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Samcheok, South Korea
Maengbang Beach
The lifeguard stand grins at the East Sea while K-pop fans make their pilgrimage to Butter Beach.
From the CommunityMaritime
Cape Town, South Africa
Muizenberg Beach Huts
Muizenberg's bathing boxes started as Victorian modesty machines on wheels, then lost their wheels when mixed bathing became legal in 1901.
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Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy
The Old Striped Lighthouse of Lignano Sabbiadoro
This retired lighthouse survived demolition on one condition: it had to give up its light and stand next to its replacement.
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Saronikos, Greece
Bus Line 122
Greek bus schedules operate on 'elastic time,' where the sea and a driver's coffee break hold equal weight with timetables.
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Talacre, United Kingdom
Point of Ayr Lighthouse
Built after 200+ deaths in 1775, this Welsh lighthouse served 68 years, then stood obsolete for 180 more, outliving its purpose.
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New York, New York, United States
Wise Clock
After a century-long journey from Boston to Brooklyn, a brief retreat to Pennsylvania, and finally to a beach in Queens, this elegant sentinel still keeps time for the passing tide.
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Mar del Plata, Argentina
Mar del Plata
Mar del Plata's beachgoers rent the same umbrella spot year after year, paying millions of pesos for sand that disappears daily.
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Cesenatico, Italy
Molo di Levante
Leonardo da Vinci came to fix a harbor in 1502. The 200-year-old canal ignored his suggestions entirely.
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La Paloma, Uruguay
Faro de Cabo de Santa María
A storm erased the nearly finished tower overnight in 1872. Two years later, they built it again and lit the coast.
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Souris, Prince Edward Island, Canada
The Naufrage Snack Shack
In a town literally named 'Shipwreck,' where the first settlers arrived via accidental grounding in 1719, you can now grab fries.
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Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Southsea Seafront Shelters
Grade II listed Victorian shelters, dismantled and restored piece-by-piece, now guard against both storms and floods.
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Kythira Municipality, Greece
Kapsali Lighthouse
Built in 1853, this British lighthouse became Greek in 1864: a coronation gift for a king who needed all the help he could get.
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Coronado, California, United States
Coronado Beach
Coronado's striped beach cabanas nod to Tent City, where 1,000 families summered for $4.50 a week from 1900 to 1939.
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Koksijde, Belgium
Koksijde Beach Cabins
Belgium's 250-year beach cabin tradition began with horse-drawn huts on wheels. A coachman's whip-clap signaled privacy.
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Findhorn, United Kingdom
Findhorn Beach Huts
Findhorn's controversial beach huts returned in 2015 after a 60-year absence—and a legal battle that nearly buried them again.
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Binz, Germany
Müther Turm
A GDR rescue tower made of concrete shells now hosts weddings—complete with beach sand on the floor and Baltic views.
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Binz, Germany
Trauort Badekarren am Strand
A Victorian bathing machine that once hid swimmers now hosts weddings in 4.25 square meters on a German beach.
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Binz, Germany
Seebrücke Binz
Binz's pier has been destroyed by the Baltic twice since 1902. The town rebuilt it anyway—three times and counting.
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60 Landskrona, Sweden
Lill-Olas Badstrand
This Swedish beach has an elevator into the sea and a separate shoreline reserved entirely for dogs.
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San Francisco, California, United States
Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary
A visitor center for a place you're forbidden to visit: the Farallon Islands, locked down since 1969 and swarming with great white sharks.
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Santa Cruz, California, United States
Waltons Lighthouse
Most of California's lighthouses are 19th-century relics. This one was built in 2001 to honor a sailor lost in 1945.
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Seoul, South Korea
Banpo Hangang Park
Where instant noodles taste better, according to an entire city.
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Ottenby, Sweden
Långe Jan
Sweden's tallest lighthouse was built from a recycled medieval chapel and spent 60 years with an open fire on top.
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Nexø, Denmark
Duodde Fyr
Denmark's tallest lighthouse was built in 1962 because the sand, so fine it filled hourglasses, kept burying its predecessor.
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Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez, France
Feu de Grosse Terre
Built in 1972 as one of France's last major lighthouses, its real challenge isn't guiding ships: it's outrunning the sea.
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Pilone, Italy
Torre San Leonardo
This 16th-century watchtower once warned of pirate raids with smoke and fire signals. Now it guards a nature reserve full of birds.
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Brisas de Zicatela, Mexico
Playa Zicatela
Lifeguards at Zicatela rescue 800 people annually from waves that can amplify five times their deepwater height.
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Baabe, Germany
Fischerstrand Baabe
When Baabe's fishermen didn't want a bathing facility on their landing spot, they sawed down the construction piles at night.
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Llandudno, United Kingdom
Llandudno Seafront
Llandudno's seafront shelters were rebuilt from 1899 plans found in a desk drawer, erasing 1960s 'concrete monstrosities.'
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Spittal, United Kingdom
RNLI Lifeboat Station
England's most northerly lifeboat station sits in a town that changed flags 13 times in 186 years—crew loyalty tested daily.
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Clinton, Connecticut, United States
Lobster Landing
This century-old shack survived the 1938 hurricane and serves lobster rolls with butter drizzled from a double-boiler, never a hot pan.
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Hjørring, Denmark
Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse
A museum about sand drift, defeated by sand drift.
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Miami Beach, Florida, United States
Miami Beach Lifeguard Towers
Hurricane Andrew flattened the lifeguard towers, so Miami rebuilt them as anthropomorphic Art Deco sentinels.
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Cape Town, South Africa
Muizenberg Beach Huts
Once changing boxes for Southern African family beach days, now survived a 2017 removal threat.
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Whitby, United Kingdom
Whitby Beach Huts
Victorian bathing machines were beach huts on wheels, hauled into the sea by horses to preserve your modesty while you slipped into the water.
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