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- Harbour Island is where you will find the Bahamas' most famous pink beach which stretches three miles along the eastern coast. Pinks Sands Beach is protected by a coral reef and its sand is a composition of tiny microscopic animals known as Foraminifera, which grow bright red shells that wash ashore and mix with the white sand to create a pink hue.
- The Caribbean island of Barbuda is also home to pink sand beaches, with its most famous Pink Sand Beach, often deserted. The beach boasts silky sand over eight miles, from Spanish Point to Palmetto Point. Its champagne colour glows rose thanks to the crushed coral in the sand. The water is clear and fantastic for snorkelling.
- There are many interesting beaches in Hawaii but Big Island's Papakolea Beach is arguably the most unusual of them all. The green sand stretch, located near the southern tip of the island, owes its olive hue to a semi-precious gem called olivine. The ocean erodes the stones, crushing them into the fine sand.
- Red Beach in Santorini is one of the most famous spots on the Greek island and is the definition of a volcanic beach. It is named after its rich red hue and backed by cliffs of the same colour. The beach is located just steps away from the ancient site of Akrotiri and can get quite crowded in the summer due to its small size.
- Another red sand beach is Kaihalulu, a pocket beach on the island of Maui. Its sand is deep red-black, contrasting with the blue water, black sea wall and green ironwood trees. The colour comes from the cinder cone hill on the northern end of the cove and makes for a very unique sight on the Hawaiian island.
- The black sand at Maori Bay in New Zealand's North Island is caused by the iron content derived from the ancient volcanoes of the area, including the large Kaipara Volcano, which erupted millions of years ago. The 37-mile stretch is popular among surfers but even greater an attraction than its dark sand is the Gannet Colony, and the birds' busy goings on between August and March every year.
- More dramatic in colour than Muriwai is the black sand Punaluʻu Beach on Hawaii's Big Island, which is made of basalt and created by lava flowing into the ocean which explodes as it reaches the ocean and cools. The beach can be dangerous for swimming but it’s frequented by endangered Hawksbill and Green turtles, which are often seen basking on the black sand.
- The multi-coloured Glass Beach in Fort Bragg is covered in sea glass created from years of residents dumping rubbish into the area of coastline. Every year, a Glass Festival is held but the glass is slowly diminishing due to tourists collecting it on their visits. There are currently plans to replenish the beach with discarded glass.
- Australia's Hyams Beach holds the Guinness World Record for having the whitest sand. Many pictures of the beach show it looking so powder white that it is almost blinding. The beach is located on the southern shores of Jervis Bay and is surrounded by Jervis Bay Marine Park and Booderee National Park.
- The brilliant white sand at Siesta Beach in Florida earned it the number one spot in America's best beaches list. At the Great International White Sand Beach Challenge in 1987, Siesta Beach was recognised as having the 'whitest and finest sand in the world.' While many other beaches are made mostly of pulverised coral, Siesta's sand is 99 per cent quartz and is so reflective that it feels cool, even on its hottest days.
- Famed for its occasional purple sand, Pfeiffer State Beach's unusual hue comes from manganese garnet deposits found in the surrounding hills which erode and wash down to the beach. Not all the sand on the beach is purple and can be found in patches along the northern part, most often after a storm.
- Ramla l-Hamra means 'Red Beach' in Maltese but the sand here resembles more of an orange hue and is surrounded by rocks with golden limestone and volcanic ash, which when combined give this interesting shade. The sandy strip in Gozo is popular with snorkelers, families and locals.
- Chocolate-coloured Rockaway Beach, in Pacifica, owes its unusual colour to blue-grey limestone mixing with volcanic greenstone. Erosion has decreased the size of the beach but it remains popular with visitors to its restaurant and shopping venues. The beach is known as one of the cleanest in the San Francisco Bay Area.
- Some say Sardinia's Porto Ferro is an orange beach but we think its mile-long sands are a gorgeous gold, made up of native orange limestone, crushed shells and other volcanic deposits. Backed by large ochre-coloured sand dunes, the beach is located near the Baratz Lake, the only natural lake in Sardinia.
- Made up of around 74 different hues, Rainbow Beach is possibly the most colourful beach in the world. It is just over half a mile long and much of the sand colours stem from a rich content of minerals, including rutile, ilmenite, zircon and monazite. According to an ancient Aboriginal legend, the sands became colourful when rainbow spirit Yiningie lost a battle over a beautiful woman and fell onto the cliffs.
- Grey sand beach Shelter Cove is a remote stretch that was created by years of erosion of the nearby cliffs. The large beach with offshore reefs, just north of the town of Shelter Cove, is popular with hikers and visitors who come to explore the rugged terrain.
- Most visitors to the Maldives don't expect the sandy beaches to be anything but white, but Vaadhoo Island on the Raa Atoll is home to a natural phenomenon which turns the beaches electric blue. The bio-luminescence happens when microscopic organisms react with oxygen in the water to produce light.