The Chicago skyline rising directly behind North Avenue Beach has no real equivalent anywhere in the Midwest, cold cocktails on the sand with the Willis Tower reflected in Lake Michigan.
The world’s longest beach has been pulling visitors in for over a century, and Castaways gives the Long Beach Peninsula exactly the kind of unpretentious cold drink that setting demands.
Catch 31 is the polished answer on a strip full of casual boardwalk shacks, Oysters Rockefeller and Atlantic views inside the Hilton for when Virginia Beach needs to dress up a little.
Caribbean Journal’s number one beach bar in the Caribbean — French-inspired, locally sourced, and draped across Pigeon Point Beach in English Harbour with a grace that makes you reconsider your flip flop standards.
The rhythm of ferry arrivals and departures shapes Kingston’s whole personality, and Cellar Cat bottles it, a small-town wine bar that runs on the same unhurried tide schedule.
Somewhere between the dock bars and a French bistro sits Charles Street Brasserie, proof that Solomons Island can do a wine list without losing its waterfront soul.
Nature Coast Florida’s straight-talking riverside seafood joint, fish as fresh as the water it swims in.
Charlie’s has served its regulars as well as anyone on the entire Jersey Shore, cold beer and fresh seafood at a Great Egg Harbor Bay landmark that never needed a rebrand.
On the Back River in Essex, Charly’s pours cold beer and steams crabs at the dock that has anchored this waterfront neighborhood’s identity for as long as anyone can remember.
New Smyrna Beach’s resort-style beach bar, famous for legendary rum buckets and tiki vibes.
The Washington Times called this the place destined to become a Jimmy Buffett song: wild stingrays wading up to be hand-fed, Sunday pig roasts, and the best beach volleyball in the Out Islands. No admission charged by the stingrays.
Right on the C&D Canal, the Chesapeake Inn lets you watch massive commercial ships pass within shouting distance from the deck, one of the Bay’s great free spectacles, with a full marina and seafood menu to match.
Oregon’s southernmost brewery sits just miles from California, named for the river that runs through the most geographically isolated stretch of the whole coast.
Jay Fiondella bought this place for a reported one dollar in 1959 and opened with showgirls and a circus elephant, which somehow undersold what came next: Rat Pack regulars, a no-photography rule that protected Sinatra and McQueen, the Pentagon Papers allegedly changing hands at Table 10, and an Apollo 14 astronaut who smuggled one of Jay’s peanuts to the moon and back. The sourdough burgers and cheap well drinks have not changed. Neither has the nerve.
The Lynnhaven oyster is genuinely one of the most famous in the country, and Chicks puts them in front of you straight from the inlet outside, about as fresh as an oyster gets without you catching it yourself.
Chiho brings actual izakaya spirit, communal small plates and Japanese whisky, to a Seattle dining scene that usually reaches for Pacific Northwest seafood instead of borrowing from Tokyo.
Owned by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, this casino beachside bar puts cold cocktails against one of the coast’s widest, most accessible Pacific beaches, with casino energy just steps away when you want it.
Sand under the table, the Atlantic over your shoulder, and a Crab Ripper in hand, Chix does casual boardwalk dining without cutting a single corner on the seafood.
Chrishi wouldn’t look out of place on St. Barth’s St. Jean Beach – pristine white-and-blue construction, funky lounge music at a reasonable volume, and a distinctly Euro sensibility courtesy of its Norwegian ownership. Despite the polish, it stays refreshingly unpretentious, Nevis-style. A genuinely good light-lunch menu fills a real gap on an island where that’s harder to find than it should be. Covered tables and comfortable sofas out front, loungers and deck chairs for anyone who wants a quick dip. Strong top-shelf spirits selection, properly chilled champagne, and a wine list a notch above typical beach-bar fare. Popular for private events – worth checking availability before a special trip.
Friday afternoon concerts in the moors turn Cisco into an extended outdoor party the whole island converges on, Whale’s Tale Pale Ale is genuinely non-negotiable.
Tucked away from Highway 1 traffic on Oak Street, Cisco’s is where Grand Isle’s actual shrimp boat captains drink, not the tourists, pool tables and a jukebox, nothing fancier needed.
A sophisticated Indian River Lagoon bar celebrating Vero Beach’s citrus heritage and coastal cuisine.
Over 60 years of cold Imperials and Pacific sunsets on the north end of Jaco, if you want to understand this town, Clarita’s since 1964 is where you actually start.
The largest beach bar in Texas, and it is not close. Clayton’s runs multiple stages and bars on the sand where Spring Break has been proving itself for decades. The parking lot potholes are the size of zip codes. The bar is worth it anyway.
Bonaire is a diver’s island first, but Club Tropicana makes a real case for reordering that, sharing a kitchen with Brass Boer, the Caribbean outpost of a three-Michelin-star Dutch restaurant, ceviche that might ruin all other ceviche for you.
An 1888 Life Saving Service station on the National Register, now serving clam chowder every New England list agrees on, with Atlantic views from the seawall deck that are hard to beat anywhere in Rhode Island.
Built on 800 feet of prime Orange Beach sand, CoastAL shares ownership with the Flora-Bama crew, live music runs 365 days a year and the pedigree checks out completely.
