Oyster Point pours fresh Pacific oysters and cold California beer for South San Francisco’s active sailing crowd, proof there is Bay Area marina life south of the postcard skyline.
St. Pete Beach’s craft beer and oyster stop, 50-plus brews with Gulf views to match.
Seattle gave the world Hendrix, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam, so a Capitol Hill live music bar has real standards to live up to, and Ozzie’s clears the bar without breaking a sweat.
San Diego takes its craft beer very seriously, and the PB AleHouse on Garnet Avenue has earned its reputation as one of the city’s most reliable rotating taps, pub food included.
Cardiff-by-the-Sea has refined oceanfront dining without losing its soul, and Pacific Coast Grill is the proof, sweeping Pacific views paired with locally sourced California cooking.
Wild Nights on Wednesdays and Saturdays spill the dance floor right onto the beach, and Pacifico has been Tamarindo’s anchor bar long enough that half the town treats it as a landmark.
Sandusky is home to Cedar Point, one of the world’s greatest amusement parks, and Paddle Bar gives the city a proper waterfront to unwind at after the roller coasters.
You paddle out on a board or kayak to earn your cocktail, then drink it floating in Maho Bay’s crystal-clear water, adventure built directly into the beach bar formula.
Misquamicut is Rhode Island’s most popular beach, and Paddy’s gives it the beach club energy it has earned, live music in season and a crowd that returns every single summer.
Built on a palapa pier over the Caribbean with the Belize Barrier Reef visible offshore, Palapa Bar pours cold Belikin above the longest continuous reef in the Western Hemisphere.
A literal floating dock bar in one of the wildest, most remote wetlands on the Bay, Palm Beach Willies has no real equivalent anywhere on the Chesapeake. Come by boat if you can, by road if you must, just come.
Clearwater Beach’s oldest beachside restaurant since 1926, timeless grouper sandwich and sunset views.
Tables on the sand under ancient trees where the Las Baulas estuary meets the Pacific, Pangas is beautiful enough that it has become one of Costa Rica’s top wedding venues, which tells you everything about the sunset.
Buckeye Lake has been Ohio’s summer playground since the 1800s, and Papa Boo’s captures that generations-deep Columbus-area lake tradition with zero unnecessary polish.
The full moon parties here are genuinely legendary, and Tulum practically invented the bohemian eco-resort beach club format that Papaya Playa still leads on its own beach beneath the Maya ruins.
A Space Coast neighborhood bar on the Intracoastal, real over shiny with spectacular river sunsets.
Pensacola Beach’s top-voted bar, live bands nightly on the Santa Rosa Sound side of the island.
Visibility runs to 100 feet on a clear day in the water surrounding Cozumel, which makes Paradise Beach a genuinely earned name instead of just marketing.
Road Town’s nightlife needed some actual infrastructure for the evenings that outlast sundowners, and Paradise Club supplies the energy once the charter boats have all anchored.
The parking fee is steep, but it buys you access to a private Malibu beach that has appeared in more movies than almost anywhere else in California, worth every penny on a clear day.
A classic Pass-a-Grille beach lunch spot, grouper sandwich in hand within two minutes of the sand.
Rockport is one of Texas’ most underrated coastal escapes, and Paradise Key backs that claim up with a dog-friendly deck, dockside boat access, and crab cakes made with actual bay shrimp.
Parker House is a Victorian-era bar one block from the Atlantic in Sea Isle City. The wraparound porch at the right hour is hard to argue with.
Passages serves the sailing community that calls Rock Hall home port with cold beer, crabs, and the kind of reliable harbor warmth that keeps cruisers coming back at the end of every passage across the Bay.
New Orleans’ legendary Pat O’Brien’s invented the Hurricane cocktail in 1942 — 29 ounces of rum and passion fruit, flambeaux courtyard, dueling pianos until 4 AM.
A rooftop deck that catches the sunset perfectly, strong cocktails, and enough see-and-be-seen energy to remind you Pacific Beach still knows how to throw a party.
