Why is Flamenco Beach so famous?
The 2013 placing, with its year attached
Flamenco was voted third best beach in the world in the 2013 TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice awards. That is the sourced fact, and the year is part of it. You will read “the best beach in the world” in the present tense on a lot of pages about this place; nobody who writes that can point at the award that says so, because it does not exist. A dated ranking is still worth something. It is just worth exactly what it says it is.
The Blue Flag, regained in 2016, is the other dated recognition. Two awards, two years, both a while ago, and the beach is still the beach.
The tanks
Two of them, left on the sand by the US Navy and never taken away. One stands nearer the west end and the other sits closer to the waterline. They are repainted constantly — graffiti over graffiti, so no photograph of them is current for long.
The date attached to them elsewhere is usually wrong. The Navy used the Culebra archipelago as a gunnery and bombing range from 1939. Residents protested from 1970 to 1974, and in 1975 the Navy stopped using Culebra and moved those operations to Vieques, where they continued until 2003. At least one well-read Culebra guide prints 2003 for Culebra. That is the Vieques date, twenty-eight years late. The tanks page handles the history properly, and the Culebra-or-Vieques page keeps the two dates apart.
The water, and what I can honestly say about it
The bay is a horseshoe about a mile long on the island’s northwest coast, open to the North Atlantic. Swimming areas are marked with buoys and there are lifeguards. What I am not going to give you is a measurement of how clear the water is, because there isn’t one I can point at, and every superlative you have read about it was somebody’s adjective rather than somebody’s reading. Go and look at recent photographs. What swimming there is actually like is the more useful page.
What famous does not mean here
It does not mean undiscovered, and I would rather not see this island described that way. Roughly 1,792 people live on Culebra and a great many visitors arrive; the beach has kiosks, chair hire and a gate that charges a couple of dollars a head. On a busy morning you will not be alone on the sand. The place earns its reputation. The question worth asking is whether the day of travel it costs you is a trade you want. That question has its own page.
The most common disappointment I hear is not about the beach. It is that somebody built a whole day around a beach they had ninety minutes on, because the crossing and the road ate the rest. The reputation is deserved. The scheduling is what goes wrong.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Flamenco Beach famous?
For a 2013 TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice placing as third best beach in the world, for Blue Flag status regained in 2016, and for the two abandoned military tanks left on the sand by the US Navy. The bay itself is a horseshoe about a mile long on Culebra’s northwest coast.
Is Flamenco Beach the best beach in the world?
It was voted third in the world in 2013, by TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice. That is a dated award and this site writes it with its year rather than in the present tense. Whether it is worth your travel day is a different question — this page takes it seriously.
Why are there tanks on Flamenco Beach?
The US Navy used the Culebra archipelago as a gunnery and bombing range from 1939. After protests running from 1970 to 1974, the Navy stopped using Culebra in 1975 and moved those operations to Vieques. Two tanks were left on the sand and never removed. The full history is here.
Did the Navy leave Culebra in 2003?
No, and this is the single most repeated error about the island. The Navy left Culebra in 1975. The 2003 date belongs to Vieques, where the operations moved. If a guide prints 2003 for Culebra, it has the wrong island.