Orange Beach has been leveling up its culinary culture for years, and CoastAL pours craft cocktails and fresh Gulf oysters that prove the beach town takes it seriously.
Rehoboth finally got the proper craft beer destination its quality-forward dining scene deserved, a rotating Mid-Atlantic tap list for the crowd that wants more than the usual beach bar lineup.
Pacific Beach keeps getting polished, and the Coaster Saloon keeps refusing to notice: cold cheap beer, pool tables, and the kind of dive bar realness that is getting harder to find nearby.
Pull up by boat and tie off right at the table, Cobalt sits under the Perdido Pass Bridge with panoramic bay views that make Orange Beach feel like a Caribbean island for an evening.
The daytime beach version of one of Mexico’s most famous nightlife brands somehow makes the case that Coco Bongo works just as well in sunlight as it does under the lights.
Chef Jean-Luc Taulere serves his signature Coco Loco cocktail in an actual coconut on teak tables under white umbrellas, one of Costa Rica’s most beautiful beaches doing exactly what it should.
Every bar on Jost Van Dyke seems to have the same warm welcome bred into it by default, and Coco Loco’s delivers the cold drinks, warm sand formula with genuine enthusiasm to spare.
Coco’s delivers on every warm-island promise the Hilton Head name makes, frozen drinks and fresh shrimp with the sand close enough to matter.
Punta Borinquen became the Caribbean’s first World Surfing Reserve in 2018, and Cocoloba pours cold tropical cocktails on the island’s most underappreciated surf coast.
St. Pete Beach’s coconut-and-palm-tree tiki stop, cheerful rum cocktails on the Gulf circuit.
The South River gets its tropical fix at Coconut Joe’s, frozen cocktails and island flair close enough to Annapolis and DC that you can pretend the commute never happened.
Coconut shrimp and endless Atlantic views since 1997, Coconut Joe’s lets you refuel without ever actually leaving the sand.
Hamilton mixes pastel colonial architecture with the international energy of a mid-Atlantic financial capital, and Coconut Rock captures a bar culture genuinely unlike anywhere else in the Atlantic.
No hammocks, no infinity pools, just cold beer and crashing Caribbean surf on Cozumel’s wild, windswept eastern ironshore, dramatically different from the calm western beach clubs.
Coconuts leans all the way into island character, reggae and rum cocktails that turn a North Myrtle afternoon into a proper beach vacation, no passport required.
Right on the sand, Coconuts keeps it uncomplicated: frozen cocktails, cold beer, and the kind of honest beach bar afternoon that slides into evening before you notice.
The anchor of Cocoa Beach’s bar scene, Bang Bang Shrimp and Atlantic views from the upper deck.
The Potomac’s Virginia shore hides some genuinely unpretentious waterfront bars, and Coles Point is exhibit A, cold beer and fresh seafood for boaters and anglers who already know the secret.
Dock-to-dish doesn’t get more literal than this, Conch Republic’s own boats unload the catch right in front of the restaurant in the Historic Key West Bight. Grab a seat at the open-air bar, order the conch fritters everyone’s obsessed with, and watch the seaport do its thing while a 2-for-1 happy hour keeps the mojitos coming. It’s touristy in the best way, loud, lively, and impossible not to enjoy.
Boat access only to a private island in the Sir Francis Drake Channel, Cooper Island pours craft rum cocktails good enough that the charter boat crowd treats the stop as a genuine ritual.
Coral Sands has anchored Harbour Island’s hospitality scene for decades, and the beach bar right on the pink sand captures exactly the relaxed elegance that keeps this island one of the Caribbean’s most coveted.
White Bay is the BVI’s most famous anchorage, and Corsairs is where hungry sailors go when Painkillers alone are not going to cut it, fresh lobster and whole fish included.
Courtney’s hasnt changed much because nothing needed fixing, fresh rockfish, soft crabs, and cold beer at the spot where the St. Mary’s River meets the Potomac, deep in Southern Maryland’s back roads.
Anegada’s coral reef is one of the largest in the world, and Cow Wreck sits right where it breaks offshore, some of the best lobster in the entire BVI pulled straight from those waters.
Fort Myers’ honky-tonk hideout, boots on the floor and a mechanical bull in the corner.
A Tampa Bay crab house institution, blue crabs and stone crab claws by the pound on St. Pete Beach.
Dining 400 feet out over the Atlantic on Sunglow Pier, home of the Man v. Food surf and turf burger.
The Crabby’s brand’s Clearwater Beach outpost, fresh grouper and easygoing waterfront energy.
A century-old Clearwater Beach landmark since 1926, grouper and sunsets straight off the sand.
Crackers sits right on King’s Bay with 14 boat slips out back, live music at the tiki most weekends and a crab cake regulars specifically request by name.
Perched above one of the world’s most beautiful beaches at Barbados’s oldest hotel — The Crane Beach Bar has been serving cold Banks and rum punches since 1887.
Fifty-plus years watching boats come and go from the same Santa Cruz Harbor deck, the Crow’s Nest pairs fresh local seafood with the kind of view that made this spot a landmark before landmark status was even a thing.
