[Daryn Kagan, Cnn Anchor:] It is time now for this week's travel segment. It brings us some information on favorite summer pastimes for many of us, and that is hitting the beach. Our travel correspondent Gail O'Neill met up with a man known as Dr. Beach to find out this year's list of America's best beaches. Let's see which destinations made the list.
[Gail O'neill, Cnn Travel Correspondent:] When he's moonlighting, Stephen Leatherman is known as Dr. Beach, but by day he's known as professor; and as director of the Laboratory for Coastal Research at Florida International University, Leatherman managed to learn a thing or two about human nature as well.
[Unidentified Male:] I think people are looking for to get away from it all. Most of us live in urban areas. We're looking at traffic. We're looking at buildings. We're kind of hemmed in.
[O'neill:] Ever the scientist, he started by analyzing what people were looking for.
[Unidentified Male:] Sand and water. You've got to have that and sun. You got to have good, clean water. When you come to a beach, you want sand, and you want a wide beach; so the wider, the better. People want warm water. They want sunny days. And so after that, amenities. They're looking for the setting.
[O'neill:] Which led to the publication of his book, "America's Best Beaches," and his 11th annual list that goes by the same name. Coming in at No.3 for 2001: Kaanapali Beach on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. Second place honors go to
[Unidentified Male:] St. Joseph Peninsula State Park. This is on the Florida panhandle. Now, you don't go for there for surfing, but if you really like beautiful sand, the sand is like sugar. It's sugar white. In fact, it has finest, whitest sand in the world; it's pure coarse crystal.
[O'neill:] And the No. 1 beach in America?
[Unidentified Male:] That's going to be Poipu Beach Park in the isle of Kauai, Hawaii. Now, here's a place if you really want to get away from it all, enjoy nature at its best. Great for surfing. My preference is to go snorkling with the tropical fish in the flatwater area, in the stillwater. So it's got everything there; and it's got the golden coral sands. Perfect weather in Kauai. Mountain backscape. Oh, what a place!
[Kagan:] Well, somehow we did peel Gail O'Neill off the beach; I don't know quite how we did that, but...
[O'neill:] The rain.
[Kagan:] But what a great guy to hang out with Dr. Beach. How did he get this job?
[O'neill:] He got it completely by accident. As a geoscientist he really is a doctor, a Phd, he's charge with studying beach erosion and sand storm impacts. So he would travel around the world and the country, and when he came back to his campus, the most pressing question from students was, as you can imagine, where is the best beach? He always had great answers, and that led to magazines and newspapers calling, and then, with our obsession of top 10 lists, he started compiling them, and people responded.
[Kagan:] There you have right there. Now, you are doing something online with this beach topic as well.
[O'neill:] Yes, we are having a summer travel special to kickoff the Memorial Day weekend. People can logon to our Web site: CNN.comTRAVELNOW. And we'll have tips on everything from staying safe in the sun, to summer drink recipes.
[Kagan:] Very important. And more beaches on "TRAVEL NOW" this weekend?
[O'neill:] Oh, yes. We're going to have the top 10 actually, the top 20 listed; but more from Dr. Beach, more from Monhegan Island in Maine, a totally different kind of beach, if you like frigid water, but extremely beautiful coastline.
[Kagan:] Absolutely. And Dr. Beach will be our guest next hour here on CNN LIVE THIS MORNING; so we've got beaches on the brain. My favorite place in the world...
[O'neill:] Everybody's.
[Kagan:] Gail O'Neill, thanks so much; good to see you.
[O'neill:] Good to see you, too. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com