One of the Bahamas’ most storied hospitality names backs this beach club, turquoise Exuma Sound views for sailors and island-hoppers who have been showing up since the property’s earliest days.
French polish meets Caribbean warmth in the seamless way only St. Barth manages, Pearl Beach pours cold rose against water clear enough to see straight to the bottom.
Pensacola Beach institution since 1981 — legendary Gulf Coast oyster bar with raw, steamed, char-grilled and Rockefeller preparations, the benchmark grouper sandwich, and honest tiki bar prices.
A pirate-themed Pensacola Beach institution serving fresh oysters since the 1980s.
Perched on top of the 61st Street Fishing Pier, this is the best bar-stool view on the entire island, full stop. Watching people fish directly below you while working through a Blue Galveston Pina Colada is a genuinely surreal little pleasure.
A family-run Old Florida tiki bar on Isle of Capri, resident pelicans sharing the dock.
Wood-fired pizza and the Tsunami Stout under vaulted ceilings in the shadow of Haystack Rock, Pelican’s northernmost outpost sits inside the most photographed beach view in the Pacific Northwest.
Three founders built the only beachfront brewpub in the Pacific Northwest in 1996 with more passion than practical know-how, and the Kiwanda Cream Ale born on that patio, with Haystack Rock rising from the surf and dory boats launching below, has been proving the gamble right ever since.
Phil’s Nest Seafood Market sits right next door for the Dungeness crab boil, and the Siletz Bay sunset through the tidal estuary makes this Pelican outpost one of the most beautiful bay views on the whole Oregon coast.
Named for the brown pelicans patrolling the bays, Pelicans keeps its whole operation as uncomplicated as its namesake, cold drinks and the Caribbean right there.
Duval County’s liquor license #1 since Prohibition ended, a wood-paneled time machine in Neptune Beach.
Sculptor Randolph Johnston sailed into Little Harbour in the 1950s and never left, and his son Pete still runs the resulting art gallery, bronze foundry, and beach bar combo, cold beer surrounded by actual bronze sculptures.
New England-style lobster on Lake Erie sounds like it should not work, and Pickle Bill’s proves freshwater and saltwater seafood can absolutely coexist beautifully.
Fridays here are Montego Bay’s biggest party of the week, live music and harbor views over one of Jamaica’s most active ports.
Herb Caen said there was nothing much to do on this stretch of waterfront except Pier 23 and Red’s, a backhanded compliment that still holds. Johnny Depp interviewed Hunter S. Thompson over tequila here, Sammy Hagar threw a launch party here, and the crab and chowder have not needed to change a thing since 1985.
Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s War of 1812 fleet was based right here, and Pier 6 pours cold drinks from the only rooftop bar in Pennsylvania with an actual Great Lakes view.
Key West’s most civilized beach bar, a quiet private stretch of sand off Duval Street chaos.
Beachfront BBQ bar wedged between Morey’s Piers and the Atlantic — smoked brisket, live music daily, dog-friendly beach, and a Bloody Mary pitcher that’s basically lunch.
PCB’s pier-front institution since 1984, famous for frozen daiquiris and BBQ ribs over the Gulf.
The neon pink pony sign has been an Alabama beach landmark since 1947, and the Bushwacker here has earned every bit of its house-signature reputation.
Folly Beach is Charleston’s funky answer to the polished resort formula, and Pinky’s captures that spirit exactly, surfers and artists mixed in with the Charleston day-trippers.
New Bern was North Carolina’s first state capital and the actual birthplace of Pepsi-Cola, and Pinky’s gives that historic riverfront town a proper upstairs pub to match.
The Bahamas’ own craft brewery finally gives Nassau something other than rum cocktails to order, pirate theming with a genuine wink attached.
Boaters and locals tie up side by side on the Rhode River at Pirate’s Cove, a legendary stop on the Chesapeake boating circuit where the crabs are consistent and the Saturday crowd never seems to leave.
Norman Island is widely believed to have inspired Treasure Island, and Pirates Bight leans into that swashbuckling reputation with total conviction, one of the sailing world’s great natural anchorages right outside.