The oyster selection here rotates daily with the tides, a serious raw bar on the working harbor of America’s most storied whaling town.
Cape Coral’s laid-back boater bar, where you tie up and step straight into the party.
Ferries arrive from St. Thomas and charter boats shove off for day sails right outside, and Cruz Bay Landing gives that entire busy harbor scene a proper bar to watch it all unfold from.
Every Jersey Shore veteran knows the name D’Jais on sight, a Belmar boardwalk institution since the 1980s that still pulls massive summer weekend crowds from two states over.
A relaxed hookah lounge off the main drag, delivering South Beach energy without the bottle-service circus.
The conch here was still in the water this morning, cracked and served on Blue Hills Beach since the 1980s, one of the Caribbean’s genuinely definitive beach bar experiences.
Harbour Island’s pink beaches are legendary enough that Daddy D’s barely has to try, and it does not, letting the sand do all the heavy lifting.
Sarasota’s daiquiri institution on Anna Maria, 30-plus flavors across three floors.
Siesta Key’s legendary 190-proof frozen daiquiri bar since 1993, over 80 flavors deep.
Midshipmen, watermen, and City Dock lifers have all called Davis’ home at some point, a dive so genuinely built by its regulars that no amount of money could fake it.
Trellis Bay near the airport is one of Tortola’s most social anchorages, and De Loose Mongoose is the reason sailors decide to stay the extra night.
An institution parked almost dead-center on Lower Bay, De Reef is a family-run, blue-and-white fixture with a raised deck overlooking a long, thin stretch of sand. Simple and unpretentious by design, with a soundtrack that punches above its weight. Hairoun and the standard Vincentian lineup at fair prices, a well-balanced house rum punch, and a food menu that’s better than the modest setting suggests – spicy island favorites alongside solid sandwiches and salads. Lower Bay draws its share of cruise-ship traffic, so expect company. What you see is what you get, and what you get holds up.
Stone Harbor balances upscale beach town polish with genuine close-knit community warmth, and Dead Dog Saloon is where that balance actually plays out over cold drinks.
A bayfront Ocean City institution with a pirate ship for the kids by day and DJs and live music by night, Dead Freddies catches the bay breeze on an open-air deck built for lingering.
Grapes grown near the ocean pick up a mineral, briny edge that Deep Sea bottles beautifully, tasted in a harbor room where that Pacific influence feels entirely appropriate.
Christ Church’s south coast is Barbados’ liveliest stretch, flat water and reliable trade winds, and Deia gives that energy a proper European-style beach club to match.
Free dock access, world-class cruising water, and Rip Raf fries with their own cult following, the Deltaville Tap is basically a mandatory stop if you are sailing the Chesapeake and not just saying you are.
Dark Wood Beach is one of Antigua’s finest stretches of sand, and Dennis has made the absolute most of it across decades of doing things right on a small island.
A ten-minute ferry from Crown Bay gets you to the USVI’s smallest, least-visited island, and Dinghy’s rewards the trip immediately, quiet beach, cold cocktails, zero cruise ship crowds.
A market-style Fort Myers Beach fish bar putting the freshest Gulf catch first, atmosphere second.
A Fort Myers Beach favorite named for a fictional marine biologist, watching the shrimp fleet roll in at Matanzas Pass.
Lee County’s enduring beachfront institution, legendary grouper sandwich and rooftop sunset views.
Southern Living named this one of the South’s best seafood dives, and Doc’s has been proving the ranking right since 1983, no-frills setting where regulars have their own stool.
The Tred Avon does something to the light here that has made Doc’s Sunset Grille famous among photographers and drinkers alike. Order accordingly and stay for the whole show.
Kent Island living means the Bay Bridge is barely in your rearview before you are already ordering crabs at Dock House, instant gratification with a creek view.
Named for the Otis Redding classic, Dock of the Bay pours cold drinks against a gritty, genuine backdrop of steel mills and working cranes at the mouth of Baltimore Harbor.
Port Clinton calls itself the Walleye Capital of the World and serves as the actual ferry gateway to Put-in-Bay and Kelleys Island. Dock’s pours fresh perch for a town that lives by the water and the walleye season.
Every sports bar wishes it had a dock. Dockside actually does, cold beer and wings with a tributary view that beats any TV in the room.
Dockside stretches its dock right out over the Potomac and keeps the tiki drinks cold to match, a genuinely enjoyable stop in a Colonial Beach that has stayed exactly as quiet as it wants to be.
Rudee Inlet’s fishing charter fleet provides the view and the catch of the day provides the menu. Dockside feels like a working waterfront because it actually is one.
Sam Calagione started the entire Dogfish Head story right here in 1995, ancient Egyptian herbs and world-record hop quantities all traced back to this single Rehoboth Beach brewpub.
A classic Magothy River dock bar in Arnold where boaters tie up and families settle in for crabs, the kind of Upper Bay afternoon that has a habit of stretching well past sunset.
Oak Bluffs Harbor’s legendary outdoor bar below Nancy’s — Donovan’s Dirty Banana frozen drinks and decades of Martha’s Vineyard memories.