Apr 13, 2025, 05:36 PM IST
Here are eight beaches around the world with bioluminescence that you can surely explore on your next vacation trip.
Hidden on the southern coast of Vieques, off the east coast of mainland Puerto Rico, this narrow inlet widens into a dolphin-shaped bay of mangroves that protects the brightest occurrence of bioluminescence in the world according to Guinness World Records.
Nicknamed the “Sea of Stars” island, Mudhdhoo - also known as Vaadhoo - sits in Raa Atoll in the Maldives. Home to fewer than 500 people, this teardrop of forest ringed by soft-sand beaches is best visited during the warmer months, between April and November, to improve your chances of a sighting.
Each year the months of March to June mark hotaru-ika (firefly squid) season in Toyama Bay. Situated on the west coast of Japan, a couple of hundred miles northwest of Tokyo, this deep v-shaped canyon fills with mass gatherings of the three-inch-longsquid.
Matakatia is a quiet suburb punctuated with pockets of nature reserve and home to just over 2,000 people - and when the tides are right, “blue gold” can be seen. Locals report algae blooms are strongest when heavy rain is followed by a hot evening, with peaks occurring two hours either side of high tide.
Warming seas brought bioluminescence to Tasmania in the early 1990s. For the best sea sparkle make a beeline for Coles Bay - incidentally, the first town in the world to ban plastic shopping bags - which sits inside Freycinet National Park, a three-hour drive from Hobart.
This tropical island is a 40-minute ferry ride from Sihanoukville on the Cambodian mainland has developed only 15 per cent of its land, so there’s very little light pollution if you avoid the main tourist area of Koh Touch. On moonless evenings head around the corner to the sugar-sand Long Set Beach for a sparkly swim.
Unbelievably just an hour south of New York City, this strip of sand, which is one of the most popular Jersey Shore beaches, experiences algal blooms between July and September.
Padangbai on the east coast of Bali, an hour from the capital of Denpasar,is the main departure point for ferries to the neighbouring island of Lombokand one of the island’s busiest ports. It’s the last place you’d expect to see bioluminescence.