Pirates Cove sits on the Styx River deep in Baldwin County’s rural inland waterways, cold beer for the people who actually live along Alabama’s quieter tidal creeks.
Alabama Gulf Coast’s beloved off-the-beaten-path bar since 1957 on Arnica Bay — accessible by car, boat, or paddleboard, with the best Bushwacker south of Flora-Bama.
A pirate-themed John’s Pass bar where dolphins swim by while you eat grouper tacos.
Edgar Allan Poe was stationed at Fort Moultrie right here in 1827, an experience that inspired The Gold Bug, and every burger on the menu is named after one of his stories, Poe wallpaper in the bathroom included.
Affordable beachfront Gulf seafood on Miramar Beach, honest food at honest prices.
Generations of the same families keep returning to Jim’s poolside setup at the Holiday Inn Oceanfront, warm service and cold drinks turned into an actual Hilton Head ritual.
Great name, greater views, Poor Man’s watches jet skis and kayakers do their thing across Little Bay from two decks worth driving three hours to find.
Sitting at the northern tip of Mustang Island across the ship channel, Port A Beach Lodge gives arriving visitors a proper welcome bar to bookend a Gulf Coast beach stay.
Porthole Pub keeps Ocean Shores honest through the long gray Pacific Northwest winters, not just the summer crowd, cold drafts and pub food that never bothered dressing up for tourists.
This is the Eastern Shore before anyone discovered it: steamed crabs and cold beer overlooking the working Choptank waterfront at a Cambridge institution locals have been eating at since forever.
The Pacific washes right up to the patio at Poseidon, Del Mar’s quintessential on-the-sand restaurant where horse racing season adds an extra jolt to an already good time.
Sailors talk about Anegada in almost protective tones, and Potter’s is exactly why, unpretentious drinks and local lobster steps from world-class reef snorkeling.
Locals call it POW, the essential post-bonfire stop after Dockweiler, the only LA County beach where bonfires are still legal. There is nothing special about the bar itself, which is exactly why everyone loves it.
Playa del Rey never gets the attention its neighbors do, and Prince O’Whales is fine with that, cold beer, a good jukebox, and a bar that serves its own community instead of performing for tourists.
Named for Oregon’s Public Beach Law, the principle that the entire coastline belongs to everyone, Public Coast pours fresh pints with the same community-first spirit the law was built on.
Ocean City’s premier live-rock venue on the Boardwalk, the Purple Moose cranks local and regional bands every summer night and turns into Bike Week’s legendary headquarters.
At Lighthouse Point Marina in Canton, Pusser’s Landing brings the British Virgin Islands rum bar brand to Baltimore: Painkillers, nautical decor, and marina views that are a welcome change from Federal Hill’s polish.
Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry won the Battle of Lake Erie right offshore in 1813, and this island brewery has been fueling Put-in-Bay’s summer festival scene with house-distilled spirits ever since.
The RBC Heritage brings the PGA Tour to Sea Pines every April, and the Quarterdeck watches over the Harbour Town Lighthouse and its ranked sailing fleet the other 51 weeks a year too.
Long communal tables and a rotating IPA list make Queen Anne Beerhall feel like the most democratic drinking experience in Seattle, everyone gets the same table and the same good beer.
Quito Rymer has been playing his own original acoustic Caribbean music on this exact Cane Garden Bay stage for decades, a genuine BVI legend performing at his own bar, cold rum drinks included.
Fresh-brewed daily with real ginger, Rachel’s turns a Pike Place Market stop into a proper cocktail experience, right in the middle of the most vibrant public market on the planet.
The literal birthplace of NASCAR, now an oceanfront beach bar with a racing museum built in.
Cold oysters and live blues from the Deep South tradition Georgia has always nurtured, Rafters takes both halves of its name equally seriously.
Part of Maryland’s premier independent concert promoter, Rams Head Dockside brings serious live music booking to a Magothy River waterfront setting the group’s other venues can’t match.
Full moon parties with bonfires and fire dancers earned Santa Teresa its reputation as the Saint-Tropez of Costa Rica, and Ranchos Itauna is where that reputation actually lives.
