Beach days are more stressful than we, or Corona’s marketing team, give them credit for. They often involve carrying too much stuff from faraway parking spots, and if you arrive to discover a crowded, rocky or generally underwhelming stretch of coastline, it can be a real day-ruiner.
Generally, a reliable method to vet beaches has been sourcing wisdom from coworkers, neighbors and friends. And that word-of-mouth system tended to steer you in the right direction, for the most part. But what about an omniscient database that offers every little you could possibly need to know? One that supplies pictures that don’t look like they were taken with a microwave?
Enter Sandee, the brainwave of entrepreneur Randall Kaplan. The fledgling site, currently in a soft launch mode, has spent years collecting information on beaches across the world, to the tune of more than 50,000 in 178 countries and territories. They’re all now gathered under one pinwheel umbrella at Sandee, where guests on the site can filter by continent and readily search the name of a beach they’re planning on visiting.
Thanks to a team of freelance photographers, most entries on Sandee are accompanied by unusually helpful photographs, which, much like deciding to visit a restaurant or book an Airbnb, are a pretty on-point line of internet defense. But beyond the pictures, the beach entries include a laundry list of helpful information, including: public or private status, hours of operation, cell reception, water quality, sand color and texture, length, the day’s weather, amenities offered (bathrooms, food vendors, showers) and activities allowed (fishing, surfing, parasailing, you get it).
As an article by Bloomberg points out, the database is not without its limitations. Certain beaches are registered but don’t have a photo, and for that reason apparently just don’t load when you search them. Plus, there could be more nuance on specific beaches within larger coastlines. (As a lifelong Jersey Shore-goer, I noticed some holes.)
But Sandee is also just getting started, and will fill out over time. We like the format, which is super digestible and sticks to the basics (no one needs a novel about the water quality, just tell us it’s clean and there aren’t any Great Whites lurking about). And this tool might be even more useful as a source of inspiration for your next beach vacation than just a planning aid. You can get lost pretty easy exploring the archives. The main image to this story? Golden Bay, Malta. We didn’t know that it existed 15 minutes ago. Now we know it’s got street parking, scuba rentals and lounge chairs, and kinda have to go.
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