Guanacaste beach experts keep pointing at Maracuya for a reason: a solid cocktail menu and the relaxed Papagayo coast atmosphere that eats an entire afternoon without you noticing.
Mare Island was the Navy’s first Pacific shipyard, and this Benicia taproom turns that history into fresh ales and stouts worth the detour off the Carquinez Strait.
The Jimmy Buffett brand built a global hospitality formula, and the Cable Beach outpost delivers exactly what that formula promises, frozen margaritas by the pitcher and zero surprises.
The full Jimmy Buffett experience on Hollywood’s iconic broadwalk, five o’clock always somewhere.
A water slide straight into the Caribbean is not a subtle move, and Margaritaville’s Mo Bay outpost owns it completely, the reliably loudest, most festive spot on the Hip Strip.
A food truck that grew into one of Seattle’s most beloved brands, Marination pairs spam musubi and kimchi fried rice with an Alki Beach view that most restaurants would kill for.
Sloths and monkeys occasionally wander by while you eat fried snapper across from Playa Espadilla, which is a very Manuel Antonio kind of interruption to an otherwise reliably good meal.
A Beach Bar, Pier Bar, Raw Bar, Sushi Bar, and Lobster House all under one tiki umbrella, Martell’s calls itself the Jersey Shore Island Getaway and the summer weekend crowds packing the pier prove the description holds up.
Named for the legendary Northern California big-wave break, Mavericks brings surf culture south to Pacific Beach without the actual danger of drowning, cold craft beer, tropical cocktails, zero pretension.
The most-recommended place in a Caribbean village most people have never heard of, Maxi’s pairs authentic Caribbean flavors with a jungle backdrop that Playa Grande does not share with anywhere else.
McFaul’s pairs the Chesapeake’s greatest food, the raw oyster, with a waterfront bar setting and a rotating selection that changes with the season and the tides.
A three-story Irish beach pub on A1A, rooftop views and equal parts pub and beach party.
Rappahannock Oyster’s flagship tasting room serves everything either raw or grilled outside, looking directly at the river the oysters came from. The Stuffin Muffin has its own devoted following, and it is, in fact, that good.
Astoria was the first permanent American settlement west of the Rockies, established 1811, and Merry Time serves its Columbia River community with the same direct, honest style that founded the place.
Serious mezcal culture finally has a proper home in the Holy City, artisanal agave spirits and the smoky, slightly mysterious atmosphere that comes with them.
Mezcalito’s runs a proper mezcal program on Cozumel’s most remote shoreline, the kind of beach bar that feels like an actual discovery instead of a tourist stop.
Waterfront dining at Hampton’s Landing Marina, where the burgers are famous, the fish is whatever you just caught, and the view is pure Texas Gulf Coast. Mickey’s is the kind of unfussy marina bar built for boaters coming off the water and locals who’ve been coming for decades, bring your own catch and they’ll clean and cook it for you. Cold beer, big portions, and a patio that doesn’t care what you’re wearing.
Manchac Louisiana’s legendary 1934 catfish institution on Lake Maurepas — thin-fried, shatters like a chip, pulled apart in flakes, served over cypress swamp water since the Depression.
The southernmost taproom of San Diego’s own Mike Hess Brewing sits blocks from the Mexican border, award-winning craft beer with a setting as good as the beer deserves.
Part of the beloved Mike’s brand, this Pasadena outpost brings the same formula that made the original a Riva Road institution: long tables, mallets, Old Bay, and cold National Bohemian on the Magothy.
The original Mike’s on Riva Road basically invented the modern Maryland crab house formula: long tables, newspapers, mallets, Old Bay, cold Natty Boh. Everyone since has just been copying the homework.
Miller’s sits on the Roanoke Sound side, a reminder the Outer Banks is as much sound as ocean, sunsets over the water that have anchored this Nags Head spot for years.
Nearly 45 years running, Kiawah’s Monday-night oyster roast on the river bank is the kind of Lowcountry tradition that outlasts every trend that tried to replace it.
