The Best Gay Beaches in the World, From Fire Island to Mykonos

Last updated: September 14, 2026 · By Dylan Rush

The short answer: The best gay beaches in the world are Elia on Mykonos, Bassa Rodona in Sitges, the Kiosk 7 stretch of Maspalomas on Gran Canaria, the Farme de Amoedo section of Ipanema in Rio, and Playa Los Muertos in Puerto Vallarta. In the US, the ones people fly for are Fire Island, Herring Cove in Provincetown and Sebastian Street Beach in Fort Lauderdale. Most gay beaches are not nude beaches. A few have legal clothing optional sections. And plenty of older guides still list spots whose rules have changed.

We run gay men's retreats on the water in Costa Rica, Mexico, Bali and Thailand, so beach days are a big part of our week, and the famous gay beaches come up on our calls all the time. We checked every beach here against 2026 sources, and where something has changed, we say so. If you are planning a whole trip rather than a beach day, our guide to gay vacations is the wider view.

The best gay beaches in the world

Each one has a stretch of sand people know as the gay section and enough regulars that you are never the only one there. They are grouped by region, not ranked.

Elia Beach and JackieO', Mykonos, Greece

Elia is one of the largest beaches on Mykonos and the most popular with gay men. Face the sea and walk right. There is a rainbow flag at that end, the crowd gets gayer the closer you get to it, and past the rocks is a smaller cove that is almost entirely gay, with some nudity. You rent a sunbed and umbrella and order from your lounger. The bus from Mykonos Town takes about 25 minutes, or you can take the boat from Platis Gialos.

For the party version, go to JackieO' Beach Club on Super Paradise Beach: a pool, a restaurant, a mostly gay crowd and drag shows every evening. Its 2026 season opened on May 15. Most people do Elia in the afternoon and end up at JackieO' by sunset.

Bassa Rodona, Sitges, Spain

Sitges is a small beach town about 40 minutes south of Barcelona by train, and Bassa Rodona is its gay beach. It sits right on the seafront promenade, below the Picnic restaurant, about a ten minute walk from the station. It is packed from July through September, and busy again in June around Sitges Pride. There is a beach bar and loungers to rent. If you want one, get there early.

Sitges has two more gay beaches for men who want fewer clothes. Balmins, a ten minute walk past the church, is nudist. Playa del Muerto, a long walk or a short taxi ride beyond the Terramar hotel, is nudist and almost entirely gay. It is pebbles, not sand, so bring something to lie on.

Maspalomas and Kiosk 7, Gran Canaria, Spain

The Maspalomas dunes hold the big gay beach of the Canary Islands, and the meeting point is a beach bar called Kiosk 7, roughly halfway between the edge of the dunes and the Maspalomas lighthouse. You get there on foot: about half an hour across the dunes from the Riu Palace end of Playa del Inglés, or along the shore from the lighthouse. The kiosk sells drinks and snacks, rents sunbeds, and keeps daytime hours, roughly 10:30 to 6:30. The sector around it is a gay nudist area. Nobody makes you take anything off.

The Canaries stay warm through the winter, so this is the gay beach that still works in January, when the Mediterranean ones are empty.

Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Rio's gay beach is the section of Ipanema in front of Rua Farme de Amoedo, between lifeguard posts 8 and 9. The rainbow flags make it obvious. The street behind it is lined with gay bars, so the beach and the night out are the same few blocks. This is also the part of Ipanema where phone thieves work hardest. Bring cash for the vendors, leave the jewelry at the hotel and keep your phone in a zipped pocket.

Hilton Beach, Tel Aviv, Israel

Hilton Beach sits below the Hilton hotel, next to Independence Park, and has long been Tel Aviv's unofficial gay beach. The crowd is mixed, gay and straight, locals and visitors, and it is busiest on weekends and during Pride week in June. One honest note: when the US State Department renewed its advisory for Israel on August 26, 2026, it kept it at Level 3, Reconsider Travel. Read your own government's current advisory before you book.

