheese. She also praises their sesame and everything bagels, as well as a variety coated in a Montreal steak seasoning mix. (377 Pine St.; 802-863-5013)

Eltana Wood-Fired Bagel Café

Delray Beach, Florida: Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co.

For a bagel company whose goal is to precisely replicate the almighty bagel of Brooklyn, there can be no cutting corners, even if this means altering the H2O. Daniel Treiman, food writer for the Miami New Times and Edible South Florida, knows it’s almost impossible to find that “crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside” combination, but the Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co., which has multiple locations in Florida plus a few in California, has gone to the depths of their water pipes to come as close as possible. Because many New Yorkers believe the magic behind their bagels is the water, OBWB created its own water-treatment system to replicate the soft NYC water, which they use to boil their bagels in. If you’re feeling adventurous, Treiman suggests their Asiago-Parmesan, Omega 3, or sunflower varieties washed down with a bottle of their “Brooklynized” water. (14451 South Military Trail; 561-455-7491)

Lincolnwood, Illinois: New York Bagel & Bialy Corp

A bagel that’s “dense and chewy, not too large, with a sort of glossy skin” is how Sam Worley of the Chicago Reader describes his ideal bagel—a precious rarity in the Midwest. Not even a big city like Chicago holds such treasures, but less than 30 minutes away, in a strip mall in Lincolnwood, Illinois, is a shop that Worley believes nails it. New York Bagel & Bialy Corp’s bagels are made fresh, boiled, and then baked. Worley says their “mish-mosh” bagel, with dried onion, garlic, salt, caraway and other seeds, along with their drugstore-like hours are what make this bagel shop so special. Open 24 hours a day, New York Bagel and Bialy Corp provides a dose of carbs at any hour. Worley says, “I’ve never stopped in at 2 a.m., though I’ve been tempted.” (4714 W. Touhy Ave.; 847-677-9388)

Los Angeles: The Bagel Broker

A former New York resident who appreciates the simple things in life—like a toasted plain bagel with butter—Kat Odell, editor of Eater LA, reports that the Bagel Broker is known for using high-quality ingredients to make “super fresh bagels geared to New York transplants (me!).” Founded in 1987, the Bagel Broker uses unbleached high-gluten flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and water, and boils their bagels before baking. Famous for their cheese-onion and salt bagels, the shop’s offerings also include pumpernickel, jalapeño, egg, garlic, and everything, and they’re known for their very popular Nova lox bagel sandwich. (7825 Beverly Blvd.; 323-931-1258)

New York: Bagel Oasis and Terrace Bagels

Finally, the boss of all bread and dad of all dough: the New York bagel. From Los Angeles to Miami, food writers across the country reported that the best bagel shops in their area stand out because they succeed at re-creating the New York experience. So, what’s so special about the shops selling New York bagels in New York? Well, the fact that they’re everywhere, which is why Sam Sifton, the restaurant critic for The New York Times, couldn’t give us the name of just one bagel shop; he had to give us two.

Sifton says that both the Bagel Oasis in Fresh Meadows, Queens, and Terrace Bagels in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, have that “dual-fecta” of perfect crisp outside and “tangy, soft interior with some serious chew.” The bagels sell themselves, so Sifton orders only a little cream cheese on a toasted plain or everything bagel, “the only legitimate flavors save sesame,” he says. (Bagel Oasis, 183-12 Horace Harding Expy., Fresh Meadows, 888-224-3562; Terrace Bagels, 224 Prospect Park W., Brooklyn, 718-768-3943)

Seattle: Eltana Wood-Fired Bagel Café

Seattle Magazine’s Allison Austin Scheff maintains that Eltana’s Montreal-style bagels are the best in the area, fulfilling her criteria for a bagel with a soft, slightly sour interior and a bit of chew. Owners Stephen Brown and Daniel Levin opened the café in late 2010 to showcase the best of the Jewish staple, along with Eastern Mediterranean fare. They hand-roll each bagel before baking them in a large wood-fired oven that chars the outsides in spots, providing a hint of smoke. These bagels are smaller than their New York counterparts, but Eltana makes up for size with innovative flavor combinations. Scheff favors the sesame and sesame-wheat varieties, and tops them off with eggplant-pomegranate spread, date walnut cream cheese, fava bean spread with mint, or the seriously spicy garlic cream. (1538 12th Ave.; 206-724-0660)

