Regularly crowned the best beach on the planet, Sancho is a wall of emerald water and golden sand beneath cliffs on Fernando de Noronha, a volcanic archipelago 350 kilometres off Brazil's north-east coast. Access is by ladders bolted into a cleft in the rock, which keeps things unhurried, and spinner dolphins commute past most mornings. Visitor numbers are capped, so book flights and the island's environmental permit well ahead. August to December brings the clearest water.
Featured in Ten far-flung beaches worth the long-haul flight · Beach