Mar Bella, Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona's main gay beach is Mar Bella, in Poblenou, about a ten minute walk from Selva de Mar on metro line L4. It is the city's nudist beach, which in practice means clothing optional, and plenty of men keep their swimsuits on. Face the sea and look right, toward the rocks against a small mound. That end is the gay nude area, and the beach bar Chiringuito BeGay is where people meet. The season starts around May and peaks in August.

Praia 19, Costa da Caparica, near Lisbon, Portugal

Praia 19 is Portugal's best known gay beach and an official nude beach, designated in 1995. It is on the long Costa da Caparica coast south of Lisbon, and it takes its name from stop 19 of the Transpraia beach train, which runs along the coast from June to September. Drive over the 25 de Abril Bridge, take a bus to Costa da Caparica and ride the train, or walk about 15 minutes from Fonte da Telha. The dunes behind it are big, so there is room to spread out.

Lady Bay, Sydney, Australia

Lady Bay, also called Lady Jane, is a small harbor beach at Watsons Bay in Sydney's eastern suburbs. It was declared a legal nude beach in December 1976, one of the first in Sydney. The crowd is mostly men and mostly gay, and the local bears club holds regular beach days there. It is tiny compared with Bondi, and that is most of the appeal.

Several of these have resorts on or near the sand. Our guide to the best all-inclusive gay resorts covers where to stay.

Gay friendly beaches in Mexico and Costa Rica

Playa Los Muertos, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

The gay section of Los Muertos starts around the Blue Chairs Resort and runs south past Mantamar Beach Club. Blue Chairs is the original, named for the blue beach chairs that have marked that stretch for decades. Mantamar is the big production, with pool decks, DJs and a sunset party. The beach is busiest from about 2pm until sunset, and high season runs December through April, when visitors from the US and Canada come south for the winter. It is not a nude beach. Our guide to gay resorts in Mexico covers the hotels on and above this beach.

Zipolite, Oaxaca, Mexico

Zipolite, on the Oaxaca coast, is Mexico's only legal nude beach. The Pochutla municipality made nudity legal there in 2016, and the town holds a nudist festival on the first weekend of February. The main beach is clothing optional and mixed. Playa del Amor, the small cove over the rocks at the east end, is where gay men head, and most people there are nude. Nudity is legal. Public sex is not.

Playitas, Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

Manuel Antonio is Costa Rica's gay beach town, and its gay beach is Playitas, the small cove past the western end of Playa Espadilla. You reach it by crossing the rocks at the end of Espadilla, which only works at low tide, so check the tide table for the walk there and the walk back. It used to be clothing optional. It is not anymore, because development has grown up around it, so keep your swimsuit on. Our guide to whether Costa Rica is gay friendly covers the rest of Manuel Antonio.

Best gay beaches in the US

Most of the classic US gay beaches have a gay resort town behind them. Northeast first, then Florida, California and the Midwest.

Fire Island Pines and Cherry Grove, New York

Fire Island is a car-free barrier island off Long Island, and two of its hamlets, Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines, have been gay summer communities from the 1930s and 1940s on. You get there by ferry from Sayville. Cherry Grove is the older, more mixed and more laid-back of the two, with a bigger lesbian crowd. The Pines is the more polished, gay men's side, known for its modernist houses. The beach in front of each is wide and long, and the further east you walk, the fewer clothes you see.

Know the rules, though. Nudity on these beaches is against New York State law. Local police have historically left the community beaches alone, and park rangers enforce the law on National Seashore land. If you see a sign, follow it.

Herring Cove, Provincetown, Massachusetts

Herring Cove is Provincetown's most popular beach and part of the Cape Cod National Seashore. From the last parking lot, walk left. The first stretch is popular with women, and further along is the men's section. The beach faces west, so it is one of the few places on the East Coast where you can watch the sun set over the ocean, and a lot of people stay for exactly that. The further left you walk, the more nudity you see, but nudity here is technically illegal. Rangers have mostly looked the other way, which is not the same as permission.

Sebastian Street Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Fort Lauderdale's gay beach is the stretch along A1A between Sebastian Street and Castillo Street, a short walk from the gay guesthouses of North Beach Village, several of which fly the rainbow flag. It is public and free, with umbrella rentals nearby. If you want the easiest gay beach trip in the country, this is probably it.

