The best beaches in South Australia

This is the sort of beach that comes to mind when you meditate about a far-off, happier place. The kind of quiet paradise that so many of us yearn for when life gets too loud. We may not have been there, but we can see it in our mind's eye. Almost feel it. The sun-warmed sand so fine, it squeaks beneath your feet. A turquoise expanse of water that gives way to the ribs of sandbars. The colour is made even more vivid in contrast with the white sand beach. It feels untouched, perfect not only in its appearance but in what it represents: a true Australian beach escape. This place doesn’t have to exist in just your mind's eye. Seek out real rest, instead of stealing it in moments of meditation, when you visit Flaherty Beach on the Yorke Peninsula. 

The wind plays with the long grass like a fiddle, causing it to jump, dance and sway. The rolling hills ahead of you seem to visibly ripple with every gust. In the stillness between blows, a silence drops into the valley. Everything suddenly stills, allowing you to notice the smallest twitch of movement in your peripheral. A family of kangaroos lazily munch just metres from you—basking in the morning light. The two-kilometre path from the car park opens to a deep valley that beckons you closer. As you hike closer to the white sand beach, the soundscape shifts. The surrounding hills buffer you from the wind, allowing for the gentle hush of the shoreline to reach your ears. Padding across the untouched sand, your toes finally meet the water. It’s cool, crisp and a welcome relief. That’s your average walk to Blowhole Beach; a natural paradise tucked within Deep Creek National Park.

Dolphin Beach might just be the whitest beach in Australia. This Yorke Peninsula beach has sand so white, its reflection becomes blinding in the midday sun. The fine grains sneak their way into every crevice of your belongings—weaving its way into the fabric of your towel, the crevices of your bathing suit and around the lid of your water bottle. It adds texture to your lunchtime picnic and will dust the seats of your car when you head home. But it’s a worthy nuisance, when you get to spend the day floating in clean shallow waters and drying off on the face of granite rocks.

After a long day spent straining your eyes from the passenger window, spotting more kangaroos than you can count, Vivonne Bay appears as a sight for sore eyes. Driving into this unassuming beach village, the turquoise blue waters jump out like a surprise. They break up an otherwise native colour palette, a joltingly vibrant stroke of paint in a bush landscape. Walking out to the famous Vivonne Bay jetty, you see why. The sand beneath the surface is pristine—completely unmarked by sediment, rock or reef. The water is clean and clear, acting as a mirror for the sky. You follow your own shadow as you walk out to the jetty’s edge, gazing out at the dunes that look like piles of icing sugar plonked along the shoreline. This is what you imagined when you researched the best beach in Kangaroo Island.

Tucked away in Lincoln National Park, this is the kind of place that rewards the slightly longer drive. It’s quiet here, unhurried and still. You might spend your morning watching a pod of dolphins traverse the bay, or simply leaning against the warm, weathered shoreline with a book in hand. It’s a beach that doesn’t demand anything of you, other than to simply be there and enjoy the rhythm of the tide.