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.
All-outdoor Naples tiki hut with shuffleboard, daily live music, and neighborhood prices.
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.
A thatched palapa bar out on Galveston Bay in Bacliff, running live music with no cover, one town up the shoreline from San Leon.
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.
Ask for the Moko Jumbie, named for the Caribbean stilt-walking spirit. It is not written on anything.
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 Echo is on Meads Bay, the same stretch as Straw Hat, Blanchards and Leon’s. It is listed as a restaurant rather than a beach bar, which on this bay generally means table service and a bill to match.
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.
The polished end of the Philipsburg boardwalk, and the one still open after dark when the rest of the strip shuts with the ships.
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.
Bonaire beach club on Kings Beach at Punt Vierkant, where the Dutch Friday vrijmibo runs from five until eleven with your feet in the sand.
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.
Olas is a wooden shack in the middle of Shoal Bay East, run by Bev, who also runs the Fountain resort, and his partner Eulandy. Tacos and Mexican plates instead of the ribs-and-crayfish standard of this beach, plus a fresh margarita Eulandy makes herself and topped tostones large enough to count as lunch on their own.
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.
Lantana, FL
Arguably 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.
Two stories over Mobile Bay on the Causeway since 1985, with a boat dock, an award-winning gumbo and cocktail sauce you mix at the table yourself.
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.
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.
Nat Richardson’s Palm Grove is the only building on Junk’s Hole, at the end of a mile and a half of dirt and coral road on Anguilla’s eastern end. There is no electricity out there, which is why everything comes off a grill.
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.
Housed in the 1880 Frapart Hotel, the last of Mandeville’s resort hotels, with the final wooden sled from the lake’s Shoot-the-Shoot slide on the wall.
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.