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.
Tropical Sunset is on Shoal Bay East, west along the sand from Madeariman and Elodia’s, running as a restaurant and bar with chair service. Seafood, rum punch, and the same water everybody else on this beach is looking at.
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.
Charlotte Harbor tiki hut with a sand beach, Adirondack chairs, fire pit, and boat slips.
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.
No road reaches it. Twenty minutes on foot from the nearest car park, then cask ale on the shore of the Llŷn Peninsula.
Open-air on the Jupiter Inlet Marina with sixteen boat slips, a real patch of sand, and the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse standing directly across the water.
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.
Ernest Benjamin Harrigan opened this on Shoal Bay East in 1984, back when there was no electricity out on that beach and the shacks ran off generators.
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.
Urbanna hosts Virginia’s most famous oyster festival every November, and the Seafood Market and Raw Bar earns that reputation year-round, fresh Chesapeake oysters and a deck that watches the boat traffic go by.
Dunmore Town became one of the Bahamas’ most charming sailing destinations for a reason, and Valentine’s marina bar is where the visiting yacht crowd actually gathers to prove it.
Venice Beach does not do subtle, and Venice Ale House just leans into it, excellent California craft beer with a front-row seat to the most chaotic people-watching on the boardwalk.
Venice invented the counterculture and then kept reinventing it, and the Venice Beach Club still bottles that anything-goes energy one cold drink at a time.
Playa Hermosa regulars guard this place like an actual secret, a short drive south of Jaco for a chill Pacific scene without the crowds.
The most centrally located marina in the BVI, and, depending on who you ask, the actual birthplace of “Cheeseburger in Paradise.” Jimmy Buffett himself told the story of writing the song here while his boat got repaired, though Cane Garden Bay locals will argue that point till last call. Either way, Village Cay’s open-air restaurant and bar overlooking the Sir Francis Drake Channel is prime real estate.
Dolphins cruise past the patio while the boats come in with the day’s catch, Virginia’s keeps the Port A harbor experience exactly as unhurried as it should be.
Isla Verde is Puerto Rico’s premier resort strip, and Vivo brings design-forward polish to prove it, cold cocktails and live entertainment that has made it a consistent local favorite.
OB is San Diego’s most countercultural neighborhood, and Voltaire is its most countercultural bar, dark, cheap, unpretentious, and exactly what a dive bar should be when it means it.
Wahoo keeps the beach bar formula simple: cold cocktails, colder beer, and the Atlantic right there, a reliable stop on any Ocean City bar crawl.
Whale Harbor’s marina-view happy hour spot, where fishing boats and lobster specials share the stage.
Tucked next to Aulani’s adults-only pool, Wailana pours drinks in actual pineapples and serves ahi nachos good enough that guests admit the best food at the whole resort is poolside.
Built out of actual driftwood by Vero pioneer Waldo Sexton in 1935, Waldo’s calls itself the Last of the Great American Hangouts and has never once needed to prove it.
The local following is what keeps Wally’s lights on in February when the summer crowd has long gone home, chowder and fried seafood that has earned genuine year-round loyalty.
The tide comes in close enough to feel the spray here, and the howler monkeys occasionally crash the party looking for snacks. Walter’s makes Tamarindo feel less like a tourist town and more like home.
South Padre is the southernmost beach bar town in the continental US, and Wanna Wanna is the reason the long drive down Route 77 keeps paying off.
The Warren House was clearly built for the weather outside, a warm fire and cold cask ales that make a rainy Cannon Beach afternoon feel like exactly where you should be.
Slow-smoked BBQ on Pensacola Beach, a rare change of pace from seafood and frozen cocktails.
The York River and a fishing pier sit steps from the door, historic colonial Yorktown sits right behind you, and Water Street Grille gives both directions a reason to stick around past the day-trip.
Sailboats drift across Long Island Sound while it turns gold and pink, Water’s Edge has been making the most of that exact view for decades.
Waterbar brings a more polished edge to PB’s beach bar scene, fresh Pacific seafood and craft cocktails without losing the sun-drenched, easygoing thing that makes the neighborhood worth visiting.
A restored 1914 railroad depot on the Siuslaw River, Waterfront Depot gives Florence a properly historic building to match its century-long role as gateway to the Oregon Dunes.
Central Ohio’s most historic inland lake resort finally got a lakeside bar and restaurant worthy of the tradition, boating and lakeside gathering that has defined Buckeye Lake for generations.
