Feed the resident tarpon straight off the dock before dinner even starts. 15th Street Fisheries sits inside Fort Lauderdale’s most famous marina with the best waterway views the city has to offer.
Negril’s seven-mile beach laps right at your table here, cold Red Stripe and jerk chicken with none of the polish and all of the west-end welcome the strip is famous for.
Three dozen craft beers on tap, Natty Boh cheese sauce, and Guinness-mustard pretzels make the 45th Street Taphouse Ocean City’s mandatory stop for anyone serious about what’s in their glass.
Named for the wild headlands south of town, 7 Devils brews with the same creative Pacific Northwest spirit its name implies, a Coos Bay brewery that genuinely belongs to its city.
710 has been filling its Pacific Beach dance floor for decades, live music, cold cocktails, and the kind of energy that makes early arrival non-negotiable.
9th Ave Pier puts you out over the water at the Belmar Marina. Seven flavors of rum buckets, live music most nights, raw bar, and a real pier view.
A no-frills Chesapeake Beach institution, Abner’s keeps Maryland’s crab tradition honest: steamed blue crabs with Old Bay, newspaper-covered picnic tables, and Bay views that have drawn the DC crowd for generations.
A genuine sandy beach bar in a Chester River waterman town that doesn’t usually do sandy beach bars, Admirals is the natural gathering spot for the sailing crowd that has adopted Rock Hall as one of the Bay’s premier anchorages.
The shrimp boats tie up right next door on Lazaretto Creek, and AJ’s pours cold Georgia beer alongside shrimp that traveled about as short a distance as seafood possibly can.
Destin Harbor’s anchor since 1984 — fresh Gulf seafood, cold Bushwackers, multi-level waterfront entertainment complex, and the best charter fishing fleet views on the Emerald Coast.
A Destin Harbor institution that grew from an oyster trailer into a multi-stage entertainment complex.
Pensacola Beach’s burger-first beach club, skipping the seafood for a reason.
A fish shack on a lonely stretch of Card Sound Road since 1947, plastic utensils and paper towels on every table, conch fritters that have made Alabama Jack’s the unofficial start of every Keys road trip.
Decades of consistent live reggae and jerk have turned Alfred’s into a genuine returning-visitors ritual, the kind of Negril stop people plan the rest of their trip around.
The Bush family compound sits just up the coast, but Alisson’s in Dock Square is where Kennebunkport’s actual sailing and summer community gathers.
Direct sand access and reggae on the south end of Jaco, Aloha is the kind of spot you stumble into for one drink and somehow stay for three hours.
A more structured Anegada experience, sun loungers and cocktail service paired with fresh lobster and reef access good enough to make the extra polish feel entirely earned.
At the confluence of the Patuxent and the Chesapeake, Angler’s matches Solomons Island’s maritime energy with fresh Bay seafood, a full bar, and a deck built to make the most of the water.
The volcanic Piton peaks rise directly from the sea behind this beach bar, boat access only for non-guests, the most dramatic scenery anywhere in the Caribbean.
Anacortes is the actual jumping-off point for the San Juan Islands ferry system, and this Anthony’s location gets the marina view and the ferry-town energy to prove it.
Bellingham stacks college town energy on top of San Juan Islands proximity, and Anthony’s Hearthfire gets a Bellingham Bay view that includes the Canadian Coast Range for good measure.
The Bell Street pier location gives Anthony’s the prime real estate in downtown Seattle’s entire restaurant corridor, rooftop deck included.
Arashi sits at Aruba’s northernmost tip, uncrowded and away from the resort strip, exactly where serious island regulars go for the best snorkeling and a cold Balashi.
In a remote waterman village still home to one of America’s last working sailing skipjack fleets, Arby’s Dockside is the genuinely off-the-beaten-path Chesapeake bar purists dream about finding.
Fort Pierce’s dollar-bill-covered Old Florida institution since 1947, Bingo Mondays included.
Arnold’s does the world’s most famous beach without the resort prices or the resort attitude, cold drinks and zero pretense in the middle of Waikiki’s biggest names.
A three-decade oceanfront staple in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, with three bars and live music every night of the week.
Right next to Oracle Park with a rooftop deck over the bay, Atwater Tavern is where one pre-game drink quietly turns into staying through first pitch.
AVA Beach Bar sits in Pier Village Long Branch, where seven US presidents used to summer. The ocean views are the same. The drinks cost more now.
Not flash, just genuine Caribbean ease, the B-Line tucks into a quieter corner of an island where sailors keep coming back for exactly that low-key reason.
Pass Christians antebellum resort heritage and beautiful harbor reward anyone willing to look past the casino corridor, Bacchus on the Beach pours cold cocktails in the genuinely historic version of the Mississippi coast.
A living-room jazz club on a Pacific cliff since 1968, Bach Dancing books world-class musicians for Sunday afternoons and asks nothing more of you than a drink and an ocean view. There is genuinely nothing else like it on the coast.