San Francisco is not exactly an umbrella-drink kind of city, but Mission Rock Resort on the China Basin waterfront gets closer than anywhere else, a pub with real range and a marina view that turns Oracle Park game days properly festive.
Put-in-Bay calls itself the Key West of the North, and Mojito Bay backs that claim up completely, cold rum cocktails on a Lake Erie island that makes a whole summer weekend feel like a Caribbean escape without the flight.
The mojito gets the full dedicated-bar treatment here, fresh mint, lime, and white rum in every variation Isla Verde can imagine.
Molly Goodhead’s keeps Tarpon Springs’ sponge-docks energy alive with a proper raw bar, fresh oysters and waterfront seating a short walk from the historic docks.
Cozumel’s western reef is part of the second-largest coral reef system on Earth, and Money Bar gives divers surfacing from that underwater world exactly what they need: a cold cerveza and a beach chair to process it.
Peter Merriman built this place around the honey-lilikoi-foam Mai Tai that regulars swear is the best in Hawaii, 36 craft beers on tap and live music three times a day for the crowd that keeps coming back.
Peter Merriman helped invent Hawaii Regional Cuisine, and Monkeypod treats both the farm-to-table menu and the cocktail program with the seriousness that legacy demands. Live music fills the room seven nights a week regardless.
Wave Chaser IPA started as a strictly local Montauk operation and grew into one of the most recognized craft beer brands in the New York metro, the taproom at the source is still the best place to drink it.
South Beach’s marina-side stone crab and sunset spot, free dockage and happy hour like a local.
Aruba’s flagship Palm Beach bar — breakfast to late night, Friday BBQ buffets, live music nightly, and the island’s best Aruba Ariba cocktail between the Marriott and the Holiday Inn.
Perched on Malibu’s cliffs with celebrity-studded glamour built in, Moonshadows makes even a random Tuesday feel like an occasion. The sunset views alone are worth the reservation.
One of the Keys’ most beautiful private-beach restaurants, home of the monthly Full Moon Party.
The drive through St. Mary’s County’s farms and pine forests is basically the appetizer, Morris Point sits on the Wicomico feeling like a secret the rest of Maryland is still trying to find.
A Prohibition-era speakeasy where rum-runners once landed whiskey under cover of fog, Moss Beach Distillery comes with a resident ghost, the Blue Lady, and a cocktail named in her honor. Order it and decide for yourself whether she is still hanging around the cliffs.
Infinity pools and hammocks over turquoise water, Mr. Sancho’s has basically perfected the formula for a Cozumel cruise-day beach club.
Every major travel publication that has visited has called this one of the best beach bars in the world, the Killer Bee cocktail is legendary and the Kittitian welcome makes every visitor feel like a regular immediately.
A Vero Beach lagoon-side institution, cold craft beer with manatees and dolphins for company.
Cold Guinness and good craic work the same on the Gulf Coast as anywhere else, and Mully’s proves an Irish pub does not need a coastline to make sense, it just helps.
Bring your dog, order a cold beer, and you are basically already a regular at Mutt Lynch’s, one of the most reliably dog-friendly bars in Southern California.
Cruise passengers plan entire shore excursions around Nachi Cocom’s unlimited margaritas and reef-ringed leeward water.
Nalu skips the standard Dewey Beach formula entirely for full Hawaiian surf-culture energy, a genuinely different afternoon on a coast that mostly does one thing.
Nalu kai means sea wave in Hawaiian, and this cliff-top St. Regis bar delivers the definitive version of it, Na Pali cliffs and Hanalei Bay in one uninterrupted panorama.
Nancy’s has been serving the Oak Bluffs harbor for decades, capturing Martha’s Vineyard warmth from before the island got precious about it.
NAO layers a modern design sensibility onto the standard St. Barth beach club formula, cold rose and sun beds with a genuinely fresh aesthetic.
