Shore to Please

So maybe watersports aren’t your thing. Maybe your idea of the ultimate beach experience is wiggling your toes in soft sand. We understand. And to help you have a better beach experience, we’ve asked Stephen Leatherman, Ph.D.—better known as Dr. Beach—director of the Laboratory of Coastal Research at Florida International University, for his five favorite East Coast beaches: super shores that are visitor-friendly, crowd free, relaxing, and inexpensive. Leatherman has visited all of America’s more than 650 major public recreational beaches, and each year, using an exhaustive list of criteria that covers everything from sand quality to water temperature, he ranks the nation’s top spots. Since we already know that Florida has great beaches—and to test the good doctor’s knowledge—we asked him to recommend places north of the Sunshine State. His top five picks, in order: … Back to Article