which sand is whitest?
 

I always bring home a bottle of sand from my vacations and have finally gotten pretty jars to display them all in.

Between Aruba, Anguilla and Grand Cayman, which do you think has the lighest colored sand and which has the darkest?

Kristen, what a great idea! That's one of those things, you want to say why haven't I thought of that.

Haven't been to Aruba yet, but I will pick that as #1 for the lightest, and Grand Cayman for the darkest of the three.

Can't wait to see what your findings are!

Donna

Empty gatorade bottles work great to transport the sand :-) The results kind of surprised me. I'll post my findings soon....

My wife and I have been doing the same thing for the past 5 years. Haven't been to Anguilla but have some sand from Aruba and just got back from Grand Cayman last week. The color is pretty close to Aruba (maybe just a little lighter) but the sand is much finer in texture in Grand Cayman. Bora Bora is still the lightest colored sand we have though.

Fun topic, Kristen. I meant to tell you before how much I enjoyed your trip report and photos from your last trip to Anguilla. Would you mind posting an email address so that I could directly ask you some very specific questions about Frangipani that wouldn't necessarily benefit other readers?

The strange thing is that our little bottle of sand from Grace Bay in Provo looks whiter than our bottle from Eagle Beach in Aruba, but in person, and in photos, the sand looked whiter in Aruba.

May be something about reflectivity.

We thought the beach in front of our hotel in Aruba (Manchebo) was blindingly white, with St. John next best in our travels, Provo and St. Thomas not far behind, then St. Croix, Tortola, Jamaica rounding out the list.

Great idea, Kristen. If you like secluded getaways plan on adding sand from Cape Santa Maria on Long Island (Bahamas). It is white as snow and soft as talcum powder.

That said, don't forget there are many special and beautiful golden and darker sand beaches hidden away throughtout the islands. It's so much fun finding them.

My scientific findings :-)

The whitest sand was....Grand Cayman (also the finest)

2nd whitest was Aruba (not much difference between GC and Aruba but GC was definitely lighter).

And the darkest obviously was Anguilla (significantly darker that the first 2 but still light..Abguilla's sand was the softest)

I would have guessed Aruba to be the whitest, strictly based on the looking at the beach.

My samples came from Palm Beach in Aruba, 7 Mile Beach in GC and Meads Bay Beach in Anguilla.

Oh, and just for fun, I got some sand from Ocean City, MD..no comparison!!! :-)

ejcrowe...

Thanks! Please feel free to email me. My address is [email protected]

mrm050~

Seems our findings were the same! Aruba and GC were so very close in color though GC did have have Aruba beat by a slight margin.

I would love to get to Bora Bora one day...that is my dream vacation! :-)

Interesting, Kristen!

Although I haven't been to Aruba or Cayman, I would have thought Anguilla would be the lightest since Shaol Bay beach is like talcum powder to me.

Incidentally, St. Eustatius has black sand on the Caribbean side, beige on the Atlantic.

I agree about Shoal Bay in Anguilla - I can't imagine softer and whiter sand - very different from the sand on Rendezvous Bay - also in Anguilla.

White Bay Beach (home of the Soggy Dollar Bar) on Jost Van Dyke (BVI) is the whitest sand I have ever seen. I have yet to see Aruba or Anguilla, however. Grand Cayman soon come in May 2005.

Shoal Bay East (Anguilla) has far whiter, softer, more amazing sand than Meads Bay -- it is, like another poster noted, like talcum powder.

I thought Meads sand was just as soft as Shoal Bay.

Kristen, what fun, wish I had done it years ago. I would love to see Bermuda sand (love the small specks of pink coral) in comparison. I did notice on Anguilla Mead's is darker than Maunday's
Bay!

We currently have 14 bottles of sand in our collection. From the lightest colored sand of Bora Bora to the darkest from the shores of Lake Tahoe where we got married. A few more bottles and we might be able to build a beach in our backyard.

very cool mrm! How do you have them labeled?

Just have to add my personal favorite...BORA BORA has white sand that feels like stepping in baby powder...to die for!!!!

I just write the location on the front them with a fine point "permanent" marker. Then I put the date on the back. Seems to work ok but it can still be rubbed off. The bottles we use are only about 4 or 5 inches tall about so not a whole lot of room to write on them.

Hello,
I'm Philippe from france. I'm a sand collector and my collection is axed to Caribbean. I've a lot of sands to trade and they come from all over the world. If you have some caribbean sands to trade, just tell me.
Thanks a lot.
Philippe

Wow Philippe..you found an old, old post of mine! :) I do still have samples of all of these sands plus St. Martin, St. John and Turks & Caicos. I haven't done a comparison lately but I think T & C wins for softest sand (very comparable to Anguilla). St. Martin probably ranks the darkest (from Pinel and Happy Bay) and St. John is probably somewhere in the middle. We are headed back to St. John in May with a day trip to the BVIs so I will get a new sample! Would love to see sand from the Maldives, Cook Islands and Tahiti/Fiji/Bora Bora.

Oh and my St. Lucia prize trip coming up next winter so I can get some black sand...

Kristen,

I know that you started your collection several years ago, but I was wondering if you (or anybody else) could offer suggestions about where to get nice small bottles to display the sand samples. I'm in the MD/DC area. I have looked at craft type stores (e.g., Michaels) and kitchen stores (considering spice jars without pre-printed lables), but have not found anything I like.

I started bringing back samples (using a small empty water bottle) a couple of years ago, so sadly, I did not get sand from Anguilla. I have some from the Riveria Maya and Turks & Caicos. I only wanted light sand so I didn't bring any back from Hawaii, but hope to add to my collection when I go to the Maldives next month!

MD had a ziploc baggie of sand from Grace Bay, TCI in his carry-on and security wanted to know immediately what was so "dense" in his bag. They opened the bag and saw the sand"for my granddaughter", laughed, and let him through. I guess he should have put it in the check-thru.

I got my bottles years ago and don't recall where I found them. Maybe try Pier 1? Can't wait to hear about your Maldives trip!!

Thanks, Kristen, and belated congratulation on winning the CT&L photo contest!

Thank you!