Look, we know what you’re thinking. “Another ‘best beach bars’ list? Groundbreaking.” And normally, we’d agree with you. The internet is littered with these things — every summer, some publication puts out a list of the top beach bars, half of which are hotel pool bars with a view of an inlet, and the other half are in places you’ll never actually go.
So we did something different. Instead of making another list, we went through everyone else’s lists — USA Today’s 10Best, Travel Channel, Thrillist, Esquire, The Daily Meal, Tasting Table, VinePair, and a few more — and found the beach bars that keep showing up on multiple lists, year after year. The bars that the pros can’t stop talking about.
Then we checked them against our own directory, because obviously.
Here’s what we found. Grab a drink. This is the good stuff.
Six. This bar has appeared on six major national rankings. Travel Channel, Thrillist, Esquire, The Daily Meal, VinePair, Tasting Table — the Beachcomber has collected accolades like most bars collect empty glasses.
And honestly? It earns them. The thing is literally perched on top of a sand dune overlooking Cahoon Hollow Beach, inside a building that used to be a U.S. Life Saving Station built in 1897. You park up top, walk down through the dunes, and there it is — the Atlantic crashing below, a Goombay Smash in your future, and the general sense that everything is going to be fine.
They claim to have served over three million Goombay Smashes. We have not independently verified this, but we respect the commitment.
Note from the Bum: they are NOT open year-round. Visit them from the Thursday before Memorial Day through the last Saturday in September.
You can’t talk about America’s beach bars without talking about Flora-Bama. It sits right on the Alabama-Florida state line — literally, the line runs through the property — and it’s been a Gulf Coast institution since 1964.
Five major national lists. USA Today’s 10Best ranked it #2 in the country for 2025. Five stages of live music, 365 days a year. Kenny Chesney wrote a song about it. And yes, there’s an annual Mullet Toss, which is exactly what it sounds like (unless you’re picturing a really bad 80’s haircut). You throw a dead mullet (fish, not redneck haircut) across the state line. Farthest throw wins. We did not make this up.
Flora-Bama is already in our directory (listed under Florida, because that’s where the mailing address lands), but honestly, Alabama has a pretty strong claim too.
Seacrets is less of a beach bar and more of a beach compound. Eighteen bars. A nightclub. A distillery. A concert venue. Tables literally sitting in the bay water. It’s been featured on The Daily Meal, VinePair, Travel Channel, and more — and if you’ve ever been to Ocean City, you already know.
Is it classy? VinePair once described it as “not exactly known for being super classy.” Which only increases the allure, in our book. Plus, you can sit in the water and drink without fear of spilling, and sometimes that’s all that matters.
The Jersey Shore has a lot of beach bars. A lot. But when Thrillist, Travel Channel, and The Daily Meal all independently put one bar on their national lists, you pay attention.
Donovan’s Reef is one of the only bars on the Shore where you can drink cocktails directly on the sand. It’s been around since the ’70s, got completely leveled by Hurricane Sandy in 2013, took four years to rebuild, and came back stronger. Seven bars on the property, including multiple tiki outposts on the beachfront. Cover bands. Fried everything. The works.
USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice Award is probably the highest-profile beach bar ranking out there — expert-nominated, public-voted, and announced with enough fanfare that bars actually campaign for it. In 2025, Daytona Beach’s Ocean Deck took the #1 spot.
It started as a hot dog stand in 1957. Now it’s a multi-level beachfront destination with live reggae, karaoke, and a menu that runs the gamut from crab legs to chicken wings. Family-friendly by day, full-on nightlife by night. The Beach Bar Bum has this one high on the “we must review it” list. Research, as always, is ongoing.
We’ve been building out our directory state by state (it’s a process — the research is exhausting, as you can imagine), and along the way we’ve run into a bunch of bars that may not have six national rankings under their belt, but absolutely deserve your attention.
Clayton’s Beach Bar & Grill in South Padre Island, Texas, calls itself the biggest beach bar on the Texas coast. It’s appeared on The Daily Meal, Tasting Table, and Toast’s lists, and they’ve got a new pier with panoramic Gulf views. The Turbo Piña Colada is apparently the thing to order. We intend to verify this personally.
Pink Pony Pub in Gulf Shores, Alabama, has been a beachfront fixture since 1956. The building is aggressively, defiantly pink. You can’t miss it. Cold Gulf shrimp, Bushwackers, and sunset views from the deck.
Shaggy’s Biloxi Beach in Mississippi has won Best Outdoor Dining in the state four years running and has that Key West vibe that most bars outside of Key West can only dream about.
The Surf Lodge in Montauk, New York, more or less invented the modern Hamptons beach bar scene. It’s on Fort Pond, not technically the ocean, but nobody seems to care because the sunsets are ridiculous and the music lineup draws national acts.
Martell’s Tiki Bar in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, is a boardwalk institution. The elevated deck overlooks the ocean, the frozen drinks are dangerously strong, and Tiki Monday is a Shore tradition that we feel obligated to investigate further.
The Boatslip Beach Club in Provincetown, Massachusetts, is famous for its daily tea dance — a waterfront dance party that’s been running for decades and is one of those things you just have to experience.
Tiki Hut Beach Bar on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, nabbed #3 on USA Today’s 10Best for 2025. It’s the island’s only beachfront live music venue and has been at it since 1977.
After digging through every national beach bar ranking we could get our hands on, a few things became clear.
The bars that show up on multiple lists aren’t usually the fanciest. They’re the ones where the setting does most of the heavy lifting — where the view, the breeze, and the crash of the waves turn a $6 beer into a peak life experience. They tend to have history (most of the top-ranked bars have been around for decades), and they pull a crowd that’s a genuine mix of locals and tourists. No velvet ropes. No dress codes. Just sand, drinks, and the general agreement that this is exactly where everyone wants to be.
They also tend to keep it simple. A solid beachy drink. Fresh seafood. Live music. Sand under your feet. That’s the formula, and the bars that do it best have been perfecting it for generations.
We’re working through all of these — and many more — one drink at a time. It’s brutal work, but someone’s got to do it.
Got a beach bar that deserves some national attention? We’re always looking for new spots to add to the directory (and to personally investigate). Submit it here and help a Bum out.*