To visit some of the world’s gay beaches, you have to climb over rocks and down cliffs, often arriving at a sparsely populated stretch of sand. They’re hidden treasures, sometimes with few people around. Peace and privacy can be fantastic, including the right to doff your trunks and let it all hang out.
But sometimes we’re looking for a beach experience that’s more sociable. Beaches where you can sit close enough to strangers to strike up a casual conversation—and the people-watching is a full-on cinematic experience.
Here are 13 gay beaches around the world that are most likely to break out into party vibes. While some are easily accessible, a few require a boat ride, climbing over rocks, descending cliffs or, in one case, a long walk through cruisy desert-like sand dunes. Some are fun gay beaches year round, while others are best visited during the summer season.
Once you’ve arrived at these paradises, keep in mind our suggestions for proper gay-beach etiquette. Someone else blasting jams might be your cue to leaving your Bluetooth speaker turned off.
The Americas
Wreck Beach, Vancouver, British Columbia
Hippie alert. After descending a set of steep stairs near the University of British Columbia, you might immediately be greeted by a vendor selling shots, brownies or cannabis. The crowd is more mixed and boisterous in the area closest to the stairs, but as you head south, it gets more and more gay.
Clothing optional: Yes
Ginger Rogers Beach, Will Rogers State Beach, Santa Monica, California
Popular with gay men going back to the 1940s, Ginger Rogers Beach, between lifeguard towers 17 and 18, was officially recognized as a LGBTQ2S+ space in 2023 when the two towers were painted with the Progress Flag colours. The community comes out in droves on nice weekends.
Clothing optional: No
Playa Los Muertos, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco
At the southern end of the resort town’s Zona Romántica, this stretch of beach might be one of the world’s gayest, especially when Canadians and Americans descend on the place for their January and February winter escapes. When someone says “See you at the Blue Chairs,” they could mean the Blue Chairs Resort by the Sea (Malecón 4, Zona Romántica, Puerto Vallarta) or anywhere in the vicinity. If you park yourself in the right place, you’ll see every visiting queer go by.
Clothing optional: No
Playa del Amor, Zipolite, Oaxaca
About an hour’s taxi ride from Huatulco International Airport, the tiny beach town of Zipolite has been a hideout for dreamers for decades. The main beach is huge, but you’ll need to climb the stairs over the rocky cliff at the eastern end to reach tiny Playa del Amor, which is where gay men congregate. Come early to get a decent swath of sand and stay after sunset, when it becomes even more friendly.
Clothing optional: Yes
12th Street, South Beach, Miami Beach, Florida
Home of Miami Beach Pride (April 11 and 12, 2026), this rainbow flag–marked stretch of sand by Lummus Park attracts a fun-loving crowd most of the year, though it gets pretty hot in the summer. But sunbathers can easily skip across Ocean Drive for a cocktail and snack at one of the many queer-friendly bars and restaurants along the historic Art Deco strip.
Clothing optional: No (but you can go north to Haulover Beach for that)
Hanlan’s Beach, Toronto, Ontario
Whether you catch a ferry from Jack Layton Ferry Terminal or hop in a water taxi along the waterfront, your walk to this very popular summertime hangout should include a stroll along the 600-metre rainbow walkway that calls attention to this historically important LGBTQ2S+ beach. On weekend afternoons, it can feel as buzzy as a nightclub—except everyone’s naked, or nearly so.
Clothing optional: Yes
Check out our insider’s guide to Toronto here.
Posto 9, Ipanema Beach, Rio de Janeiro
Each one of Rio’s many Atlantic Ocean beaches has its own niche crowd, and Posto 9’s is gay, gay, gay. Tourists from around the world co-mingle with gym bunnies who seem to spend all their daytime hours getting a tan and the rest of their time at the gym and the club. Have your rented chair and umbrella set up close to the hotties of your choice and enjoy the eye candy. As the sun goes down, people who have been making eyes at each other all day might finally approach one another.
Clothing optional: No
Check out our insider’s guide to Rio here.
Europe
Kiosco 7, Maspalomas, Gran Canaria
The 20-minute hike to Kiosco 7 from Mirador de las Dunas is half the fun, with guys cruising amid the infamous desert-like dunes. Once there, you’ll find a pan-European selection of men who are far from home and highly motivated to make some new friends to hang out with at Yumbo Centrum at night. Especially busy during Winter Pride (November 10 to 16, 2025).
Clothing optional: Yes
Read more about Maspalomas here.
Beach 19/Praia de Bela Vista, Lisbon
Perhaps Europe’s largest gay beach, this three-kilometre stretch of white sand has lots of room to move about. Reachable by some combination of car, bus and tourist train, it’s more secluded than other places on this list, but on warm days visitors shouldn’t have trouble spotting the densest concentration of queer.
Clothing optional: Yes
Es Cavallet, Sant Josep de sa Talaia, Ibiza
The beach has several sections—clothed straights, naked straights, clothed gay, naked gay—and if you’re into mixing and mingling in the buff, you’re going to want to go to the far southern end. Things get friendly up in the dunes that overlook the large pond that separates the beach from the town. Good for sun tanning before and after hitting the clubs.
Clothing optional: Yes
Elia Beach, Mykonos, South Aegean
Elia has a wilder vibe than nearby Super Paradise, but it’s also gayer, especially at the west side of the beach. Most people rent a sunbed, which makes it harder to strategically place yourself among hotties, so you’ll want to do some walking up and down the shoreline and on the trails over the rocky hills behind the beach.
Clothing optional: Yes
Asia and Oceania
Bondi Beach, Sydney, New South Wales
The young and beautiful of Australia’s biggest cities congregate at this gorgeous crescent of sand, the LGBTQ+ ones clustering at the north end. So lively and ebullient it feels like a resort town, even though it’s only a 10-minute drive from the gay village on Oxford Street.
Clothing optional: No (head to Lady Bay Beach for that)
Patong Beach, Phuket, Phuket Island
If you can pull yourself away from Paradise Complex, Phuket’s raucous LGBTQ+ nightlife hub, the gayest strip of the resort city’s beach is just a 12-minute walk away. The authorities have restricted chair rentals on the beach, so you might want to plant yourself at a beachside property like KUDO Hotel & Beach Club (33 1 Patong Beach, Shortcut Road, Phuket) to satisfy all your creature comforts.
Clothing optional: No