Bellingham’s outdoor culture bleeds into everything, including this working waterfront tavern, fresh oysters and cold Washington craft beer with zero pretense attached.
Rock Hall’s most celebrated crab house, Waterman’s serves some of the Bay’s biggest, meatiest blue crabs on the old-school banquet-table format: newspapers, mallets, and a bucket, with a dock bar for boaters pulling into the harbor.
Three generations of the Standing family have run this boardwalk institution since 1981, She Crab Soup and the original Orange Crush at the southern end of the strip. CrushFest turns into a full Mid-Atlantic pilgrimage every year.
A no-frills beach bar steps from the Daytona Boardwalk, frozen drinks with the Atlantic in view.
A laid-back Treasure Island beach bar that lets the Gulf do the heavy lifting.
We Olive pairs a serious olive oil tasting with a thoughtful wine list, proof San Diego can do sophisticated without losing its coastal soul.
The tiki bar on Curacao’s Seaquarium Beach strip, next door to Mambo, with Sunday beach parties and sofa beds on the sand.
Ocean Drive’s frozen daiquiri landmark, second-floor people-watching over the Art Deco strip.
Wet Willie’s started in Savannah and spread its frozen daiquiri gospel across the Southeast. The Call-a-Cab tastes like exactly the right decision on Tybee’s beach.
A nearly 40-year Destin-area beachfront landmark, voted best sunset view on the Emerald Coast.
The Manasquan River provides the boat traffic and Wharfside provides the patio, cold cocktails over the water that make any Point Pleasant afternoon feel like the Shore vacation it is supposed to be.
Cotee River beach bar with fire pits, sand, boat docks, and an unobstructed west-facing sunset.
Sand-floor beach bar on the Courtney Campbell Causeway with Old Tampa Bay on three sides.
Maybe the best patio in Marina del Rey, with 180-degree harbor views and a long happy hour.
Decades on the historic Pier 21 waterfront have made Willie G’s the reliable answer for fresh Gulf snapper and redfish with genuine harbor views to match.
Named for a 1913 amusement park with 350 monkeys that lasted exactly two summers, Wonderland Ocean Pub keeps a daily sunset toast tradition alive over the OB Pier with a rotating tap list that takes itself considerably more seriously than the monkeys did.
Negril can be a lot – even by Negril standards – but Woodstock (officially the Woodstock Negril Lobster Shack) offers a genuine break from the intensity without losing any of the Seven Mile Beach energy. Settle into a lounge chair or camp out at the bar for the people-watching; either way, the staff banter alone is worth the visit. Breakfast on the beach with an actual coffee program, a nine-rum-deep cocktail list, and a lobster shack menu that goes well beyond the usual jerk-and-burger rotation. Live music runs frequently through the week. Chill, welcoming, and exactly the ‘Negril chill’ advertised.
Woody’s has kept the Seawall lively through entire Texas summers, cold beer and a slightly rowdy energy delivered with zero pretense and total sincerity.
Woody’s serves both the summer party crowd and the actual year-round Delmarva community, honest bar food and cold beer that keeps people coming back to Dewey season after season.
Woody’s anchors Cruz Bay the way a good neighborhood bar should, cold beer and fresh seafood for a loyal crowd that treats the place like the actual town square.
A barefoot surfer’s beach bar in Taghazout, Morocco’s surf capital, on a coastline once visited by Jimi Hendrix.
Galveston’s Victorian architecture and complex hurricane history give it more depth than most Texas beach towns bother with, and Yaga’s on The Strand gives that history a proper bar.
One of Langkawi’s last original beach bars, pioneering toes-in-sand seating on Pantai Cenang.
Between the Revolution reenactors and the regulars, Yorktown Pub has been the one constant in this waterfront village for decades, cold beer and pub fare that belongs to the town the way the best neighborhood bars always do.
Gloucester Point, VA
Classic marina bar, right on the water. Who needs a beach when you have boats?
Golf carts outnumber cars on this car-free island fifteen minutes by ferry from Cancun, and Zama pours margaritas for a place that has resisted every pressure to become its noisier neighbor.
Curacao’s Dutch-Caribbean multicultural energy shows up fully at Zanzibar, a colorful bar making the most of the dramatic rocky bluffs and turquoise water that frame the island’s entire southern coast.