Basking on a Pink Sand Beach in the Tuamotu Islands

Published on 29 August 2023

Reading time: 4 min.

Imagine basking in the sun on a beach where the sand is bright pink. Instagram photos don’t get much better than that! Tikehau in the Tuamotu Islands is known as the island of pink sand.

There are treasures galore for you to discover during your vacation in the Tuamotu Islands in French Polynesia. Among them is the island of Tikehau, which has pink sand beaches that are so beautiful they almost look unreal. Coconut trees, a stunning, turquoise lagoon and pink sand under your feet. If there is such a thing as paradise on earth, there’s a fair chance that you’ll find it in Tikehau!

Shades of pink

La vie en rose, or perhaps, life in the pink. However you say it, the good life is waiting for you in the Tuamotu Islands, where many of the atolls have motu with bright pink sand on the beach. The island of Tikehau is particularly blessed with several such motu, which is why it’s often referred to as ‘the island of pink sand’.

The atolls of Fakarava and Rangiroa also have vast pink sandy beaches. The beach at the southern pass in Fakarava is so stunningly pink that you’ll find it hard to believe that this is a completely natural phenomenon. There’s also a beach in Rangiroa with beautiful pink sand, that almost rivals the intensity of color that you find beneath the waves in the magnificent lagoon. After a long session exploring the seabed, you might have to rub your eyes for a while before they get used to the brightness of the beach!

The pink sand and turquoise sea of the Tuamotu Islands

The origin of the pink sand is a single-cell organism called a foraminifera. Over hundreds of thousands of years, these miniscule creatures have been leaving their shells on the beaches of the Tuamotu Islands and slowly coloring them pink, much to the open-mouthed delight of visiting tourists. The beaches will look stunning in your holiday snaps, but please don’t take any of the sand away with you. Even a small tube of sand will make a difference if every visitor takes one, and it took so long for it all to get here!

Sable Rose et eau turquoise Tikehau © Lei Tao — Pink sand and turquoise sea Tikehau © Lei Tao

The best places to see the pink sandy beaches of the Tuamotu Islands are on the motu in Tikehau, Rangiroa, Apataki and Toroto. Lie on these beautiful beaches, take as many photos as you like, but please leave the sand where it is, so that future generations can enjoy it too. A tip; make sure there is something white lying on the beach in your photos, otherwise your friends back home will be convinced that you ‘photoshopped’ them.