The 16 Best Beaches In America

The U.S. has 95,471 miles of shoreline, some parts more pristine than others.

Because nothing quite says "summer" like sand between your toes, salty air, and the lullaby of waves crashing on shore, we set out to find the best beaches in the U.S.

For this list, we looked at six notable beach rankings compiled by travel experts, vacationers, and water quality researchers and combined these rankings to come up with the ultimate list of the Best Beaches in the U.S.

The rankings we used were Dr. Beach's Top 10 Beaches for 2014, Trip Advisor's 2014 Travelers' Choice Awards Top 25 Beaches in the United States, Travel + Leisure's Best Beaches on Earth, Natural Resources Defense Council's Superstar Beaches, CNN's World's 100 Best Beaches, and Condé Nast Traveler's Best U.S. Islands for Beaches.