Sitting on the actual sand with the Pacific at your feet and the pier in the distance, Back on the Beach makes simple California food and cold drinks feel like the whole point of the day.
The New York and Paris locations built the brand, and this Gustavia Harbor outpost brings the same festive, glamorous energy to golden hour over the water.
Bahrs Landing has been feeding people lobster on Sandy Hook Bay since 1917. Sinatra ate here. So did DiMaggio. Fourth-generation family-owned.
The crowds thin out at Sandbridge and the vibe loosens up considerably. Baja pours the margaritas that fit that particular stretch of quieter, better-kept-secret Virginia Beach.
Strong margaritas and cheap tacos are the entire pitch at Baja Sharkeez, and Surf City shows up in force for exactly that, loud, cheap, and completely unbothered by subtlety.
The Balboa Peninsula gets its own Sharkeez outpost, same strong margaritas and loud good time that made the original a Southern California institution.
Strong margaritas and cheap tacos read a little different against the California Riviera backdrop, but the formula at Baja Sharkeez works exactly the same in Santa Barbara as it does everywhere else.
Baker’s Port Hole in Beach Haven has been cash-only, family-run, and not trying to impress anyone since 1936. That’s the whole pitch. It works.
Built on a sandbar the city legally required to look Polynesian, Bali Hai has poured the same unchanged 1950s Mai Tai recipe, no juice, no fluff, ever since, strong enough that the house caps you at two. Three million Mai Tais and three generations of the same family later, the Goof tiki head is still watching from the roof.
Since 1932 Ballard’s has been Block Island’s actual social center, visible from the ferry dock and welcoming everyone from summer families to college weekenders with the same democratic enthusiasm.
The brand that helped put San Diego on the global craft beer map ships its DNA up the coast to Long Beach, Sculpin IPA included, waterfront views optional but included anyway.
The Hamptons’ more polished establishments feel a world away here, Bamboo’s tropical aesthetic and cold cocktails matching Montauk’s distinctly end-of-Long-Island character.
John’s Pass’ oldest bar since 1947, born from a fruit stand that started selling cold beer.
Fort Lauderdale’s only tiki bar actually on the beach, with a legendary Sunday pig roast.
Pensacola Beach’s classic tiki bar, thatched huts and sand between your toes.
Grand Bahama’s boating community knows exactly where to dock and dine, Banana Bay handles both with the kind of consistency that makes transiting cruisers stop here every time.
Expats built their entire days around this beach bar, sunset happy hour two-for-one cocktails that are about as close to perfection as this format gets.
Boynton Beach’s Intracoastal landmark since 1978, watching boat traffic drift by since before anyone knew Tequesta.
Bandon’s cranberry bogs and world-famous golf links already draw a crowd, and Bandon Brewing pours the cold pint that rewards the drive to Oregon’s most remote coastal community.
Bankie Banx himself might pick up a guitar and start playing at any moment, a driftwood compound on Rendezvous Bay where the music comes first and the rum punch is basically along for the ride.
Every Shore regular just calls it Bar A, a massive multi-bar outdoor deck that has been drawing major regional acts and packed summer weekends since the 1980s.
Bocce balls, wood-fired pizza, and a bay view that includes Angel Island and the entire City skyline, Bar Bocce makes drinking feel like a sport, which is frankly the correct order of operations.
Kingston is a rawer, realer Jamaica than the resort corridor ever bothers showing you, and Barbican rewards anyone willing to explore the capital’s actual waterfront.
Toes in Kalapaki sand, the Hoary Head mountains behind you, slack-key guitar drifting over from the stage, the Barefoot Bar at Duke’s Kauai is the Garden Isle’s definitive aloha moment.
The Barge Inn skips every bit of Newport Bayfront’s polish for straight-up dive bar honesty, cheap beer and pool tables that have anchored the working port neighborhood for decades.
The Rogue River’s legendary steelhead runs meet the Pacific right here, and the Barnacle serves fresh seafood with a backdrop most rivers cannot compete with.
The SS Badger, America’s last coal-fired car ferry, still crosses from this exact harbor, and Barnhart’s keeps Ludington’s genuine working-waterfront character alive right alongside it.
Barry’s understands its job completely: cold drinks, warm sand, cold Gulf water, and absolutely no reason to be anywhere else, and it executes that job with cheerful consistency.
Mick Jagger, David Bowie, and Princess Margaret have all passed through this driftwood-floored bar on the private island of Mustique, the Wednesday Jump-Up remains the hottest party in the entire private Caribbean.
Behind an entrance that gives away nothing, Bathtub Gin runs an extensive gin program in candlelit Belltown quiet, a mandatory stop for anyone who takes their martini seriously.
The Lake Erie islands sit visible in the distance from one of Ohio’s most active recreational marinas, Bay Harbor gives Sandusky’s boating community a proper waterfront to call home.
No food, no pretense, drinks served in mason jars that hit harder than expected. Bay Haven sits right across from Tillamook Bay where the dairy farms meet the tidewater and the bathroom graffiti changes weekly.
