A legendary Gulf-front institution on Anna Maria Island, among the finest sunsets in the state.
Drinking above the boardwalk fray with the Atlantic stretching to the horizon, the Sandbar gives Hampton Beach its best elevated view on the entire New Hampshire seacoast.
A Back River waterfront inn and bar in Dundalk, the Sea Horse has served South Baltimore for decades with cold beer, seasonal crabs, and the easy-going dock bar atmosphere of a real local institution.
Long Beach Island runs its own low-key, unlike-anywhere-else version of Jersey Shore culture, and the Sea Shell has given it a proper oceanfront bar for decades.
Hull Bay is St. Thomas’ most authentically local beach, fishing boats tied up right next door, and the Shack feels like exactly the kind of bar that exists for the people who actually live there.
The resort strip gets polished the further you walk, and The Shack on 8th is the honest exception: cold beer and fresh seafood with the kind of neighborhood loyalty that survives the shoulder seasons.
Cape Charles is being quietly discovered one visitor at a time, and The Shanty is the town’s social center for it, cold cocktails on the deck while the Bay lights up at sunset.
The Shrimp Box sits on the Manasquan Inlet in Point Pleasant Beach watching boats come and go. Waterfront patio, raw bar, no pretense.
Serious craft cocktails on Santa Barbara’s State Street corridor, The Society treats the drinks like a proper occasion because the Spanish Colonial backdrop kind of demands it.
Five venues under one Seawall roof since the late 90s, The Spot, Tiki Bar, SideYard, Rum Shack, and Squeeze somehow all work together, sprawling beachfront patios that make leaving before sunset feel like a mistake.
The Bloody Mary bar and Sunday brunch have been a Delaware beach tradition for decades, DC and Baltimore weekenders drive hours specifically for the Starboard’s festive reputation.
Manhattan Beach’s Strand is some of the most coveted oceanfront real estate in Southern California, and the Strand House’s rooftop bar at sunset earns every bit of that reputation.
Hempstead Harbor delivers a sunset good enough to make the North Shore feel like a completely different island from the South Shore, and Sea Cliff’s arts-community character adds a texture nothing else on Long Island quite matches.
The Surf Lodge basically defines what Montauk became, world-class musicians on stage, a genuinely excellent cocktail program, and Fort Pond Bay doing the scenery work in the background.
The Jamestown Ferry connects Surry to the tourist circuit across the river, but Surry Seafood Co. connects it to what actually matters, fresh local seafood on a waterfront that has been inhabited since before the English ever showed up.
The Rum Swizzle was invented right here in 1932, and the walls covered in visitor business cards document nearly a century of the same tradition, Swizzle Inn, swagger out.
Steps from the fish throwers and the original Starbucks, this Pike Place tap room pours fresh Pacific Northwest craft beer with the whole market’s chaotic energy built right in.
Norfolk’s waterfront scene has been leveling up for years, and The Torch is the kind of place that quietly justifies it: real seafood, real cocktails, none of the polish coming at the expense of substance.
Isla Verde Beach sits minutes from the airport, and cold drinks on Caribbean sand before or after a flight remains one of travel’s genuinely great ideas.
Naples’ polished sunset venue at Vanderbilt Beach, a step up without losing the Gulf-front view.
Anna Maria Island’s festive tiki bar with a giant metal grouper out front and grouper tacos inside.
Bay St. Louis’s first official pirate-themed pub is cash-only, tiny, and exactly the kind of place you want to stumble into after a day on the sand. Greek pizza, gyros, and Friday Night Turtle Races make this one-block-from-the-beach dive an actual local institution, not a gimmick.
Jim Morrison reportedly drank here, the Doors played nearby, and the Whaler has kept pouring cold drinks on the boardwalk since 1979, Venice at its most bohemian and slightly unhinged.