The Upper Bay’s most beloved waterfront bar, Nauti-Goose sprawls along the North East River with live music, cold drinks, and fresh crabs that have drawn boaters and road-trippers for decades.
Navy Beach serves Montauk’s year-round locals and summer crowd with equal warmth, consistently excellent seafood on Fort Pond Bay without any of the attitude.
Point Break was filmed here for a reason. Neptune’s Net has been serving peel-and-eat shrimp to Harley riders and Malibu regulars since before the celebrities showed up, concrete tables and no reservations included.
Fort Myers Beach’s colorful waterfront eatery, giant cocktails and Colossal Chocolate Cake included.
Nevis’s first microbrewery pours right onto Pinney’s Beach. Owners Robert and Silvia combined Western Canadian hospitality instincts with old-world Austrian brewing chops to build a genuine taproom in a tropical-alpine shell: lagers, an IPA, a stout, and a flagship Monkey Mango ale, all made on-site and now showing up in cans across the island. The kitchen backs it up with an ambitious menu running from Jamaican fish wrap to lasagna to a proper pizza list, plus a rum-forward cocktail program for anyone who’d rather skip the taps. Technically it’s more pub than beach bar, but Pinney’s sand is steps away, and nobody on this island is complaining about fresh drafts brewed a few feet from where they’re poured.
Every Tamarindo best-of list includes Nibbana for a reason, right on the sand with a drink menu solid enough to make dinner turn into an entire evening.
Under the Hanover Street Bridge on the Patapsco’s Middle Branch, Nick’s Fish House pours hand-squeezed Orange Crushes and steams crabs by the dozen on a deck with live music Thursday through Sunday. Come by car or dock your own boat.
Nick’s actually takes the food seriously, fresh Gulf shrimp and snapper pulled from the same water you are looking at while you eat it.
Oak-canopied and family-friendly, Night Heron Park runs an all-day happy hour that has convinced an entire island it is always the right time for a cold drink.
The original barefoot-chic beach club since 1998, born on Ocean Drive and copied worldwide since.
Sun beds, champagne, and electronic music turn a St. Jean afternoon into a full production, Sunday brunch here is less a meal than an event.
The Sunday pig roast here is basically its own Bahamian institution, hilltop views of both the Sea of Abaco and the Atlantic at once, boat access only.
Azure water sits steps away at Nirvana, a natural day-bar for anyone wanting their Nassau afternoon to come with an actual ocean view attached.
A legendary hidden dive covered in $90,000 of autographed dollar bills since 1931.
Nearly 50 years of Pura Vida on Playa Tamarindo, Nogui’s still runs 2-for-1 happy hour like it is 1974, and the staff still seem genuinely happy you are there.
A two-level Dona Bay tiki bar built around Southwest Florida’s most devoted sunset crowd.
The clam chowder here has been the benchmark since the 1970s, and Norma’s earns the Dungeness crab loyalty the honest way, by just getting it right for decades straight.
Savannahians have been escaping to Tybee’s quiet north end since the nineteenth century, and this bar has kept exactly that unpretentious local energy alive.
Dewey Beach transforms every Memorial Day and does not slow down until Labor Day, and Northbeach pours the cold drinks that make the whole Mid-Atlantic drive hours to be part of it.
Ocean Park sits just east of the Condado tourist circuit, and Numero Uno is where the actual island reveals itself once the crowds thin out, cold rum and fresh ceviche for the crowd that already knows the difference.
Kauai’s east side skips the resort-corridor polish entirely, and Oasis earns its name every single sunset with fresh fish and the kind of unhurried local warmth the south shore does not always bother with.
Live bands hit the oceanfront stage almost every summer night at Ocean Annie’s, the Grand Strand tradition that made the Avista Resort a destination on its own merit.
New London’s summer culture has anchored around this exact stretch of Sound sand for generations, and the Sandbar Cafe never bothered being anything more than the honest beach park bar it already is.
Daytona Beach, FL
America’s 2025 No. 1 beach bar isn’t resting on its laurels — it’s serving cold beer on the sand while a reggae band plays. The Beach Bar Bum made the trip to Daytona to find out if Ocean Deck lives up to the hype. Spoiler: it does.