12th Street Beach and Haulover, Miami, Florida

South Beach's gay beach is at 12th Street and Ocean Drive. You find it by the lifeguard tower painted in rainbow stripes, designed by the architect William Lane and unveiled by the city of Miami Beach in June 2022. It is an easy walk from the hotels and cafes on Ocean Drive.

For clothing optional, drive about 20 minutes north to Haulover Beach Park, between Bal Harbour and Sunny Isles Beach. Miami-Dade County officially designates the north end of the park as clothing optional, roughly between lifeguard towers 12 and 16, and the gay crowd collects toward the northern end of that stretch.

Higgs Beach, Key West, Florida

Key West has no nude beach and no big gay beach scene. Its unofficial gay beach is Higgs Beach, less than a mile south of the Duval Street bars. For clothing optional, gay men use the pools at men-only guesthouses like Island House instead.

Black's Beach, San Diego, California

Black's Beach sits below the cliffs of La Jolla and is one of the largest clothing optional beaches in the US. You reach it by hiking down from the Torrey Pines Gliderport. At the bottom, turn right and walk north about ten minutes to the gay section. The legal detail matters here. Nudity is tolerated on the northern part of the beach, which the state park manages. On the southern part, which the city manages, it has been prohibited from 1977 on. The gay crowd is in the north. Stay there.

Will Rogers State Beach, Los Angeles, California

The gay stretch of Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades has its own nickname, Ginger Rogers Beach, and gay men have gathered there from the 1940s on. In June 2023, Los Angeles County painted lifeguard towers 17 and 18 in Progress Pride colors to recognize that history. Vandals defaced them within days, and the county investigated it as a hate crime. Find towers 17 and 18 and you have found the beach.

Johnson's Beach, Russian River, California

Not every gay beach is on the ocean. Guerneville, about 90 minutes north of San Francisco in the redwoods, has been a gay resort town from the early 1970s on, and its beach is on the Russian River. Johnson's Beach, in the middle of town, is where people float, paddle and lie on the pebbles all summer, and during Lazy Bear Week it hosts one of the week's big tea dances. Bring water shoes.

Hollywood Beach, Chicago, Illinois

Chicago's gay beach is officially Kathy Osterman Beach, and everyone calls it Hollywood Beach. It runs from Hollywood Avenue to Ardmore Avenue in Edgewater, where DuSable Lake Shore Drive ends. It started in the summer of 1991, when a local man and a few friends set up a casual volleyball game on a mostly empty beach, and it grew by word of mouth. In 1993 the beach was renamed for Kathy Osterman, the late Edgewater alderperson. Hundreds of LGBTQ+ Chicagoans still spend summer weekends there, and volleyball is still part of it.

Poodle Beach, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

Poodle Beach is the south end of the Rehoboth boardwalk, near Queen Street, and it has been the gay stretch of the beach for decades. In June 2026, the Delaware Public Archives unveiled a state historical marker for it at Prospect Street and the South Boardwalk. Rehoboth is a small, walkable town, and on a summer Saturday Poodle Beach is where most of its gay visitors end up.

Clothing optional and nude gay beaches, explained honestly

A lot of people search for gay nude beaches, so here is the straight version.

Most gay beaches are not nude beaches. Bassa Rodona, Ipanema, Sebastian Street, 12th Street, Los Muertos, Playitas, Hollywood Beach and Poodle Beach are swimsuit beaches. Showing up expecting otherwise is a quick way to get a ticket.

A handful are legally nude or officially clothing optional. The north end of Haulover in Miami, Zipolite in Mexico, Praia 19 near Lisbon and Lady Bay in Sydney all have legal or officially designated status. Spain's beaches are generally relaxed about it too, which is how Balmins, Playa del Muerto, Mar Bella and the dunes at Maspalomas work the way they do.

Some are tolerated, not legal. The northern part of Black's Beach, the far end of Herring Cove and the eastern stretches of Fire Island are in this group. Nudity happens, enforcement is rare, and the law has not changed. Tolerated means someone can decide to enforce it on the day you are there.

