The Roast · October 2026 · 4 min

Six Beaches That Look Better Online

Every beach we have rated Overrated or worse, what the photo leaves out, and what to do instead.

We rate beaches from the sources. Most land in the middle or above it. Six so far have landed below, and each one is on somebody's best-of list. Here they are, with the part the photograph leaves out.

1. Navagio, Zakynthos

The most photographed beach in Greece, and you are not allowed on it. Closed since 2022 for rockfall risk; the cliff injured seven people in 2018. You can pay €25 to €30 to look at it from a boat. Instead: take the 9am boat, take the photo, and swim somewhere that is open.

2. Red Beach, Santorini

A strip of red sand about twelve metres wide under cliffs that came down in 2018, in 2023 and again in December 2025. This beach hurt people, and visitor access has been officially banned since August 2013. Instead: the small boat from Akrotiri harbour, €5 to €8, where the view is better and the cliff cannot reach you.

3. Kuta, Bali

The busiest beach in Bali, lined with bars and nightclubs, with rough surf that produces a strong undertow and potentially dangerous rip currents. Instead: if you are swimming, the flagged areas the lifeguards patrol. If you want a beach, Sanur, which is flat, walkable and free.

4. Dreamland, Bali

Named by surfers in the 1970s, since surrounded by a resort and a golf course. One guide flags its shore break as especially hazardous for spinal injuries, because the waves stand up over a steep sandbar. Instead: come for the walk and the view, early, before the tour groups at 11am.

5. Praia do Castelo, Albufeira

About 80 steep steps to a 183-metre cove with no toilets and no showers. With any swell, waves funnel through the gap and it becomes dangerous. Instead: Praia da Galé, on the same coast, with 50 steps and 492 metres of sand.

6. Praia da Cordoama, Vila do Bispo

Two travel lists send you here. Its own guide says it is not really a swimming beach: the water is cold, the currents are strong and the shorebreak is heavy. Paragliders launch from the headland above it, which is the correct distance. Instead: Arrifana, further up the same coast, the only beach in Portugal that all three of the lists we read agree on.

They all photograph beautifully. That was never the question.

How a beach ends up here

A beach starts in the middle. It moves down when someone has been hurt or killed there on record, when it is officially closed or banned, or when its own sources call the water dangerous or say not to swim. An ordinary caution, swim between the flags, mind the tide, does not count. It is a short list. We add to it as we rate more beaches, and a beach comes off it the day the facts change.