Thailand’s Maya Bay Named World’s 3rd Best Beach for 2024, No M’sian Beaches Made it to Top 100

Lonely Planet, the globally renowned travel guidebook publisher, has just released its latest guidebook for 2024 which lists down the top 100 beaches in the world, aptly named, “Best Beaches: 100 of the World’s Most Incredible Beaches”.

Inside the guidebook, Lonely Planet elaborated on the 100 extraordinary beaches around the globe, including their locations and how to access them, with stunning photographs throughout that capture the extreme beauty and scenery of each place.

Maya bay, thailand

In a feature article about the guidebook, Lonely Planet also gave a sneak peek of the very best beaches from the top 100 list according to the guidebook, with 3 places from Southeast Asia making it to the top 20. 

Pink beach, padar island, komodo national park, indonesia

These include Thailand’s Maya Bay at 3rd place, Indonesia’s Padar Island at 14th and the Philippines’ Pacifico Beach at 20th spot. 

Pacifico beach, siargao, surigao del norte, philippines

Top 5 beaches in the world

The world’s best beach according to the listing is The Pass at Byron Bay, Australia, followed by Brazil’s Ipanema Beach in 2nd place. Making up the top 5 are Thailand’s Maya Bay, Tanzania’s Mnemba Island and Greece’s Sarakiniko. 

For context, the top 100 beaches feature places from all over the world, with listings from Oceania, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas.

The pass, byron bay, new south wales, australia

No Malaysian beaches made it to the top 100

However, despite the extensive list, no beaches from Malaysia made it to the top 100 rankings by Lonely Planet. In Asia, 14 beaches from around the continent were included, 8 of which were from Southeast Asia.

Here are Asia’s best beaches for 2024 according to the listing:

• Radhanagar, Swaraj Deep, Andaman Islands, India
• Palolem Beach, Goa, India
• Papanasham Beach, Varkala, Kerala, India
• White Sandy Beach, Fulhadoo Island, Northern Atolls, Maldives
• Pink Beach, Padar Island, Komodo National Park, Indonesia
• Diamond Beach, Nusa Penida, Bali, Indonesia
• Titop Beach, Halong Bay, Quang Ninh, Vietnam
• Pacifico Beach, Siargao, Surigao del Norte, Philippines
• Maremegmeg Beach, El Nido, Palawan, Philippines
• Secret Beach, Mirissa, Matara District, Sri Lanka
• Hat Tham Phra Nang, Railay, Krabi, Thailand
• Ao Maya, Ko Phi-Phi Leh, Krabi, Thailand
• Secret Beach, Ko Kradan, Trang Islands, Trang, Thailand
• Sunayama Beach, Miyakojima Island, Okinawa, Japan

You can check out the rest of the top 100 beaches here.

Well, despite missing out on being in Lonely Island’s Top 100 list, Malaysia, particularly Kuala Lumpur has been featured in other “best of” travel destinations lists. These include being ranked TripAdvisor’s world’s 10th trending travel destination and the world’s 18th best holiday destination by a UK-based survey.

So, what do you guys think of the top 100 best beaches list? Do you agree with Lonely Planet’s rankings? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

Also read: “Best of the best” – Kuala Lumpur Named World’s 10th Trending Travel Destination in 2024