Six secluded Asian beaches you need to visit before they become popular
THERE’S nothing more satisfying than saying ‘I went there before it was touristy’. So get to these secluded beaches before the hoards find out how good they are.
THE deserted beach is the traveller’s holy grail. Warm water, white sand, perhaps a bartender for company, and oh those sunsets.
But nothing can turn paradise in to purgatory quite like industrial-strength tourism: the hawkers, gibberers, loud tourists, banana pancakes, rubbish, slapdash hotels, wise guys and leathery old dudes in budgie smugglers telling you how much better it was “before all this” — that seem to turn up anywhere famous enough to have a postcard.
Sure, there are worse things than being a johnny-come-lately to paradise. But does anything beat getting there first?
These six Asian beaches are visit-now destinations that will have you saying you were there before the rush.
Nhat Beach, Con Son Island, Vietnam
Crumbling French colonial villas line the promenade in Con Son town and Nhat beach is best reached from here by motorbike. The 15 minute ride hugs the coastline high above the South China Sea and brings you to an empty strip of sand at the foot of jungle-covered mountains.
Though the island is less than an hour by plane from Ho Chi Minh City, only modest numbers of local Vietnamese tourists seem to make the journey and many skip the beach to make a pilgrimage to the ruined jail that was built by the French and also used by the Americans during the war.
Stay at the incredibly luxe Six Senses resort ($500+) or bunk down in a cozy guesthouse ($15).
Tropical Beach, Sumbawa, Indonesia
While a handful of surfers help themselves to sick barrels and empty tubes, inside the reef it is turquoise tropical paradise with nobody on the sand. Motorbike past the rice paddies that run between the first dune and the mountains behind to find more empty beaches to the north and the south, along Sumbawa’s west coast. Company includes cattle, local children and on weekends off-shift workers from the gold mine in the island’s interior.
The mine runs a ferry open to tourists from Lombok to nearby Maluk beach. Sleep in a surf shack ($5-15), bungalow ($55) or resort ($100).
Furuzamami Beach, Zamami-jima, Kerama Islands Japan
The water here is so perfect it has a colour named after it: “Kerama Blue”. Enough already?
Furuzamami has a walk in coral reef, full of tropical fish. Turtles visit the neighbouring Ama Beach at high tide. The local specialty dish is a soy-braised pork belly that goes pretty well with the region’s own brand of ice cold beer, Orion. And at even the humblest guesthouse on the island you can expect the above-and-beyond Japanese approach to service.
Talalla Beach, Sri Lanka
Get here now. Three years ago Talalla had one hotel and now there are five.
Sri Lanka’s southern coast is cartoonishly beautiful in the dry season (October-April), and the sunsets are magnificent. Curved palm trees line the beaches and fishermen haul in their nets at dawn and dusk, sharing the day’s catch among themselves and stopping for a game of beach cricket when they can. Spend all day soaking in the warm water and you’ll be hanging out for a fish curry and a big Lion beer. Rinse and repeat.
Kanawa Island, Flores, Indonesia
Another slice of Indonesian paradise but this one is a whole island almost to yourself. Ringed by reef and with excellent snorkelling, Kanawa rises green and steamy from the Flores sea.
It is a 90-minute and breathtaking boat ride from the nearest town, Labuan Bajo. The trip passes by Rinca and Komodo islands, whose steep hills are home to the Komodo dragon and the equally beautiful and empty Angel and Kelor islands are short board rides away.
If you want to stay the night on Kanawa there is a strip of A-frame bungalows on the shore, although there are no frills and you will need a torch because there is no electricity at night.
Bako National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia
A boat-and-foot access only wilderness beach where rainforest meets the sand on Borneo’s north coast. It’s hot, steamy, green and truly wild: tangled vines and tall canopy, mangrove bays, salamanders and sandstone headlands. It is possible to stay in the park or visit on a day trip from Sarawak’s capital, Kuching.
Pick up a parcel of spicy nasi lemak wrapped in a banana leaf from the boat wharf for lunch and swim with an audience of macaques and (hilarious) proboscis monkeys.
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