The same line applies everywhere. Being nude on a legal nude beach is fine. Sex on the beach or in the dunes is illegal on every beach on this list, legal nude ones included, and it is how gay sections get shut down for everyone.

How to tell if a beach is actually gay friendly

A beach is not gay friendly because a list says so. Here is what we check.

• A section people can name. Real gay beaches have a spot you can point to, like a lifeguard tower number or a beach bar. "The whole beach is gay friendly" usually means there is no gay section.
• A recent source. Beaches change. Playitas in Manuel Antonio stopped being clothing optional. On Patong Beach in Phuket, the old gay stretch in front of La Flora Resort used to have its own umbrellas and loungers, and those are no longer allowed, though gay travelers still gather just south of it near KUDO Beach Club. Check that what you are reading was updated in the last year or two.
• The law around it. A welcoming beach in a country with hostile laws is a different trip from a welcoming beach in a country with marriage equality. Our guide to the safest countries for LGBTQ+ travel is the quick way to check.
• The town behind it. The strongest gay beaches sit next to gay bars, gay guesthouses or a gay neighborhood: Rua Farme de Amoedo, North Beach Village, Puerto Vallarta's Zona Romántica. A gay beach with nothing behind it tends to be quieter and cruisier.
• What people posted recently. Photos tagged at the beach this season tell you more than a guide from years ago.

For finding the same thing away from the beach, our guide on how to find LGBTQ+ safe spaces abroad goes further.

Gay beach etiquette

• Ask before you take photos. Not everyone on a gay beach is out at home, and a stranger's photo can out someone. On a nude section, do not take photos with other people in them at all.
• Undress in the right section. Walk to the clothing optional part first, then take your suit off. Not on the way there.
• Sit on a towel on a nude beach. It is basic courtesy on shared loungers and seats.
• Say hello instead of staring. Most gay beaches are social, and a hello goes a lot further than a long look.
• Stay off the dunes unless there is a path. Dunes are protected at many of these beaches, Maspalomas included, and wandering into them is where trouble usually starts.
• Tip the beach bar staff. They are the ones who remember you next year.
• Sunscreen, water, shade. Obvious, and still the most common reason a beach day ends early.

Going to a gay beach alone

Most people do the first time, and it is easier than it sounds. Pick a beach with a bar or a kiosk, so you have somewhere to sit and an easy way to start talking. Go on a weekend afternoon, and take the lounger next to the busy part, not the empty end. And keep your phone and wallet on you rather than on your towel, especially at big city beaches like Ipanema.

If the real goal is making friends rather than getting a tan, a beach is a hit or miss way to do it. Our guide for single gay men traveling solo has approaches that work better.

A beach week with your people

Here is what we hear on our calls. Men look up the best gay beaches because they want a week where being gay is the default and the guys around them are potential friends. A famous gay beach gets you part of the way there. You still fly in alone, stay alone, and hope the right people are on the next lounger.

Our retreats take the hoping out of it. We run them in Costa Rica, Mexico, Bali and Thailand, in a private villa with a group of gay men who all applied for the same reason. Mornings are coached training at the gym. Afternoons are mostly on the water: a private yacht day with snorkeling, paddleboards, beach time. Most of our guys arrive solo, and nobody spends the week on their own.

If that sounds like the beach trip you actually want, our gay fitness retreats page explains how the week works, or go straight to Costa Rica or Mexico. A $500 deposit locks your spot when you are ready. Either way, our LGBTQ+ travel packing list covers what to bring.

Sources: Travel Gay on Elia Beach, JackieO' Mykonos, Gay Sitges Guide, GayPV on Playa Los Muertos, Zipolite and Black's Beach (Wikipedia), The Globetrotter Guys on Manuel Antonio (updated July 2026), on Miami and on Barcelona, Lisbon Beaches Guide on Praia 19, Fire Island Pines Historical Society, WSVN on the 12th Street tower, LAist on Ginger Rogers Beach, WBEZ on Hollywood Beach, Washington Blade on Poodle Beach, and the US Embassy Jerusalem travel advisory, all read on September 14, 2026.