St. Louis, Missouri: The Bagel Factory

Discovering that this St. Louis bagel shop had no Web site, Internet access, computer, or fax machine, it’s hard to argue with Joe Bonwich of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the Bagel Factory, located in the Creve Coeur neighborhood, “has changed very little” since its founding in 1974. Beginning around 1 a.m. daily, the Bagel Factory gives each of their 20 different bagel flavors an “old-style boil and bake” in a 500°F stone-lined oven. This process results in a crust that’s “shiny and crunchy, but not too hard, with a nicely textured interior,” reports Bonwich. The Bagel factory crafts the perfect combination of chew and crunch, and Bonwich says that most of his “more persnickety New York friends won’t go anywhere else.”

Places for tourist:The Best Bagel Shops in America

Death Valley National Park

Death Valley National Park

Location: California & Nevada

Established: October 31, 1994

Size: About 3.4 million acres

The largest national park south of Alaska, Death Valley is known for extremes: It is North America’s driest and hottest spot (with fewer than two inches/five centimeters of rainfall annually and a record high of 134°F), and has the lowest elevation on the continent—282 feet below sea level. Even with its extremes, the park still receives nearly a million visitors each year.

In 1849 emigrants bound for California’s gold fields strayed into the 120-mile long basin, enduring a two-month ordeal of “hunger and thirst and an awful silence.” One of the last to leave looked down from a mountain at the narrow valley and said, “Good-bye, Death Valley.”

The moniker belies the beauty in this vast graben, the geological term for a sunken fragment of the Earth’s crust. Here are rocks sculptured by erosion, richly tinted mudstone hills and canyons, luminous sand dunes, lush oases, and a 200-square-mile salt pan surrounded by mountains, one of America’s greatest vertical rises. In some years spring rains trigger wildflower blooms amid more than a thousand varieties of plants.

Native Americans, most recently the Shoshone, found ways to adapt to the more recent and forbidding desert conditions that exist here now. Rock art and artifacts indicate a human presence dating back at least 9,000 years.

From 1883 to 1889, wagon teams hauled powdery white borax from mines since fallen to ruin, an enterprise that spread word of Death Valley’s striking landscapes, deep solitude, and crystalline air.

As night falls, Death Valley’s elusive populations of bobcats, kit foxes, and rodents venture out. Far above on steep mountain slopes, desert bighorn sheep forage among Joshua trees, scrubby junipers, and pines, while hawks soar on thermals rising into vivid blue, cloudless skies.

Did You Know?

The highest mountain in the park, 11,049-foot Telescope Peak, lies only 15 miles from Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the U.S. The vertical drop from the peak to Badwater Basin is twice the depth of the Grand Canyon.

Named by gold prospectors struggling through the area in 1849, Death Valley has been inhabited by Timbisha Shoshone Native Americans; gold prospectors, including slaves; Chinese immigrants mining for silver and borax; Basque immigrants who settled here at the turn of the 20th century; and Japanese Americans temporarily interned here during World War II.

Death Valley National Park

Arches National Park

Arches National Park

Location: Utah

Established: November 12, 1971

Size: 76,359 acres

This park contains more than 2,000 natural arches—the greatest concentration in the country. But numbers have no significance beside the grandeur of the landscape—the arches, the giant balanced rocks, spires, pinnacles, and slickrock domes against the enormous sky.

Perched high above the Colorado River, the park is part of southern Utah’s extended canyon country, carved and shaped by eons of weathering and erosion. Some 300 million years ago, inland seas covered the large basin that formed this region. The seas refilled and evaporated—29 times in all—leaving behind salt beds thousands of feet thick. Later, sand and boulders carried down by streams from the uplands eventually buried the salt beds beneath thick layers of stone. Because the salt layer is less dense than the overlying blanket of rock, it rises up through it, forming it into domes and ridges, with valleys in between.

Most of the formations at Arches are made of soft red sandstone deposited 150 million years ago. Much later, groundwater began to dissolve the underlying salt deposits. The sandstone domes collapsed and weathered into a maze of vertical rock slabs called “fins.” Sections of these slender walls eventually wore through, creating the spectacular rock sculptures that visitors to Arches see today.

The land has a timeless, indestructible look that is misleading. More than 700,000 visitors each year threaten the fragile high desert ecosystem. One concern is a dark scale called biological soil crust composed of cyanobacteria, algae, fungi, and lichens that grow in sandy areas in the park. Footprints tracked across this living community may remain visible for years. In fact, the aridity helps preserve traces of past activity for centuries. Visitors are asked to walk only on designated trails or stay on slickrock or wash bottoms.

