Travel

15 Beaches That Are Better in the Fall

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Best for Beer Lovers: Oceanside, California

Within San Diego County's spectacular, sprawling craft beer mecca, Oceanside offers the best brews within reach of the gorgeous beaches. Just minutes from the sand, you can stride into Stone Brewing's tasting room and outpost for a pint of its iconic, gargoyle-emblazoned beers. One block away you help yourself to Barrel Republic's 60 self-serving taps. Then cross one more street for Breakwater Brewing (try the Maverick's IPA). And if you're feeling ambitious, take the 10-minute stroll to Bagby Beer Company, which is helmed by one of America's most award-winning brewers, Jeff Bagby.

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Best for Thrillseekers: Jumeirah Beach, Dubai

You might think of Dubai as a shopping and nightlife destination. And it is, certainly. But it’s also a hedonistic playground for thrill seekers, and the Arabian Gulf is beckoning adventurers in the fall. The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Championships are staged in Dubai on October 28, with the world’s best cliff divers somersaulting, twisting, and plunging from 90-foot-high platforms. For your own thrills, you can get a two-for-one of sorts, with beach and desert adventures both on your itinerary. Pack your schedule with flyboarding and a deep-sea diving expedition in the warm gulf waters, and then switch it up and go dune bashing and skydiving in the desert.

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Best Scuba Diving: Key Largo, Florida

The Florida Keys is a treasure chest for scuba divers. The 120-mile island chain is home to the United States’ only living-coral barrier reef, which is teeming with marine life and hiding stunning shipwrecks in its waters. The diving conditions remain great in the fall, with mostly calm waters in Key Largo, nicknamed the Diving Capital of the World. Its waters hold the Spiegel Grove shipwreck, a 510-foot former U.S. Navy ship and divers will often spot reef sharks, large turtles, and barracudas.

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Best Surfing Without Crowds: Door County, Wisconsin

Yes, you can surf on Lake Michigan, and it's well worth the trip. The waves come rolling in like giants, but the great lake, which feels more like an ocean, isn’t crowded. Pack your wetsuit because, while it’s not warm, November is prime time to catch some Wisconsin waves that can soar up to 10 feet high at Whitefish Dunes State Park. Try to score a room with The Harbor Inn at nearby Bailey’s Harbor, which is perched on the water and within walking distance of restaurants. You’ll need to rent a car to zip around the Wisconsin peninsula and the towns that dot it — there’s no Uber, and taxi service is limited. For a pancake breakfast you won’t soon forget, check out Al Johnson’s, a Swedish restaurant with goats grazing on the sod roof.

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Best Sunsets: Jericoacoara Beach, Brazil

Watching the sun set is a daily ritual in this beach town that’s surrounded by lagoons and sand dunes. Locals and tourists gather at the top of “Sunset Dune” for the golden spectacle every evening and then watch the stars twinkle in a night sky absent of city lights. Adding to the allure is witnessing martial artists at the base of the dune practicing Capoeira, a fighting style disguised as dance that originated during the Brazilian slave trade. Fall is the dry season and less humid, making it an ideal time to visit. While visiting “Jeri,” take a dune buggy to nearby Tatajuba, where you can lounge in hammocks that dip into the freshwater lagoon.

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Best Dolphin Watching: Orange Beach, Alabama

Retire the binoculars and forget the crowds of tourist-packed glass-bottom boats. Opt for a much more authentic experience with Wild Native Tours, where you'll likely be the only ship on the water as you watch pods of dolphins out fishing. Check into Turquoise Place, where condominiums face the Gulf of Mexico and come with a jacuzzi and a grill on the balcony. The strongest Bushwackers (the frozen, boozy rum-coffee-chocolate beverage that’s everywhere in Alabama) are hiding out at the Flora-Bama. The bar straddles the Florida-Alabama border, and on any given night, performers on different stages are simultaneously singing covers of Johnny Cash and Eric Church.

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Best Beach Club: Ibiza, Spain

Yes, the nightlife is spectacular, with Ibiza hosting renowned DJs and nightclubs that would make Las Vegas look like After-Prom. But for a club that you’ll want to spend your time lounging at, nab a room at the adults-only resort Iberostar Santa Eulalia and get access to an exclusive beach club. Relax on Balinese beds perched on a breakwater and listen to the lull of the Mediterranean waves while the weather is still balmy (but not sweltering) in the fall months. An added bonus: Ibiza’s tourism season spikes in the summer, so come fall, you’re more likely to score reservations at the best restaurants. If you’re a classics buff, you’ll want to visit nearby Es Vedra, an island shrouded with myths — including speculation that it’s where the sirens and sea nymphs were staged when they tried to lure Odysseus from his ship in Homer’s Odyssey.

