Dewey Beach, Delaware is the best beach town in America. I have been going to Dewey and the surrounding Delaware beach towns of Bethany, Rehoboth and Ocean City, Maryland since college. Dewey is by far the most fun and hosts some of the best beach bars and live music venues in the whole country.
The best thing about Dewey Beach is that you can walk everywhere. The whole town is only a mile or so long and not even a mile wide between the ocean and the bay. It is the perfect weekend summer getaway to party and eat good seafood.
The hardest thing about Dewey Beach is finding a place to stay. There are several small little hotels in Dewey itself and in Rehoboth. If you go further south on the Delmarva Peninsula to Ocean City, Maryland there are plenty of other hotels etc.
The best thing to do in Dewey Beach is rent an apartment or a town house. If you have 6-10 people then that’s the best value and you get a nice place to cram a bunch of people in for a decent price. My friends and I do this at least twice every summer and it is one of my favorite things to do every year. I never miss it, no matter where in the world I am.
My favorite thing in Dewey Beach is jam session at the Bottle & Cork; which calls itself the greatest rock and roll bar in the world. I have to say I don’t know many better, especially not at the beach. Jam session rages Saturday and Sunday afternoons all summer featuring some great local cover bands, many of whom I’ve seen since my college days at the University of Maryland.
Mr. Greengenes and Loveseed Mamajump are my two favorites and have been a mid Atlantic college town and east coast beach staple for years. Loveseed actually used to be the official band of the Washington Redskins when I was in college and played the 5th quarter after every game.
Aside from the Bottle & Cork, there are several other great bars with live music each night. The Rusty Rudder is a great place that gets beyond packed during holidays but is always good. Most people end up at the Rudder at some point each night.
North Beach is out on the bay and features some great live acts and has a great bar set up that is indoor and outdoor. The Lighthouse is more chill and has a dance floor inside of the great wrap around deck and laid back atmosphere outside. It’s the best bar to have sunset drinks as the sun sets right over the bay. The Lighthouse also has the best food of any of the bars.
The most famous bar in town is the legendary Starboard. It is home to suicide Sundays, where people line up starting at 9am Sunday morning to drink all day, play beer pong and drink the local favorite, orange crushes-which are delicious. Just be careful because you can easily drink too many and end up falling all over yourself at the bar like some of my friends have in recent years! Also, keep in mind, the Starboard gets packed and is the smallest of the bars in town.
That aside, Dewey is a great place to get shrimp and crabs. Crabbers Cove has the best crabs in town and is a great spot in Dewey for an all you can eat crab feast; which is another of my all time favorite things to do.
The peel and eat shrimp are great too but Ed’s across from the Starboard has the best in my view. The service at Ed’s sucks. It’s always college kids and an angry old lady working it but the food is worth the wait.
Dewey Beach, as noted in the title, has a beach. It is a great beach too. The east coast beaches are very underrated up and down the coast from South Carolina up to Massachusetts. The water may be chilly until about August but you get used to it really quick and it’s a great relief from the high summer temperatures.
Besides, have you ever been in the ocean in Southern California? It’s not warm, that’s a huge misnomer. The east coast beaches are just as nice, usually cleaner and the water actually gets used by non-surfers in wet suits. The Delmarva (an acronym of sorts for Delaware, Maryland, Virginia) beaches are great and Dewey is as good as any of them.
I will not get into specifics but Dewey is essentially like Las Vegas without the casinos. The partying in Dewey is as good as anywhere in the country and the best thing is you can walk everywhere. There are also a ton of cops with nothing better to do than to stop any stupid fights or other indiscretions that some idiots may have on top of a car or otherwise. A word of advice though if a cop stops you; don’t run away! They will chase, tackle and beat the hell out of you! I have a buddy that can attest to that! Man I wish I could tell the real story!
Anyway, I know most of you reading this have never heard of Dewey Beach and have probably never been to Delaware unless you drove thru it for 10 minutes on I-95 going from Washington to New York. Take my word for it, Dewey Beach is the best beach town in America and I can’t wait to go back again later this summer!