Did You Know?

There are more than 2,000 arches in the park; to be classified as an arch, the opening must measure at least three feet across. The largest arch in the park, Landscape Arch, spans 306 feet (longer than a football field) base to base. New arches are constantly forming, while old ones occasionally collapse—most recently Wall Arch, which fell in 2008.

Arches National Park contains ephemeral pools, from a few inches to several feet in depth, that are essentially mini-ecosystems, home to tadpoles, fairy shrimp, and insects. The pools form among the sandstone basins, within potholes that collect the rare rainwater and sediment.

About 300 million years ago an inland sea covered what is now Arches National Park. The sea evaporated and re-formed more than 29 times, leaving behind salt beds thousands of feet thick.

Another unique aspect of the park is its knobby black ground cover, which is actually alive. A biological soil crust, it is composed of algae, lichens, and cyanobacteria (one of Earth’s earliest life forms), and provides a secure foundation for the desert plants.

Edward Abbey served as a seasonal ranger at Arches in the late 1950s, an experience that inspired his 1968 memoir, Desert Solitaire.

Arches National Park

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

 

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

 

Location: Colorado

Established: October 21, 1999

Size: 30,750 acres

Sheer walls of dark gray stone rise more than 2,700 feet above the swift and turbulent Gunnison River to create one of the most dramatic canyons in the country. Deeper than it is wide in some places, this great slit in the Earth is so narrow that sunlight penetrates to the bottom only at midday. The park protects the deepest, most thrilling 14 miles of the gorge, about 75 miles upstream of the Gunnison’s junction with the Colorado River.

Imagine chiseling two parallel walls of hard gneiss and schist running the length of Manhattan and standing higher than two Empire State Buildings stacked atop one another, with water as your only tool. At the inconceivable rate of one inch per century, it would take all of human history just to cut through five feet of rock. What you see from the rim is the product of two million years of patient work.

The metamorphic rocks exposed at the bottom of the canyon are nearly two billion years old, dating from the Precambrian or oldest era of the Earth. Here and there swirling pink veins of igneous pegmatite shoot through the walls, livening up the canyon’s somber appearance.

Indians and white explorers generally avoided the formidable canyon up through the 19th century. In 1900, five men attempted to run the river in wooden boats to survey it as a possible source of irrigation for the Uncompahgre Valley. After a month, with their boats in splinters and their supplies gone, they gave up. But the next year two men ran it in ten days on rubber air mattresses. A water diversion tunnel was soon in the works; the four-year project, dedicated in 1909, resulted in a six-mile-long tunnel through rock, clay, and sand. The labor was so grueling and dangerous that the average period of employment was only two weeks. Today, three dams upstream have further tamed the Gunnison, but the canyon and its section of river remain wild.

Rim drives and hikes offer plenty of opportunities for peering into the magnificent canyon and marveling at its cliffs and towers of stone. Ravens, golden eagles, and peregrine falcons soar the great gulf of air out in front. On top grows a thick forest of Gambel oak and serviceberry, which provide cover for mule deer and black bears, while farther down the canyon Douglas firs thrive in the shade, and cottonwoods and box elders find footholds along the river.

How to Get There

The South Rim is located 15 miles northeast of Montrose, via US 50 and Colo. 347. The North Rim is 80 miles by car from the South Rim, via US 50W and Colo. 92. Turn south off Colo. 92 onto the 15-mile North Rim Road, the first half of which is paved. Airports: Montrose and Gunnison.

When to Go

Summer is the most popular time to visit. But be prepared to perspire if you hike at midday on exposed trails, and bring lots of water. Crisp days in late spring and early fall make for excellent walks. Winter affords opportunities for backcountry camping, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing. With the rim at 8,000 feet above sea level, winter can set in as early as November and last until April. Snow closes vehicle access to the North Rim; the South Rim road stays open as far as the second overlook year-round.

How to Visit

You can spend most of the day driving the seven-mile (one-way) South Rim and exploring its five or so miles of trails. But reserve the afternoon, or a second day, for a walk down to the canyon floor. If you have more time, visit the North Rim and its five-mile unpaved drive.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Top 10 Beach Cities

Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona, Spain

With layers of architectural wonders, cutting-edge cuisine, and buzzing nightlife, Barcelona would be a world-class city even without the eight white-sand beaches that rim its Mediterranean coastline. Accessible by metro, the nearly mile-long (1.6-kilometer-long) Barceloneta Beach—revitalized in the massive waterfront makeover for the 1992 Olympics—is one of the most popular. Hit the Beach Centre to rent a beach umbrella, chairs, or a bicycle.