True to its name, The View frames the strikingly beautiful Sassafras River valley with mast-tops and boat traffic from Skipjack Cove Marina, a full-service dock-and-dine stop in an upper Eastern Shore river town that hasn’t changed much in decades.
At the head of the Chesapeake in historic Havre de Grace, The Vineyard brings a thoughtful wine and craft cocktail program to a Victorian river town best known for its Decoy Museum and tidal Susquehanna flats.
The view is free, the cold beer is not, and either way The Waterfront gives you a front-row deck for the endless parade of humanity that is the Venice Beach Boardwalk.
Put-in-Bay built its entire identity on being the Key West of the North, and this tiki bar leans into that bit with genuine enthusiasm and mostly, honestly, pulls it off.
The Upper Bay’s premier waterfront music venue, the Wellwood draws big regional acts to its Elk River stage, crabs, cold drinks, and live music that keeps a crowd well past midnight.
Oranjestad is Aruba’s beautifully preserved Dutch colonial capital, and The West Deck trades the Palm Beach tourist strip for actual harbor views and a more local pace.
Massive tarpon feed nightly right off the dock here, one of the Cayman’s most famous evening rituals, sipping cocktails while the fish circle just below the surface.
The Wheelhouse sits on the Lewes Canal at the drawbridge — Key West attitude, rum bar, raw bar, and a deck where you can dock your boat.
Since 1975 the Windjammer has put national touring acts and local legends on the same stage while the crowd dances in the actual sand, five decades of live music history built right into the beach.
St. John, USVI
Beach bar? Mountaintop bar with an amazing view? You decide!
Long Branch’s waterfront revival finally got the wine bar it deserved, thoughtfully curated bottles and small plates for a Shore town that has genuinely leveled up.
Anegada takes its remoteness as seriously as its lobster, and the Wonky Dog adds a playful, slightly irreverent personality to a beach bar scene that otherwise runs entirely on quiet confidence.
Shaped like a sunken Spanish galleon inside the B Ocean Resort, The Wreck Bar has poured cocktails behind mermaid-filled portholes since the 1950s, family brunch by day, burlesque-tinged shows after dark.
Jacksonville Beach’s soulful tiki hideout, heavy pours and zero tourist polish.
Acadia National Park sits minutes away, and the Thirsty Whale on Cottage Street is where sailors, hikers, and summer visitors all end up afterward without exception.
A historic beachfront bar on Sanibel dating to the 1890s, cocktails on one of Florida’s most protected islands.
A racing-inspired whiskey bar in the historic district, serious spirits and a refined room that any whiskey drinker passing through the Holy City should treat as mandatory.
Tilghman Island’s remoteness filters the crowd naturally, and Tickler’s rewards whoever makes the drive with bare-bones, no-pretense blue crabs and picnic tables full of friendly strangers.
Fresh Gulf shrimp straight off the dock in Cortez, one of Florida’s last working fishing villages.
A Jax Beach tiki spot famous for the rum-floater Painkiller and a bartender who remembers your order.
Overlooking the Susquehanna where it meets the Bay, the Tidewater Grille pairs one of the upper Bays most dramatic views with Bay-fresh seafood, worth the drive up I-95 to an often-overlooked river city.
Half-shell oysters pulled from the Gulf right offshore meet full tiki bar energy here, proof Alabama’s beach bars can be surprisingly vibrant when they commit to the bit.
Solomons takes its maritime heritage pretty seriously most of the time, which is exactly why this Tiki Bar and its frozen cocktails feel like the town’s permission slip to have a little fun.
Built from actual beach flotsam and rebuilt after Hurricane Idalia tried to take it out, this 21-and-up tiki bar behind a tiny RV park is genuinely one of the most beloved cult-favorite bars in the entire state.
Boaters have been anchoring off Windmill Point for the music and the sunset for decades, and it is easy to see why: open Bay views where the Rappahannock meets the Chesapeake, live music, and a drink in hand as the sun drops.
