Assateague Island
Berlin, MD · Mid-Atlantic Barrier Islands
This is the rare American beach where wild horses walk the surf line, and they have the run of all 37 miles of undeveloped barrier sand. Drive in off Route 611 past the fee station and the Atlantic opens up wide and empty, with shifting dunes, low waves for swimming, and bands of free-roaming Assateague ponies that ignore the people entirely. Come to body-surf and beachcomb by day, then stay to camp right behind the dunes, where the night sky is dark enough to see the Milky Way over the water.