Cape Town, South Africa

Cape Town, South Africa

The African capital of cool sprawls on a peninsula that divides the icy Atlantic from the warmer Indian Ocean, putting some 20 beaches within striking distance. The Clifton beaches, known for the posh homes that overlook them and stellar sunset-viewing, are sheltered from the region’s strong trade winds by a mountainous ridge. Further north, the breeze is unleashed at surfing sweet spots Milnerton and Blouberg. Families favor the eastern False Bay coast for warmer water and tot-friendly tidal pools.

Honolulu, Hawaii

Honolulu, Hawaii

Once an idyllic retreat for 19th-century Hawaiian royalty, Honolulu’s Waikiki Beach is now chockablock with resorts, some of them historic like the 1901 Moana Surfrider Hotel. The long, rolling breaks are ideal for novice surfers, but most beachgoers here are happy basking in the temperate, turquoise blue Pacific and killer views of the Diamond Head crater.

Nice, France

Nice, France

Some 35 beaches—some private, some public—stretch uninterrupted along Nice’s coastline between the Rauba Capeu Quay and the airport, along the famous Promenade des Anglais, which fronts La Baie des Anges. Don’t forget your flip-flops, however, as la plage is covered with small, smooth pebbles called galets. The beau monde sunbathe at private beaches, where a day’s access costs about 16 euros and often includes a chaise lounge; food, towel, parasol, and chilled rosé are extra.

Miami Beach, Florida

Miami Beach, Florida

Separated from Miami by Biscayne Bay, Miami Beach is a barrier island and city unto itself fringed with nine miles (14 kilometers) of sandy Atlantic beaches, the red-hot center of which is South Beach. Once a seedy outpost, the 25 art deco-filled blocks known as SoBe has emerged as a stomping ground for the glitterati. Park your towel among the glamorous denizens at the southern tip of the beach.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The city that spawned Carnival and “The Girl from Ipanema” has a buzzing beach scene throughout its 25 miles (40 kilometers) of shoreline, from Copacabana— where bronzed Cariocas clad in skimpy swimwear and Havaianas stroll the wave-patterned promenade in the shadow of Christ the Redeemer—to the more upscale Ipanema, framed by the Rio skyline and the rocky peaks of Dois Irmãos (Two Brothers).

Santa Monica, California

Santa Monica, California

With 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) of broad, sandy beaches, a fresh ocean breeze, and progressive vibe, Santa Monica has long been a magnet for the Hollywood set. In the 1920s, movie moguls and starlets partied at Club Casa Del Mar; today, celebrities dodge the paparazzi at the Shutters on the Beach hotel. Join a volleyball game, look for sea lions, or just watch the Pacific rollers crash on the beach.

Sydney, Australia

Sydney, Australia

Sydney is rimmed with dozens of beaches, but Bondi—a 0.6-mile (one-kilometer) crescent of golden sand 20 minutes from downtown—has become synonymous with the laid-back Aussie lifestyle. Sydneysiders come here for the booming surf, but the beautiful-people-watching is unparalleled. Keep your eyes peeled for migrating whales from May to early October.

Tel Aviv, Israel

Tel Aviv, Israel

Call it Miami Beach on the Med. Tel Aviv is the Dionysian counterpart to religious Jerusalem. In the “bubble,” as it’s known for its inhabitants’ tendency to tune out regional skirmishes, some restaurants, discos, and clubs are open until dawn. By day, the scene shifts to the city’s promenade and eight miles (13 kilometers) of beach literally steps from town. Head to wide and sandy Gordon Beach to sit in a seaside café or take a dip in the saltwater pool.

Vancouver, British Columbia

Vancouver, British Columbia

Canada’s most adventurous metropolis is home to ten beaches, from the family-centric Jericho to the clothing-optional Wreck Beach, many of which offer commanding views of the Vancouver skyline and majestic North Shore Mountains. Sporty types prefer Kitsilano or “Kits,” a six-minute drive from downtown, for its free tennis and basketball courts, and its super-size heated saltwater pool.

Top 10 Beach Cities