Tucked inside the Laguna Resort right on Jaco Beach, this is the sunset spot every local recommends first. Close it out early enough to still make the rest of the night.
A tropical escape on Ocean Drive, with tiki cocktails and ocean breezes included at no extra charge.
Crystal Beach is where Texas goes to be Texas at the beach, and the Tiki Bar on the ferry-only Bolivar Peninsula is exactly where that particular party lives.
Tiki Bikini Hut sets exactly the expectations the name promises, cold frozen drinks and a proper beach bar anchor on Cable Beach between the resorts.
Tiki Iniki runs on personality as much as cocktails, north shore Kauai’s most colorful gathering spot with creative small plates and genuine aloha to match the decor.
A tiki oasis on the industrial Patapsco, Tiki Lee’s pours frozen cocktails against a working-harbor backdrop. The contrast is the whole point.
Live music seven nights a week and a rooftop Diamond Head view have kept Tiki’s one of Waikiki’s most reliable good times for decades. Order the lava flow and settle in.
Northern Virginia and Fredericksburg boaters have been docking at Tim’s II for decades, and the steamed blue crabs and Potomac views explain the loyalty pretty quickly.
Amelia Island’s no-frills seafood shack, order at the window for the best grouper tacos around.
Tin Lizzie rewards anyone willing to skip the waterfront tourist corridor for an evening, a genuinely intimate Seattle neighborhood lounge that does not need the view to earn the visit.
French Leave Beach’s electric blue water anchors Tippy’s entire operation, one of the most beautiful beach bar settings in the whole archipelago.
Marathon’s upscale tiki perch at Tranquility Bay, framed by the Faro Blanco lighthouse at sunset.
A Gulf-front hotel bar punching above its weight with handcrafted cocktails and daily live entertainment.
St. George’s was founded in 1612, the oldest English settlement in the Western Hemisphere and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Tobacco Bay pours cocktails on pink coral sand with 400 years of history at its back.
Toby’s has been steaming Penn Cove mussels since before most modern craft breweries existed, a wood-paneled Whidbey Island institution that predates basically everything trendy about Pacific Northwest bar culture.
The only restaurant in America built into an actual working Coast Guard lighthouse, Beacon 9 to be exact, because Tom Ham saved one restaurant from bankruptcy and figured why not build the next one around a navigational buoy. The Sunday raw bar brunch and the 270-degree bay views have been worth the trip for over fifty years.
Better food, better beer, and better sightlines than the average sports bar, Tom’s Watch Bar was built for a fanbase that treats the Seahawks, Mariners, and Sounders as a religion.
Speckled trout and blue crabs pulled straight from the surrounding water, Tommy’s rewards anyone willing to make the long drive down Bayou Lafourche to the most isolated community on the Louisiana coast.
Clearwater Beach’s no-frills tiki bar, cold rum drinks and the Gulf right there.
Extending right out over the ocean since 1952, Tony’s gives you a 360-degree Pacific view no landlocked bar can compete with. The cioppino has had 70-plus years to get it right.
Put-in-Bay is more than a party destination once you look past the ferry crowds, and Topsy Turvey’s serves the island’s actual year-round community with fresh local fish and the same easy island warmth.
Surfers walk straight off Playa Dominical with boards still dripping and order a round before the wax is dry, the horseshoe-shaped bar and the Basil Passion Fruit Margarita have quietly become local legend.
Locals treat Tortuga Bar as the official start of the night in Playas del Coco, chifrijo and a chilled Imperial while reggaeton plays, and yes, they will cook whatever you caught that day.
Seven Mile Beach makes any bar here fortunate by location alone, and Tortuga backs up that luck with consistently good food and drinks on some of the calmest, clearest water in the Caribbean.
The Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, and Morgans built the most exclusive private club in America right here in the 1880s, and Tortuga Jack’s now pours tropical cocktails on the same extraordinary barrier island.
