Florida Panhandle, a website connecting travelers with luxury beach rentals, decided to find the clearest waters in the world as part of its latest research effort. To determine which waters were truly the best, editors analyzed 2.4 million travel reviews of beaches in 75 countries and counted which contained the term “clear water” most frequently.
The overall winner? Prassa Beach in Kimolos, Greece, had the clearest water on Earth. More than 40% of Tripadvisor reviews mentioned the phrase.
America’s #1 pick? Wisconsin’s very own Schoolhouse Beach on Washington Island.
“You might be surprised to learn that the beach with the clearest water in the United States is not lapped by either the Pacific or Atlantic Oceans but Lake Michigan — the third-largest of the country’s Great Lakes,” the editors revealed. “With a third (33.41%) of publicly available traveler reviews mentioning its clear waters, Schoolhouse Beach on Washington Island (off the coast of Wisconsin) takes the top spot.”
While its waters are certainly clear, the website also notes that Schoolhouse isn’t exactly a soft-sand beach. Instead, its shores are made up of flat, smooth rocks that make it a bit more comfortable to walk on—but don’t even think about taking one of the rocks home. If you’re caught, you could be fined up to $250.
Here’s the full report of America (& the world’s) clearest waters.
