iStockphoto / csfotoimages
The annual Best Beach in America and Best Beach in the World rankings from TripAdvisor are out and my home town took the #1 spot in the United States (4th in the world) after Siesta Key was ranked the best beach in the country. This comes just four months after Hurricane Milton made direct landfall on Siesta Key, clobbering the island I grew up on and destroying homes and schools, but the recovery effort was swift and it has evidently paid off.
The thing about Siesta Key beach that consistently has it in the rankings of the best beaches in the world is the sand. It has some of the softest sand with the highest quartz content of any beach on the planet. As a little kid the sand was so soft I’d have to wear shoes on the beach because it felt so weird on my feet. But people love it!
Siesta Key is truly unrecognizable from decades ago as millions of tourists flock to Florida every year to tan on the pristine white beaches and that has modernized the once sleepy fishing village into a proper tourist destination. And Sarasota County has done a fantastic job at improving the amenities at Siesta Key Beach. You can get cocktails from the main concession stand, they’ve got a dope lobster roll, chair rentals are available, and most importantly the sand remains immaculate no matter how many people visit Siesta Key Beach every year.
Best Beaches in the United States: 2025 Rankings
The full top 10 of the best beaches in the country, according to TripAdvisor’s recent rankings, shakes out like this:
- Siesta Key Beach, Sarasota, Florida
- Poipu Beach Park, Kauai, Hawaii
- Ka’anapali Beach, Maui, Hawaii
- La Jolla Cove, San Diego, California
- Waikiki Beach, Oahu, Hawaii
- Clearwater Beach, Clearwater, Florida
- Driftwood Beach, Jekyll Island, Georgia
- Punalu’u Black Sand Beach, Pahala, Hawaii
- Bahia Honda State Park, Big Pine Key, Florida
- Ho’okipa Beach Park, Maui, Hawaii
Here is a Siesta Key Beach sunset for the uninitiated… Situated on Florida’s west coast about an hour south of Tampa and on a barrier island just off Sarasota, Siesta Key gets some of the most gorgeous sunsets imaginable:
Cass Anderson / BroBible
It is truly wild to see Siesta Key in the #1 spot after Hurricane Milton had a direct hit on the barrier island back in October. My son’s school on Siesta Key was closed for months due to Helene and Milton. Streets were covered in sand. Homes were covered in sand. The rebuilding is going to take years upon years. Many people will never rebuild.
But somehow that sand all seems to have made its way back onto the main Siesta Beach because if you drive around Siesta Village it looks pretty close to normal these days. Which again, is completely nuts. The eye of Hurricane Milton passed directly over my home!! And now this is the #1 beach in the country. If anything it will signal to the outside world that Sarasota and Siesta Key are open for business again.
That said, if money isn’t an option, I would check out the new St. Regis on nearby Longboat Key if you can afford it. It is a new property that opened a few months ago and is absolutely stunning. The St. Regis on Longboat Key also sits on pretty much the same sand as Siesta Key though it might not blind you from being as purely white sand.
For Trip Advisor’s full rankings, head on over here!