So the best beach awards have been announced by TripAdvisor users and Rhosilli Bay has been voted as the No. 1 beach in the UK, No. 3 beach in Europe and No. 9 in the global world rankings. There is no doubt at all that Swansea has by far the best beaches in the United Kingdom and nowhere even comes close in our country but am I the only one who thinks that Rhosilli is not the best we have to offer? I can't but think that tourists know about Rhosilli because it is the one which appears in the awards and as such they miss out on the hidden gems the Gower has to offer the locals of Swansea. *Cardiff's only beach, a man made thing in the city centre, probably didn't make the list of 25,000 beaches around the world. A beach must be natural and not just some sand plonked on a street and a couple of last century style deck chairs. That is pretty pathetic for a coastal city.
It beggars belief that Rhossilli Bay is rated so highly. No.9 in The World? Hmm,says who exactly? What criteria were used when compiling the list? There are many fine beaches on Gower,and more in West Wales. In fact,Wales is well served with excellent beaches,but the "best in U.K.,Europe,or The World" tag is hard to justify for any of them. Like many coastal cities,Cardiff miss out on a beach,no shame in that. I share Valley's preferences. For me, Caswell was my magical second home when I was a kid,but Three Cliffs assumed the mantle when I discovered girls,sand-dunes,etc.,etc.!!!
Fantastic! Is Bournemouth beach on there by any chance? Also if any of you ever go down under to the east coast of Australia, I highly recommend Bronte beach. Makes Bondi look dull.
It's the TripAdvisor Chioce Awards. There are no judges, the list of beaches eligible is immensely huge because it is created by the users of the site, and the only criteria is essentially how good does the user think the beach is. They use a mixture of a rating out of five stars and how many are voting for that beach. It appears Rhossili Bay is getting a huge amount of attention, not even Florida beaches are getting the same level of 5 star votes. *The list of beaches eligible is decided by the users, if you visit one you go to the website and if it is there you rate it out of 5 and leave a little review of experience you had, if it doesn't exist you add it. TripAdvisor is one of the internets biggest tourist sites.
If anyone thinks it'sin the world's top 10 beaches, then I can only assume that they are people that haven't been to many beaches. Reminds me of some Swansea numpty being interviewed outside some club in Swansea and commenting that the club was the best in the world. The interviewer asked what other countries he's been clubbing in. He said none, that he'd only been to Swansea but that this was still the best club in the world. I suspect the same has happened here. Swansea people that have never left town and knowing nothing of the world outside Swansea. Or someone connected with the beach ran a campaign to get votes.
Thanks for clarification,Project. Trip Advisor get an awful lot of bad press for their star ratings generally,consequently,my incredulity is undiminished. I stayed in a Lodge in Gambia for 6 months,and my opinions were the complete opposite of those who had rated the place highly on Trip Advisor's website.
As an example from 2009 is Swansea Council telling people to vote for Rhossili. So they'll vote for it because it's in Swansea, not because it's any good. It's called cheating. Better beaches don't need to win competitions because everyone knows about them and visit anyway. http://www.swansea.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=29326
So you think several million people hiding out of site in Swansea corrupted the site two years running? Okay, seems a legit conspiracy.
No. I few got in first, which gave the beach more prominence in the voting. Anyway, several million did not vote for Rhossili. I have already given an example above of cheating.
But several million ratings have been submitted the last two years for beaches. So you are saying that several million people have done this just to get the beach recognised?
From my experience (Only Europe and a brief dalliance with Asia admittedly) you can't beat Gower. Rhosilli is a fantastic beach - why be so down on it? ...and it's not like Gower is really Swansea anyway. The Gower denizens I work with call Swansea people Jacks but not themselves Jacks (unless they are talking football of course!) We have a really extraordinarily beautiful peninsula here with some of the nicest beaches I've ever seen, and it's all the better for it.
I'm not "down" on Rhossilli,and it is a fantastic beach. But 9th best in The World? Not on your nelly. Interesting comment about "The Gower denizens",who probably look "down" on City folk. The Gower Peninsular is a wondrous place,and we are lucky to have it on our doorsteps.
Three Cliffs is my favourite here, however I have been on at least 9 beaches in the Philippines that are better in my eyes. In fact I've been on beaches all around the planet and one of the most beautiful I visited was in a place called Laiya Coco Grove - we stayed in a treehouse on the beach and I felt like I was in a film set it was so perfect. Been on some beautiful beaches in the Caribbean as well (Hawksbill Bay in Antigua springs to mind). The biggest problem with enjoying beaches in Wales/UK is our crappy weather ! It also depends on personal taste doesn't it ? For me - I like the small cove type beaches as opposed to vast expanses of sand. I've been on Copacabana in Brazil and Bondai in Australia - both very famous, but neither did anything for me really.
With all due respect guys, it may be number 1 in the UK but i find it ridiculously impossible to name it No9 in the world. I could name a dozen off the top of my head just in the southern hemisphere. Bronte is nice for a NSW Sydney beach. Nice for a family day but if you come up to Queenlnd or hit the west coast, youll appreciate what decent beaches are. then theres the carribean, Mexico, Florida......No 9 ? really? Do you have a link to those ratings please so I can have a look through EDIT..Sorry Project, Ive just read through again and seen where the rating come from and how they are decided. Thanks anyway
I've no doubt that there are superb beaches down under, the trouble is I wouldn't want to visit any of them. Well, I'd visit to take a look but I wouldn't actually use them. Reason? Sharks, salt water crocodiles, sea wasps, the blue ringed octopus, sea snakes etc etc ad nauseum. It was Bill Bryson in his hilarious book "Down Under" who maintained that Oz has more things that can prong you to death than almost anywhere else on earth. I also read that on a typical Australian beach there are over 200 types of creature that can kill you!! Yeah, I know I'm a wimp but I prefer peace of mind when I'm doing my paddling and absorbing the rays; and I'll never forget the letters we received when close relatives emigrated there years ago. Hair raising!
Lol. No probs mate. I noticed a journalist from your parts questioned Rhosilli being the Top 10 and he was saying it was a travesty that Bondbi (spelling?) wasn't there, but a commenter from Sydney asked him why that beach should make it considering it was on a city coast which would mean pollution being dumped directly into the water. We had that same problem here with Swansea Beach. I think Florida beaches are still suffering from the oil spill, I remember it was an issue here for a decade afterwards and Canada still has problems today even though their disaster happened decades ago. The oil will react to the salt water and solidify into black rocks which float their way into the coast slowly over time, but due to the immense number of them they are prominent. Wildlife in Florida are still dying because they see the smaller pieces as food, hopefully they will sort it quickly with their vast financial resources.
