Where Everyone Will Post From This Summer: Top 10 Beaches
Summer is synonymous with sand, sea and surf, so where are the beaches everyone is heading to this season?
Summer weather often features warm temperatures, clear skies, and strong sunlight, showing off the ocean, and shoreline to its best advantage and making it perfect for sunbathing and swimming—and showing what you’ve got on your favorite beach.
The sound of the waves, the feel of the sand, and the overall ambiance of a beach can be incredibly relaxing, helping people unwind and de-stress in these complicated times.
Not only that, beaches are frequently depicted in movies, TV shows, and literature, as well as widely on social media, reinforcing the idea that they are a quintessential summer destination and backdrop to the sweetest season.
So, naturally, the beach tourism market is expected to grow to over $330 billion by 2029 as more travelers seek coastal vacations and Instagram-worthy destinations.
A recent study by Heepsy analyzed global beach trends by calculating the number of Instagram hashtags per kilometer of shoreline to find the most Instagrammable beaches of 2025. The research looked at beach length, total hashtag count, and annual visitor estimates to see where people are most likely to post. Rankings were based on hashtag density, using Min-Max Scaling to spotlight beaches that generate the most online buzz per meter.
This Year’s Top 10 Global Beaches
Maya Bay ranks first among the world’s most Instagrammable beaches with 2.2M hashtags per kilometer. At just 250 meters long, this tiny beach in Thailand gets more Instagram posts per meter than any other beach worldwide. Though small in size, it attracts 2 million visitors a year.
Mexico’s Hidden Beach ranks second with 2.1 million hashtags per kilometer. It’s just 75 meters long, but almost matches Maya Bay in Instagram activity. It gets 500K visitors a year, about a quarter as many as Maya Bay. Aka Playa del Amor, the “Lover’s Beach” more typically called the Hidden Beach, is a secluded sandy cavern on one of the islands that make up Marietas Islands National Park, located on the north end of Bahía de Banderas, an hour northwest of Puerto Vallarta and only fifteen minutes from Punta Mita, Nayarit.
Bondi comes in third with 1.9 million hashtags per kilometer. At 1 kilometer long, this Australian beach located in the eastern suburb of Sydney is one of the few larger beaches with high Instagram activity. It draws 2.5 million visitors a year, five times more than Hidden Beach, probably because it is a metropolitan beach and great for people watching.
Copacabana, Brazil, ranks fourth with 1.6M hashtags per kilometer. At 3 kilometers, it’s the longest beach in the top five. It beats Bondi and Hidden Beach in total posts with 4.9 million hashtags overall and pulls in 2 million visitors annually.
Surfers Paradise, Australia, follows with 950K hashtags, placing it fifth. It’s twice the length of Bondi and gets 4 million visitors a year, the highest so far. It falls behind in the number of posts in every meter compared to the top four.
Bora Bora, Tahiti, comes in sixth with 846K hashtags per kilometer. It is 2.6 kilometers long and has fewer posts than the top five, but still ranks high for Instagram activity. With only 200K visitors a year, it has strong online attention from a much smaller crowd compared to places like Surfers Paradise.
Waikiki Beach in the U.S. takes the seventh spot with 500K hashtags per kilometer. With 2 km of beach and 1 million total hashtags, it’s significantly less dense than Bora Bora. Yet, it’s one of the most visited beaches on the list, attracting 4 million people each year.
Praia do Sancho in Brazil ranks eighth, with 191.3K hashtags per kilometer across just 300 meters. It’s the least visited so far, with only 123,000 visitors a year, but it still manages to get quite a lot of online attention.
Koh Tao, Thailand, is ninth with 185.7K hashtags per kilometer. It’s by far the longest beach in the group at 7 kilometers and has more total hashtags than Praia do Sancho. Even with 500,000 visitors a year, its Instagram impact per meter is lower than most.
Ipanema, Brazil, rounds out the top ten with 182K hashtags per kilometer. It’s the same length as Bora Bora, at 2.6 kilometers, but gets fewer posts. Even though it has 1 million visitors a year, twice as many as Koh Tao, its Instagram engagement per meter is still lower.
Tabi Vicuña, Founder of Heepsy, commented on the study: “As summer heats up, beaches are becoming more than places to cool off and tan – especially active social media users prefer shorelines that look ‘aesthetic’ enough to post on their pages. This explains why visually stunning locations like Maya Bay dominate social media with both high visitor numbers and extraordinary online engagement.”
