Golden Beach Award 2024: This beach in Cape Town ranked second best in the world!

BeachAtlas, a UK-based start up that specializes in world beaches, has recently released its Golden Beach Award 2024. Based on diverse criteria such as the value to the local community, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), lifestyle offerings, and cultural significance, the ranking - at least according to BeachAtlas - shines a light on those beach gems that typically don't make it onto traditional, unidimensional 'best beach' lists.
Two beaches in Southern Africa, one in South Africa and one Namibia, made it to the Top 10 in BeachAtlas' ranking. Boulders Beach in Cape Town, South Africa, has been ranked second out of 100 beaches by BeachAtlas’ Golden Beach Awards 2024, while Namibia's Skeleton Coast was ranked at number nine. Two other beaches in South Africa made it to the Top 100 - Cape Town's Bloubergstrand was named 33rd best beach and the Clifton Beaches were ranked 68th. Overall winner of the Golden Beach Award 2024 is Bora Bora in French Polynesia.

Photo by Kym Ellis on Unsplash

Sani Pass & Skeleton Coast made it to the list of the world's 25 most-instagrammed road trip locations!

TravelSupermarket, on of the market-leading price-comparison service for package holidays in the UK, undertook research and have revealed what the most popular pit stops road trip routes around the world are, by analysing which places are most tagged on Instagram. According to the findings, the Sani Pass (22; #sanipass) in South Africa and the Skeleton Coast (24, #skeletoncoast) in Namibia made it to the top 25 most instagrammed road trip locations in the world. The Chapman's Peak Drive (26, #chapmanspeakdrive) in Cape Town missed the top 25 by one rank, while the Garden Route (#thegardenroute), also in South Africa, is the the 38th most tagged road trip location on Instagram.

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An attempt at the Sani pass is challenging enough without adding fire to the experience!! #sanipass #southafrica

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Morgan Cardiff (@rhys_morgan) am Jul 16, 2018 um 12:31 PDT

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Skeleton coast is as desolate as it sounds- 4 x 4s and adventurous spirits only. . . . #namibia #africa #namibdesert #skeletoncoast #travel #explore #neverstopexploring #getoutside #desert #backpacking

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Katie 🌲 (@ktkendall) am Aug 17, 2018 um 8:47 PDT

The 25 most popular pit stops and road trip routes, according to Instagram:

01. Route 66, USA #route66
02. Great Ocean Road, Australia #greatoceanroad
03. Ruta, Argentina #ruta
04. Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina/Virginia, USA #blueridgeparkway
05. Finger Lakes Highways, New York, USA #fingerlakes
06. Valley of Fire Road, Nevada, USA #valleyoffire
07. Ring Road, Iceland #ringroad
08. Trollstigen, Norway #trollstigen
09. Icefields Parkway, Alberta, Canada #icefieldsparkway
10. Cabot Trail, Nova Scotia, Canada #cabottrail
11. Serra Do Rio Do Rastro Road, Brazil #serradoriodorastro
12. Highway One, California, USA #highwayone
13. Rohtang Pass, India #rohtangpass
14. Hai Van Pass, Vietnam #haivanpass
15. Going-to-The-Sun Road, Glacier National Park, Montana, USA #goingtothesunroad
16. Stelvio Pass, Italy #stelviopass
17. Furka Pass, Switzerland #furkapass
18. Atlantic Road, Norway #atlanticroad
19. Hana Highway    Maui, Hawaii, USA #hanahighway
20. Causeway Coastal Route, Northern Ireland, UK    #causewaycoastalroute
21. Grimsel Pass, Switzerland #grimselpass
22. Sani Pass, South Africa #sanipass
23. Karakoram Highway, China/Pakistan #karakoramhighway
24. Skeleton Coast, Namibia #skeletoncoast
25. Seward Highway, Alaska, USA #sewardhighway
26. Chapman's Peak Drive, South Africa #chapmanspeakdrive
38. The Garden Route, South Africa #thegardenroute

To check out the full list of TravelSupermarket's top 25 most popular pit stops and road trip routes on Instagram, click here.

Video: Pro surfer rides an epic wave on Namibia's Skeleton Coast!

Koa Smith, a pro-surfer from Hawaii, recently visited Namibia to surf one of the longest sand-bottomed left hand wave in the world. Located on the country's Skeleton Coast, the surf spot, known as Skeleton Bay, offered the surfer a ride he'll never forget. Koa Smith rode the wave for two minutes and managed to travel over 1.5km while getting barreled eight times (!). Watch the drone footage below (Kudos Chris Rogers!) as well as Koa's point-of-view clip from the GoPro that he managed to keep locked between his jaws the whole two minutes. Enjoy!