I liked trieste. It could have been the food though.

The Algarve!!!

Greece!

Sardinia has the most amazing beaches I have ever seen.

Thank you! I plan to have a European beach summer next year. I am more of a lounger/beach club type. I want a dedicated chair and warm pleasant water. Also want to people watch and try my hand at topless like I notice many Europeans do. Thank you all for the suggestions.

Do you want to lie on the beach, do activities (hiking, biking, sailing, land yachting) or just look out to the horizon?

Do you mind lots of people/deck chairs or want solitude?

The beaches in Sardinia are golden sand, many with beautiful, clear, calm water. Can snorkel right off shore.

cannes/ St tropez and milos greece

La Concha in Spain. In a smaller but still well known enough city, was warm when I visited during the shoulder season (more than comfortable for swimming), not terribly crowded, beautiful water.

I like the Landes beaches on the SW coast of France -- you can go for dozens of miles with barely a break. My preference is for non-sceney beaches with good surf breaks, so I'd skip Biarritz but it's a very nice town that's still lively in the off season. Start just north of Anglet and you can go for ~12 straight miles of sand up to Capbreton. Once in Capbreton, cross on the quai into Hossegor and again, you have dozens of miles of beach until you get to Arcachon (very cool town) and Cap Ferret (oyster bars!). Then the beaches start again in Cap Ferret, cross from the Landes into the Gironde.

Capbreton, Hossegor, Seignosse have kind of a young, international surfy crowd, more so when the surf gets big starting in about October. Crowds thin out after August, though the beaches in this are area are so wide and basically endless, that crowds aren't really that bad even in high season.

Also, north of Royan you have some great little French islands with what I would characterize as Nantucket or maybe Maine vibes -- Oleron, Noirmoutier, Belle-Ile.

I’ve only have mild familiarity with Ibiza and Nice- mainly through photos and hearsay. What European beach do you like and why?