A casual Key Largo bayside bar where the sunset is always the main event.
Reachable only by ferry from Crisfield, the Bayside Inn serves Maryland’s last inhabited offshore island with crab cakes and seafood pulled from the water outside the window. The ferry ride alone is worth the trip.
Newport mixes boating money with beach-town looseness, and Beach Ball leans into the fun, unpretentious side of that particular equation.
Trunk Bay gets ranked among the most beautiful beaches on Earth, and a simple snack shack managing to hold its own on that legendary white sand is its own small miracle.
Bruce Springsteen played some of his earliest shows in this exact stone building, and Asbury Park has pulled off one of the great American beach town revivals since. The Beach Bar gives that comeback story a proper oceanfront drink.
Hampton Bays is the most accessible and most genuinely local of the Hamptons towns, and this Shinnecock Bay bar serves both its year-round community and its summer visitors with the same honest warmth.
Diego Rivera-era murals upstairs, fresh-brewed beer downstairs, and the Pacific dead ahead through the windows, the Beach Chalet turns a 1920s WPA building at the edge of Golden Gate Park into one of San Francisco’s most unlikely great bars.
The oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the Great Lakes stands visible from this shoreline, and Beach Glass Lounge has been drawing summer visitors to Marblehead’s underappreciated peninsula since the Victorian era.
Byron Bay’s legendary beachfront pub, bought in 1990 for $9M and now worth $140M.
Mission Beach’s boardwalk is a nonstop circus of bikes and rollerblades, and the Beach House gives the chaos a proper anchor, cold beer, bar food, zero surprises, exactly what you want.
Buckeye Lake’s year-round community gets an honest, direct pub in the best Great Lakes lake-bar tradition, cold Ohio craft beer and classic pub food with zero pretense.
The sunset from this lava-rock terrace gets cited as one of the finest in Hawaii on a fairly regular basis, and the serious wine and cocktail program at Beach House gives it real competition for your attention.
Anna Maria Island’s coveted west-facing sunset spot, toes in the sand and Coconut Mahi Mahi on the table.
Cocoa Beach’s no-frills beach bar, cold beer and sand underfoot without the tourist markup.
The Four Seasons Hualalai consistently ranks among the finest resorts on Earth, and the Beach Tree Lounge is where that reputation and a genuinely serious cocktail program meet black lava shoreline.
Destin’s AAA Four Diamond beachfront escape at Henderson Beach Inn, a step above cold beer and frozen drinks.
Jeff ‘Beachbum’ Berry’s French Quarter tiki gastropub — the man who saved tiki is now serving it, and Esquire named it one of America’s best bars within five months of opening.
Fiji’s legendary party island beach bar, entirely built on sand in the Mamanuca Islands.
Florence serves as the northern gateway to the wild, remote southern Oregon coast, and Beachcomber Pub keeps the town itself just as honest, cold drafts and classic pub food with zero performance attached.
Fire pits right on the deck make BeachFire the atmospheric choice on one of the most beautiful beaches on the entire Maine coast.
Lake Travis lakeside bar and waterpark resort 25 minutes from Austin — sandy beach, four water slides, live music every weekend, and sunset hill country views.
Frederiksted’s waterfront scene is being rebuilt with genuine hospitality rather than resort money, and Beachside Cafe is a reliable, welcoming part of that comeback.
The name sets the bar and Beachside Social clears it: craft cocktails and a crowd that mixes hotel guests with actual locals on prime Atlantic Avenue real estate.
Beachsiders delivers exactly what its name promises when the Gulf cooperates, cold Texas beer and fresh shrimp with zero surprises and zero complaints.
Poolside cocktails at the iconic pink Don CeSar, hosting presidents and Fitzgerald since 1928.
On Annapolis’s storied waterfront, the Beacon pairs marina views and craft cocktails with consistently good food, a polished anchor where sailors and land-lubbers mix easily at the bar.
One of the longest bars in the world sits at the actual social epicenter of Put-in-Bay, cold pitchers and live music from Memorial Day to Labor Day that has been pulling Ohioans across the ferry line for decades.
Shoes optional, cold beer mandatory. Beerfoot takes the barefoot-on-the-sand philosophy about as literally as a Galveston bar can.
Open since 1990 with Catalina Island visible across the water, Belmont Brewing has quietly been one of the best places in LA to drink craft beer for over three decades. The Long Beach Crude stout has earned every bit of its cult following.
Cash only, simple tables, and fish pulled straight off the boats working one of the Pacific Northwest’s most active commercial fishing ports, Bennett’s does not need to be anything fancier than that.
Wood-fired pizza that is genuinely good and a well-curated craft beer list have made Benny’s one of the most reliable gathering spots in the whole Wilmington-area beach community.
A historic pier bar in Lake Worth Beach, famous for pineapple-cup coladas and the best table over the Atlantic.
New Hampshire’s only ocean beach gets exactly twelve weeks of real summer, and Bernie’s never wastes a single one of them, shoulder-to-shoulder energy the whole season.