Bob Marley’s music and cold Red Stripe against crashing surf and wild mangroves, Rasta’s has been the most colorful stop on Cozumel’s undeveloped eastern shore for decades.
A sophisticated raw bar on Baltimore’s waterfront, Raw and Refined pairs a rotating Chesapeake oyster selection with a craft cocktail program built to match, the pick when the city warrants something genuinely special.
Since 1945 Ray’s has watched Shilshole Bay boat traffic drift past the Olympics from the same upstairs cafe bar. The salmon has had eight decades to get this good.
Red Dogs is the real Wrightsville Beach, the one that shows up past Labor Day when the crowds thin out and the surfing and boating community quietly reclaims its own beach.
Named for the prized game fish that defines OBX fishing culture, Red Drum Taphouse gives the Outer Banks craft beer community an actual gathering spot to call its own.
Right next door to Harris Crab House, Red Eye’s is where the party goes after the crab feast wraps up, the music turns up once the sun goes down and the channel traffic becomes the evening’s entertainment.
The Red Shell leans hard into gloriously authentic waterman shanty energy, cold beer and steamed crabs in a crab town so far down the Delmarva that only people who actually want to be there ever show up.
A 1984 pier fire took out everything around it, and Red’s survived because a fireboat literally named Phoenix saved it. Sourdough burgers with no lettuce and no tomato, those are the rules, on a patio that stares straight at the Bay Bridge. Anthony Bourdain called it where locals actually go. He was not wrong.
Reedville Market pairs dock access with a rooftop bar, which is basically the Northern Neck formula for a good time, fresh local seafood and enough charm to make even non-boaters wish they had shown up by water.
At the southeastern tip of Saint Kitts with Nevis shimmering across the strait — cold Carib, grilled lobster, and one of the Caribbean’s most underrated beach views.
At the mouth of the St. Mary’s River where it meets the Potomac, the Reluctant Navigator rewards every mile of the Route 5 drive with fresh local seafood and some of the most remote water views in Maryland.
The original marquee is still intact from 1914, a repurposed theater turned cocktail lounge that has quietly watched over a century of Belltown change from the same room.
Frederiksted’s waterfront has been quietly reviving itself, and Rhythms on Rainbow Beach is the reward for visitors willing to skip Christiansted and actually go find it.
Since 1974, Rick’s Cafe has been the definitive answer to ‘where do we watch the sunset in Negril?’ — cliff diving, Red Stripe, and that view that makes you question every life decision that didn’t bring you here sooner.
Bright lemon-yellow walls on Grace Bay Beach set the tone before you’ve ordered a drink: simple, cheerful, and unmistakably beach bum. Rickie’s keeps things basic by design and delivers on it, with a warm, family-style welcome whether it’s your first visit or your fiftieth. The rum punch – made with local Bambarra Rum and mixed by Petey – has a well-earned reputation for putting you on the sand rather than the barstool if you order more than three. Solid Turks Head craft beers, seven ways to order conch and grouper, and reasonable prices for the neighborhood. Best enjoyed as a sunset spot; the sky puts on a show right off the deck.
Treasure Island’s rock-and-roll bar with three full bars and NFL Sunday Ticket on 20-plus screens.
The name says everything, and Curacao’s Dutch roots mean cold Dutch beer is always on hand alongside the local rum. Rileks delivers the fundamentals without complicating a single thing.
The west coast’s premier craft brewery gives Rincon’s surfers and expats something beyond Medalla Light, tropical-influenced ales built for the town’s actual surf culture.
Old Mandeville’s beloved Lake Pontchartrain waterfront institution — million-dollar Causeway views, Chef Roslyn Prieto’s Redfish Atchafalaya, and Key Lime Pie best ordered three at a time.
RipTydz brings live entertainment and strong cocktails to a prime Grand Strand beachfront spot, colorful energy that makes the most of the Atlantic access right outside.
Lord Cornwallis surrendered on the shore visible from this deck in 1781, which is a genuinely wild fact to have with your seafood. The York River views alone make Riverwalk worth the trip.