Come on Down to The Flora-Bama

A visit to the iconic honky-tonk the Flora-Bama has been a rite of passage for Alabama and Florida locals as well as vacationing southerners since the 1960’s. Despite hurricanes and high-rises it is still going strong.

This famous bar is consistently named as one of the best beach bars in the United States.

I can say with certainty that it is the best place in the US to have a drink in two states at the same time. As the name gives away, the Flora-Bama straddles the Florida and Alabama state lines on a gorgeous stretch of beach.

Come on Down to the Flora-Bama

The bar itself looks a little crazy in the best way. Like driftwood managed to magically pile itself together into a structure fit for human habitation.

The Flora-Bama is a large wooden building that you can enter from either the roadside parking lot or from the beach via a long boardwalk. Inside you discover a confusing jumble of rooms, stages, bars, stairs, and hallways. It is like a maze…but with cocktails.

Was this intentional or were the rooms simply added haphazardly over the years? Probably a little bit of both. The Flora-Bama was almost destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, but was eventually rebuilt using most of the materials from the original bar.

The decor is one hundred percent fun and festive. You will find a wall of license plates from all over the US, graffiti on almost every surface, stairs going in all directions, and decks with views to the ocean.

Interestingly, there is a room where a clothesline hangs above the heads of the partiers. Over this line hundreds of bras and bikini tops have been flung. One presumes that more are added regularly on a crazy Saturday night.

Some of the rooms are open to the sky, some are open air but covered, some are enclosed and air-conditioned, and some have balconies.

You will also find tables and a stage right on the beach.

I highly suggest you take a walk through the entire place when you visit.