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Best for Triathletes: Panama City Beach, Florida

Bring your family (i.e. your fan club) along for the early-November Ironman Florida. The event offers 40 qualifying spots for the Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Once you’ve conquered the 140-mile course — complete a fast, flat bicycle route — switch into vacation mode. You’ve earned yourself a few days of relaxing on the sugar-white sand beaches of Shell Island. As for your kids? Let them cut loose at the Aqua Park, an inflatable water park on the beach.

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Best Surf Fishing: Outer Banks, North Carolina

October and November are peak surf fishing months for a number of species: bluefish, flounder, mackerel, spotted seatrout, and striped bass. The popular Cape Point is an ideal spot to cast from because it approaches the East Coast’s two major currents. But if you head a few hundred yards to South Beach, which is dubbed The Hook, the fishing is arguably just as good but not as crowded. A coastal recreational fishing license is required to fish in the Outer Banks.

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Best for Spotting Sea Life: Bora Bora, French Polynesia

The crowds dwindle in the fall and the rainy season doesn’t start until December, making now the perfect time to tick Bora Bora off your bucket list. Really, you could just hang out in your overwater villa all vacation long — if you head to French Polynesia, you’re there to relax. But, for a tour of the phenomenal sea life, grab a paddleboard and admire the colorful coral and tropical fish in the iconic clear blue waters. Stay at the Intercontinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa and check out the Lagoonarium, a protected ocean habitat that’s home to sea creatures, including the resident stingrays that swim up to the shore every afternoon.

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Best Golfing: Amelia Island, Florida

With 13 miles of stellar ocean-front sand, Amelia Island is a player’s fall beach paradise. Our favorite course on the island resides at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation. The Pete Dye–designed Oak Marsh Course is challenging tract where a golfer's mettle will be tested, high stakes shots will be attempted, and courage will be either grandly rewarded or severely punished. Fourteen of the course's holes employ water hazards. You'll want to bring extra balls. After a round, players can lick their wounds (or salt them) at the Omni's expansive tequila bar, which stocks more than 100 different blancos, reposados, and anejos, including the resort's own signature barrel-aged Herradura. The drink, like the resort itself, is an exercise in good taste.

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Best Cycling: Nantucket, Massachusetts

If you’re accustomed to checking out fall colors from the driver’s side window, you can do better. Instead of stealing quick glances while trying not to rear-end the next car in a long line of leaf peepers, get a far better view of nature’s famed fall production from the seat of a bike. And to really do it right, take a trip to Nantucket off the coast of Massachusetts and explore the entire island — its coast, its lighthouses, its cranberry bogs. At some point, take a detour for award-winning clam chowder at The Sea Grille Restaurant. The acclaimed chowder is made with quahog, a thick-shelled clam plucked from the Atlantic.

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Best Running: Stinson Beach, California

The famous 7.4-mile Dipsea Trail will take you from Mill Valley to Stinson Beach, with climbs among the redwoods in the Muir Woods National Monument before a steep descent to the beach, where you’ll be met with a striking panorama of the Pacific. Go ahead and take a dip in the ocean because fall months are actually warmer than summer months in this part of the country. History buffs can explore the U.S. Coast Artillery base end stations that overlook the ocean. Soldiers stationed there during World War II tracked ships and relayed information to shore artillery units to defend the coast from invasions. Year-round fog lends a cinematic effect.

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Best Kayaking: La Jolla, California

Dart about in seven different sea caves while exploring four varying marine environments: sandy beaches, craggy coasts, kelp forests, and the open ocean. The area is also teaming with wildlife from the bright orange garibaldi fish swimming in the coves to the sea lions sunbathing on the rocks. Plus, La Jolla is known for having a perfect climate. Temperatures in autumn are consistently in the 70s, but you can enjoy them without the Spring Break and summer vacation crowds. When you’re docked, check out the Public House, which boasts 40 plus taps with local San Diego beers and 350 bottled beers to select from.

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Best Hiking: Rio Grande, Puerto Rico

When you vacation in Puerto Rico, you have access to epic scuba diving in the Caribbean waters and all the other perks of a beach vacation. But head to the northeast coast of Puerto Rico, and you’ll also be spoiled by the rainforests. By beating the winter rush, you’ll be rewarded with better room rates and reasonable airfare. Book a room at the Grand Rio Mar Beach Resort & Spa for access to the private beach. But better yet, the resort is the closest one you’ll find to the El Yunque Rainforest. The only tropical rainforest in the U.S. National Forest System, it's complete with waterfalls, rivers, and petroglyphs from the prehistoric Taino people who inhabited the area.

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