World's sexiest beaches 2008

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11. Site: St. Philip, Barbados

Bring the heat: It's only 21 miles long, yet Barbados has a bit of everything: Fine dining and bawdy beach shacks, cricket matches and Mount Gay Rum tours, the posh Caribbean Platinum Coast and the rough-and-tumble (and Highland-like) Scotland District up north. Gauge your partner's whims and go.

Select sands: Been fantasizing about pink-sand beaches while sitting in your beige work cubicle? Imagine waking up, running out of the hotel with your lover, and straight onto Crane Beach, backed by tall cliffs and baby powder–fine sands that glow pink. It's a primal place that might encourage a detour back to the hotel.

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Hookup potential: Minimal. There are other tourists to check out, but Barbados is really about spiriting out of town for a week with somebody you'd like to know better.

Privacy rating: 8.3. The western coast packs 'em in, leaving your side of the island just as it should be: empty.

Pillow talk: Unless you're desperate to hang around the crowds, the Crane's remote location—on an east-coast cliff overlooking Crane Beach—is ideal for intimacy. You have a choice between the rooms in the original section (built in 1887) or the new private residences, which come with private plunge pools.

Crane Resort
Tel: 800 223 9815 (toll-free)
Tel: 246 423 6220
Doubles from $150

12. Site: Gotland, Sweden

Bring the heat: The funny thing about Stockholm is that when it finally gets warm, all the Swedes leave. They make for their summer homes on the thousands of islands that dot the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland. There they roast in saunas, sit by the shores of lakes and the Baltic, and drink bottomless bottles of aquavit. If you think the Swedes are good-looking people, and you would like to get to know them and their mating rituals better, get thee to the thousands of islands in the Åland Archipelago.

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Slide show: World's sexiest beaches 2008

Select Sand: Gotland is the biggest island in the north Baltic Sea, drawing ruddy-cheeked visitors from around Sweden. The countryside is a riot of greenery, and as the sun never sets in the summer, you can spend as much time as you like on the miles of empty beaches.

Hookup potential: What's the Swedish phrase for "sure thing"? The society is quite permissive, and Midsummer's Eve is the biggest (and longest) party day of the year.

Privacy rating: 10. The Åland Archipelago is packed with 6,500-plus islands.

Pillow talk: While the medieval town of Visby is the place to go out at night, better to base yourself in Gotland's countryside. Hotel Toftagården is close to the water, has its own sauna (an important thing to the Swedes), and has both cute little private cabins and traditional hotel rooms to choose from.

Hotel Toftagården
Tel: 46 498 29 7000
Doubles from $215, cabins from $316

13. Site: Natal, Brazil

Bring the heat: So your globe-trotting friends have Brazil-beach-hopped from Salvador, Bahía, all the way south to Florianópolis, but we bet none have been to the northerly city of Natal. Imagine a sea of sculptured sand dunes that push up against the perfect blue waters of the Atlantic—the juxtaposition is fantastic. Take a thrill ride on the dunes with one of the region's lunatic buggy drivers before diving in the warm sea among the black dolphins. And expect an all-nighter in the town's ready-for-anything Alto de Ponta Negra neighborhood.

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Select sand: The sexy crowd hangs out at Morro do Careca, where you'll find fine bodies working up a thirst playing beach soccer and volleyball, and then quenching it with ice-cold Brahma beers while chilling under yellow umbrellas.

Hookup potential: Through the roof. When you're wondering if you should invite along a romantic interest on your trip to Brazil, first consider the local saying, "Why bring sand to the beach?" Natal, with a population of around a million people, doesn't see a lot of tourists, so chances are the trim, black-haired surfer dudes and dark-skinned, white-teethed garotas in tiny bikinis will be very pleased to show you around.

Privacy rating: 1. This scene is all about showing off.

Pillow talk: Natal can be a bit rough around the edges, so go for the service and comfort of the Pestana Natal, which has three pools just off the beach and a staff that mostly speaks English. It's also where you can hire a dune-buggy driver who's less maluco ("insane") than most.

Pestana Natal
Tel: 55 84 3220 8900
Doubles from $110

14. Site: Lake Nyasa, Mozambique

Bring the heat: This is the interior of Africa, but looking over a sealike expanse of clear liquid blue, you wouldn't believe it. The ninth-largest freshwater lake in the world touches Mozambique, Tanzania, and Malawi (where it's called Lake Malawi). Gaudy beach tourism? Not a whisper of it—remote, pristine, sublime.

Select sand: A clean white beach that squeaks as you walk along it, this is unlike any lakefront you'd recognize. And with waters so clear they cry out for snorkeling expeditions to see bright fish, it's unlike any lake you'll find in North America, either.

Hookup rating: Unless you count the leopards and elephants in the neighboring Manda Wilderness Preserve (your lodge will set up a safari), the only game you'll be stalking is the lovely creature sharing your chalet.