As summer heats up, Americans everywhere pack their SPF and sunglasses to take on the dog days in style. Their destination of choice? The beach.

There’s no wonder these sandy spots are filling up, either. According to data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2023 was the warmest year ever documented—and the heat isn’t expected to die down any time soon. 

If you’re looking to embrace the summer swelter and hit the waves, take a look at which beaches are expecting the highest number of travelers in 2024.

This data, courtesy of the Sunshine State rental company Florida Panhandle, analyzed 450 of the most popular beach destinations in the U.S. to determine which 10 are the most frequently visited. Here’s what they uncovered:

Unsurprisingly, the list was dominated by states like Hawaii, Florida, and California, which are all well-known seaside vacation destinations.

Take the results with a grain of salt (or, perhaps more appropriately, a grain of sand), as this data was based on one factor alone: reviews. Florida Panhandle compiled this list based on the number of times users on review sites complained of a beach’s busyness. These more popular spots likely aren’t places you’ll want to visit if you’re aiming for an afternoon of peace, quiet, and solitude. 

But, if you’re someone who loves a good crowd, the above beaches may fit your travel needs. Be warned, though: You might have trouble finding that perfect tanning spot.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Hawaii has many similarities to the islands that have been battered by Hurricane Beryl — tropical settings, resort areas, marinas and harbors, and similar construction methods.

With hurricane season underway, officials urge preparation as it “only takes one.”

Beryl rapidly intensified into a Category 5 hurricane with sustained winds near 165 miles per hour, similar to Hurricane Iniki 32 years ago which caused $3 billion in damage on Kauai and caused seven deaths.

For 32 years now, Hawaii leaders have been fearing a repeat.

“You know we’re looking at Category 4, these are the types of impacts that you just can’t really just respond our way out of,” said Honolulu Emergency Management Director Hiro Toya.

He said Oahu is in a precarious situation with densely populated areas and shoreline communities. And, all the islands have evacuation challenges.

“We do have significant vulnerabilities here,” Toya said. “One is our geographic isolation. We’re much further away from help than some of the jurisdictions that have been affected by this storm…You can’t just drive over to the next jurisdiction over. You’re going to have to evacuate somewhere on island.”

State and county leaders have been nudging Hawaii toward resilience, but it takes money.

One bill at the Legislature this year would have required all new public structures built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane — but the measure died.

Another bill to increase funding for the hurricane relief fund also died.

Sen. Sharon Moriwaki said lawmakers did approve some money to widen our shorelines.

“$4 million was appropriated for the beach restoration. But it’s how do we bring the sand back in because the sand protects our shoreline,” she said.

Moriwaki also said funding was also approved to continue the Waikiki Resilience and Adaptation Plan, which was due out later this year.

“We funded $800,000 last session for the study to continue into phase two…This year we’re hoping to move into a much more serious ‘how much will it cost?’ ‘Who’s to pay?’ ‘Who’s responsible for what?,’” she said.

The Hawaii National Guard also runs annual disaster exercises across the state to maintain communication skills among the various agencies that would respond to a major hurricane.

But as we saw during the Maui Fires, emergency plans can be overpowered by mother nature. That time the hurricane was 5,000 miles away.

“This is a real problem if we’re sleeping at the wheel, so to speak. Because it’s happening in all places, whether its the Caribbean or Florida, we’re all under attack,” Moriwaki said.

Forecasters are also tracking Tropical Storm Aletta in the far eastern Pacific, but it is not expected to be a threat to land.

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NEW YORK — It was the Fourth of July in New York City, and for some, that meant only one thing. No, not fireworks, sweaty subway rides and family cookouts. It was time for the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island.

The contest has long been a holiday mainstay in New York, and its worldwide television exposure has made celebrities of its most famous champions. But this year’s event, which tests “competitive eaters” on how many hot dogs they can frantically scarf down in 10 minutes, crowned a new men’s champion for the first time in almost a generation and witnessed a women’s record.

Patrick Bertoletti, 26, from Chicago, snagged the men’s title — or, in the parlance of Coney Island, the Mustard Belt — by eating 58 hot dogs in 10 minutes, while Miki Sudo, 38, ate 51 hot dogs.

The former men’s champion, Joey Chestnut, 40, won the competition 16 times but was banned from entering after a falling out with the organizers. Bertoletti was the world’s ninth-ranked eater before the competition, according to Major League Eating, and he bested several competitors promoted by event organizers as Chestnut’s potential successors.

“Always a bridesmaid and never a bride,” Bertoletti said afterward. “But today I am getting married.”

He described winning as a life-changing event.

“With Joey not here I knew I had a shot,” he said, referring to Chestnut. “I was able to unlock something and I don’t know where it came from.”

Chestnut parted ways with the contest last month after he signed an endorsement deal with Impossible Foods, a rival to Nathan’s that makes vegan hot dogs.

But he loomed large over Thursday’s proceedings, in one case literally: A huge Pepsi ad bearing his image hung just one block from the contest location.

Many of the spectators also wore Chestnut memorabilia and chanted or held up signs pleading for his return. Mark Sterling, 35, did brisk business selling Chestnut bobblehead dolls to the crowd for $35.

“Why would you not want a bobblehead of a legend?” said Sterling, from the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn. “Joey Chestnut not being here is like people saying Derek Jeter’s not at Yankee Stadium anymore — people still love him.”

Many viewers tuned in year after year just to watch Chestnut go through a pile of hot dogs like a wood chipper. News of his departure from the contest was met with the sort of public anguish one might expect for a major league baseball player, not a man who ate 62 hot dogs in 10 minutes last July 4.

At the women’s contest Thursday, Sudo easily won that title for the 10th time, besting a group of competitors, some of whom traveled to Coney Island from as far as Japan and South Korea.

She ate 51 hot dogs in 10 minutes, exceeding her 2023 total of 39.5 hot dogs. The runner-up, Mayoi Ebihara of Japan, ate 37 hot dogs.

As Sudo ate hot dogs two at a time, an ESPN announcer was inspired to opine, “Her style is like the prose of Eudora Welty,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning 20th century novelist not known to have enjoyed 51 hot dogs in one sitting.

After winning, Sudo thanked her family and the dental school in Tampa where she is studying to be a dental hygienist, and reflected on the pressures of being a mother, a student and world-famous hot dog eater.

“You feel like you’re juggling,” she said, “You try your best to balance everything.”

George Shea, the event’s larger-than-life emcee, described Sudo as a woman whose “soul shines like magnesium set afire against the dark mountain of night.”

Nonna Titulauri, 31, a banking intern who lives in the East Village, said she was thrilled to witness a women’s world record. But her friend Christina DeCarlo was less amused.

“It’s kinda gross,” said DeCarlo, 33, a project manager who lives in midtown.