Ocean Eddie’s has built its following on Virginia Beach’s actual residents, not just the summer crowd, fresh Chesapeake seafood and the kind of consistency that earns year-round loyalty.
Ocean House takes Virginia Beach’s natural seafood abundance and just runs the kitchen and bar well, which sounds simple until you realize how many places do not bother.
Puerto Rico invented rum, so a genuinely impressive craft brewery on Isla Verde beach counts as a legitimate departure, tropical-influenced IPAs for anyone who wants a break from Medalla Light.
Live bands play nearly every summer night, and the Mist has been the actual center of South County’s social life for decades, surfers, locals, and summer visitors all converging in the same weathered room.
Washington’s most popular Pacific beach destination finally got a proper craft beer anchor, a rotating PNW tap list that actually earns the taproom label.
Crystal Pier’s sunset views extend directly over the ocean, and eating fresh shrimp with the Atlantic below and the Wilmington skyline in the distance is one of the Southeast coast’s most distinctive dining experiences.
Perched two stories above the Deerfield Beach pier, where the ocean view does most of the heavy lifting.
Twenty-five thousand Instagram followers were not wrong, Ocho runs breakfast through dinner with sunset cocktails in between and earns the hype every single time.
Key West’s real neighborhood bar, where the oysters are fresh and the vibe never fakes it.
The wall begins fifty yards offshore, and Off the Wall begins immediately after, a genuine dive bar built for the dive community that made this stretch of St. Croix famous.
Whole lobsters boiled to order and corn on the cob, no frills required, Ogunquit’s lobster pound has been doing the honest New England thing for decades minutes from the beach.
Friday nights turn Barbados’ most famous fishing village into a sprawling outdoor feast, mahi-mahi and flying fish grilled to order while the entire island shows up to eat, drink, and dance in one glorious communal mess.
OJ and his family have spent decades proving that Antigua’s independent beach bars beat anything the resorts try to manufacture, grilled lobster and cold Wadadli on Crabbe Hill.
New Orleans bar since 1807 — Oscar Wilde, FDR, Andrew Jackson all drank here. The absinthe drip ritual and copper bar top are unchanged since the 19th century.
The bar back is original to 1906 and the whole town looks like it stopped aging around then too, cold beer and pool in one of California’s best-preserved Victorian beach towns.
Old Custom House has earned its spot on the Pismo pier through decades of just being consistently good, fresh Pacific seafood and California wine with the kind of unpretentious Central Coast character that never goes out of style.
Florida’s oldest waterfront restaurant sits right on the Intracoastal in Lantana, home to the largest tiki bar in South Florida, sunset views, live music, and a key lime pie regulars swear beats anything in the actual Keys.
The boats that supply the kitchen dock right outside the door at Old Princeton Landing, fresh Dungeness crab, Anchor Steam, and harbor fog rolling in exactly as advertised.
Grace Bay is one of the world’s most celebrated stretches of white sand, and Omar’s proves the best beach bar is usually the simplest one, no resort prices, no resort attitude.
An Ocean Drive classic doing people-watching and cold drinks right, no bottle service required.
Repeat DR visitors already know the best bars in Bavaro are not always inside the all-inclusive resorts, and Onno’s has built exactly that kind of loyal, independent following.
Otres Beach’s liveliest holdout, hosting Cambodia’s largest monthly Full Moon Party.
The first wind-powered brewery in the United States sits within sight of the Wright Brothers Memorial, and the turbine out front is still the first thing everyone asks about.
A harborside tavern with a wraparound bar, a sprawling patio, and tiki-style island cocktails that don’t mess around. Outriggers built its reputation on fresh-caught fish and craft beer, but it’s the sunsets over the boatyard and the weekend live music that keep people coming back. Dog-friendly, boat-accessible, and never short on a good time, this is New Smyrna’s harbor hangout done right.