Siesta Beach, Florida

Photograph by Richard Peters, Alamy

A great blue heron searches for fish on the incoming tide at

Siesta Beach in Sarasota, Florida, in 2009.

Siesta Beach topped the list of ten best U.S. beaches of 2011 as

chosen by Stephen Leatherman, a coastal scientist at Florida International

University who is better known as "Dr. Beach."

Siesta's crescent-shaped beach boasts some of the finest, whitest sand in the
 world and has clear, warm waters that are perfect for swimming, Leatherman
said.

(See pictures of the best beaches of 2009.)

It's also one of the few beaches around the country where smoking is not
 allowed, which is one reason it's so pristine.
"You can smoke in the parking lot but when you walk over the boardwalk,
 it's no smoking," Leatherman said.
—Ker Than