Kiawah Island’s Beachwalker Park has once again made Dr. Beach‘s Top 10 list of the nation’s best beaches. Dr. Beach, or Stephen. P. Leathermen, uses 50 criteria (e.g. water quality/temperature, cleanliness, weather, sand, safety and facilities) to rate 650 recreational beaches across the country.

Here’s what he said about Beachwalker Park:

Charleston CVB

South of Charleston, Beachwalker Park is the public beach located on the southern end of Kiawah Island.  Tennis and golf are featured here, as well as interpretative tours of the fauna and flora of the island.  This is certainly a nature-lovers coast, so visitors should pack their canoes and kayaks to paddle through the tidal inlets or walk down to St. Sam’s Inlet to see thousands of birds.  The water is not clear here, but it is clean and provides for fantastic seafood for low-country cooking.  Visitors can also pack their bicycles, since the sand is compact enough to ride along the 10-mile long barrier island.

So who is Dr. Beach? Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman is Professor and Director of the Laboratory for Coastal Research at Florida International University. He has done extensive research around the world on beach erosion and storm impacts. In 1989, a travel writer called him to create a listing of the top 10 U.S. beaches, and he quickly rattled off the first 10 wonderful beaches that came to mind. After the magazine printed, the phones began ringing and tourism offices and locals newspapers began questioning his “criteria” for his decision (why wasn’t this beach included or why did this beach make #1). Dr. Beach had no criteria because he made the list off the top of his head, but realized he needed to develop measure to rate each beach. Since 1991, Dr. Beach has released his list every year over Memorial Day weekend ranking the 650 major public recreational beaches in the United States.