Tortuga’s commits fully to its tropical bit, cold rum drinks and genuine tiki enthusiasm on the VB strip for an evening that has already decided it is going to be fun.
Coastal Living readers voted this North Carolina’s favorite seafood dive, and Guy Fieri showed up to film it. Family-owned since 1991 and still the locals’ actual favorite, not just the tourist pick.
The South Bay’s west-facing beach delivers a great sunset with clockwork reliability, and Tower 12 on the Strand pairs it with craft cocktails and fresh California seafood. Volleyball and cyclists included at no extra charge.
Named for the lifeguard stand that marks the local surf break, Tower 7 pairs California surf culture with North Carolina cooking, cold margaritas and fish tacos that explain the whole crossover in one bite.
Duke Leonard bought this island-themed lounge in 1961, and the Leonard family’s kept the music playing on Charlotte Street ever since. A young Jimmy Buffett once played this stage back in its folk-club days, long before Margaritaville was a word anyone knew. Live bands seven nights a week and enough history soaked into the walls that they say old Duke’s ghost still checks in.
Named for the turtles you might spot from the deck, the cocktail invented here seventy years ago, and the vibe itself, the Tranquil Turtle sits above the sand at Bluff House Beach Resort & Marina, the oldest surviving hotel in the Bahamian Out Islands. The open, over-the-water wooden deck is the seat to angle for – multiple shades of Sea of Abaco blue, a light breeze, and a decent shot at spotting the bar’s namesake reptiles. Kalik on tap when the brewery’s back up and running, a solid rum lineup, and the eponymous house rum punch, made with pineapple, orange, grenadine, and three rums. Out-island pace applies: nobody’s rushing you here.
Traveling Goat treats its beer and wine list with the same seriousness Seattle’s best bars always bring, a neighborhood spot that clearly does not consider curation optional.
Three bars, one roof, zero decisions to make. Treasure Island stacks a lounge, a live-music backyard, and Port Aransas’ hottest late-night dance floor into a single complex that has been solving the cannot-agree-on-one-bar problem since 2016.
Astoria gave the world The Goonies filming location and centuries of working-port history, and the Triangle Tavern has been the neighborhood dive anchoring all of it, cheap beer and pool tables through decades of complex waterfront change.
The Exumas do the honest island beach bar formula better than anywhere in the Caribbean, and Tropic Breeze runs it with a trade breeze that never seems to stop.
The BVI’s local ingredients get actual respect here, spiny lobster and Caribbean vegetables paired with cocktails that go well beyond another round of Painkillers.
Home of the Hand Grenade — New Orleans’ most recognizable cocktail since 1984. Neon green, deceptively potent, served in a grenade-shaped cup on Bourbon Street.
Open since 1996 and still the reliable choice for decompressing after a day on the Gulf, cold Lone Star and boats drifting past the patio, nothing more complicated needed.
Rodney Bay’s clear water and the proximity to the Friday night Jump-Up mean a Turquoise Beach Bar afternoon can build naturally straight into the evening’s biggest party.
Boynton Beach, FL
Boynton Harbor Marina has been home to Two Georges since 1957, and the giant red fish mounted over the dock has been pointing boaters toward the crab cakes for almost as long.
The Jupiter Lighthouse watches over every table here, open-air seating and live music most nights make U-Tiki one of the most consistently recommended waterfront spots in town.
Waterfalls, pools, and the Pacific right there, Umalu turns a poolside cocktail at the Hyatt into the exact Hawaiian vacation moment you pictured before you booked the flight.
Grand Anse is the Spice Island’s most beautiful beach, and Umbrellas pours rum punch made with actual Grenadian rum and nutmeg grown right on the island around you.
The Nubble Lighthouse sits in the distance while Short Sands Beach curves away below, one of the most spectacular oceanfront views in all of southern Maine. Cold drinks just make it easier to stay a while.
No paddle required, reads the sign outside. Oysters pulled from nearby beds and one of the best river views in a town that takes both very seriously.