America’s Best Beaches 2007: Dr. Beach vs. T&L
Have you heard of the best beach in America? A gentleman who calls himself Dr. Beach, has named Ocracoke, N. Carolina our nation’s best. Maybe that’s because he’s used up all the beaches in Hawaii and Florida over the past 15 years. Coronado was the only California beach to make Dr. Beach’s 2007 list of best beaches.
Travel & Leisure, arguably a more trusted source, has also announced their 20 Great American Beaches, organized by type—secret sands, people watching, natural escapes and more. La Jolla’s Horseshoe Beach topped their “Secret Sands” category.
VIDEO: Beaches benefit the mind and body
Q: What’s your favorite beach? I lean towards Kapalua in Maui.
Let’s find out more about Ocracoke.
So, where is it? Ocracoke is on the Outer Banks of Hyde County in North Carolina and famous for having the 2nd oldest lighthouse in the U.S. and was once visited by the infamous pirate, Blackbeard.
How to get there: Fly into Raleigh Durham and rent a car. Budget conscious travelers can take the free ferry from Hatteras, or others can shave about 30 minutes off and take the Cedar Island and Swan Quarter ferries that require reservations. North Carolina Dept. of Transportation, (800) 293-3779. I found flights from LAX to RDU for $350 round trip on Kayak.
How to get a deal at a hotel: Welcome to Ocracoke offers information on seven different hotels. I called the Blackbeard Lodge and found that you can get the best rate if you stay more than one night. Single night prices can be $20-$30 higher.
The smallest rooms are $85/night ($105 for one night) with master suites for $295/night. Apartments with kitchens start at $175. They are sold out July 4th weekend and the rest of July is filling up quickly.
6 Comments on “America’s Best Beaches 2007: Dr. Beach vs. T&L”
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June 13th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Has anyone here even been to California? I grew up in Florida-How about Sanibel Island? Really though there is about 10 beaches alone in California that are prettier than anything on the east coast. The West is the Best.
June 15th, 2007 at 5:06 am
HI. I work with North Carolina Tourism and collaborated with Dr. Beach to break our news last week. I love that someone is looking at the merits of both the T&L and Dr. Beach report. However, I take exception that T&L’s report is more trusted.
Dr. Leatherman brings more science and fewer subjective criteria to his report. He uses 50 different measures–they’re listed on his web site…drbeach.org….and he visits the beaches each year to monitor change.
Stephen P. Leatherman is recognized as the nation’s foremost authority on beach quality and ratings. He’s released the list since 1991. He’s a Ph.D. coastal scientist with 30 years of scientific experience studying storm impacts, erosion and ways to improve beach health and safety; he’s a professor of environmental studies at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami and serves as the director of FIU’s Laboratory for Coastal Research. He has authored more than 200 journal articles and scholarly reports and testified before Congress on beach health.
That said, you should come to Ocracoke this fall! I stayed at Blackbeard’s Lodge last week. It’s quite charming. The art galleriy and shop across the street are target-rich for shoppers. I love the “Books To Red ” bookstore around the corner. There’s not a chain hotel on the island….not even a McDonald’s. No wonder Blackbeard the Pirate hung out there! Just so ya know, there’s 300 miles of beach in North Carolina, so if the ferry thing intimidates you, there are other great beaches to explore, too!–susan dosier
June 25th, 2007 at 1:55 am
Aloha Susan,
Thanks very much for your comment. By all accounts, Ocracoke sounds like a wonderful destination.
Since you mention that you work for North Carolina Tourism, can you shed any light on what type of collaboration that organization and your agency Loeffler Ketchum Mountjoy provided Dr. Beach during the course of his research.
We place a premium on transparency and unbiased reporting here at the Times. Travel + Leisure is highly respected for their Truth in Travel policy, which states that they are “committed to reporting on travel fairly and impartially. We travel anonymously and pay our own way.”
Can you shed any light on how Dr. Beach’s research standards and methodologies compare?
Yours in sustainable travel,
- Andrew
Sr. Editor/Producer, travel.latimes.com
June 28th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
As a working journalist for 20 years prior to this job, I’m especially appreciative of your inquiry. Sorry not to respond sooner. I’ve been away from the office.
The North Carolina Division of Tourism had no contact with Dr. Leatherman prior to his research for the 2007 assessments. He contacted us about 3 weeks before making the announcement to let us know we would be number one. We did foot the bill for broadcasting the announcement, writing up press releases and backgrounders on the islands which are still available on http://www.VisitNC.com in our press room. (Dr. Leatherman writes his own separate press release with the list of the beaches. We didn’t have the list of the top ten until the day before the news break.) Since the beginning of the listings, he has received no payment of any kind for his work on the top beaches.
Absolutely no money changed hands between Dr. Leatherman and North Carolina Tourism or Ocracoke Island. There was no spokesperson contract or agreement. Believe it or not, we didn’t even go over message points with him prior to the satellite media tour. We did make sure that he had information from reputable sources in case he was asked about the lore and history of the island.
Dr. Leatherman uses 50 scientific criteria each year to determine the best beach. He does change the criteria occasionally. For instance, the beach now must be lifeguarded to make it to the top. You can see the criteria on his web site:
http://www.drbeach.org/drbeach/
If this link doesn’t work, from the home page (www.drbeach.org), click on “diagnosing the beach” and then “patient history” to find the link to the 50 criteria.
Thank you for your questions and for your desire to have all the facts. And come see our North Carolina beaches! We’ll even offer you a shag lesson or two. (That’s a DANCE, here, by the way!)
June 28th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Dear Susan,
Thank you for your comments and clarifications. We encourage telling all sides of the story here, so your time and words are much appreciated.
As we all know, there are tons of magical beaches out there. We enjoying hearing about them all, and inspecting as many as possible ourselves!
Ultimately, our readers will decide which beaches are “the best,” if such a determination can be made, via either art, intuition or scientific study.
So, dear readers, we encourage you to nominate your favorite stretch of sand, anywhere in the world.
My new favorite? Kauai’s Polihale State Park, on the far western shore of the Garden Isle’s remote West End.
Let the great debate, and beachcombing, begin….
- Andrew
Sr. Editor/Producer, travel.latimes.com
July 2nd, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Editor’s note: Dr. Stephen Leatherman (a.k.a. Dr. Beach) emailed the following note:
“Andrew,
The State of North Carolina (and none of its communication/PR consultants) provided any information to me at all nor was it requested. My surveys are strickly objective–I am not paid nor do I take gratituities for my beach ratings. In fact, I travel incognito when I do the ratings.
You may not be aware that I have been doing this Top 10 Beaches List for a long time–the first year was 1991. See my web site http://www.DrBeach.org, which also includes my 50 criteria.
I am also asking my assistant, Natalie, to email you my 50+page resume along with my 1-page LCR cv so that you can see that I am one of the top coastal experts in the world.
Everyone has an opinion of what makes for the best beach, and I respect that because people want different things from beaches. My evaluation is scientific and is based on set criteria that take into account water and sand quality, safety, good management, and many other factors. Also, my survey is for swimming beaches, which means warm water, relatively small waves and no dangerous currents for top ratings. While I love Southern California beaches and come there often, many of the beaches are dangerous for swimmers and bathers (particularly for visitors and tourists), but are great for surfers. In fact, surfers use the rip currents to get a free ride offshore and then ride the waves to the beach. My cousin lives in Huntington Beach.
Please have some fun with all of this, but I hope that you recognize the professionalism that goes into my ratings. After all, many beach communities take them seriously, and they reward and hence foster good management of America’s #1 recreational areas–sandy beaches.
Stephen”