While, there’s no doubt that there have been places called “beach clubs” around for a long time, the concept of “beach club” as we know it today is a relatively recent invention.
It’s a surprisingly fascinating area of history and we believe that this is the very first short history of beach clubs that’s ever been compiled online.
So, without further ado, here’s everything you need to know about how beach clubs came about.
The 1980s
The 1980s were a decade of unbridled change some of it for the better and some of it for the worse. With Reagan as president in the USA and Thatcher leading the UK, capitalism came into fashion with a vengeance.
And what do capitalists love more than the chance to enjoy their wealth? It should come as no surprise that the modern beach club’s origins begin in the 1980s.
Fort Lauderdale
The first beach club of note was Penrod’s Beach Club, it was founded by Jack Penrod in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Jack had started out his career at McDonald’s and was, at one time, the largest franchise owner for the burger brand with 16 restaurants in Florida. He went on to set up and run a chain of hamburger restaurants known as Wuv’s International but while the chain enjoyed modest success, it didn’t last and had gone out of business by 1981.
The aim was simple, to attract as many students as possible to enjoy a huge party by the ocean and while there may have been initial doubts as to how this concept would go over – Jack didn’t need to worry, in the first Spring Break alone, more than 2,000 people attended the parties at Penrod’s and a new legend was born.
Soon, Spring Break would see Penord’s bringing in around half a million visitors over each spring break period.
Miami
However, Fort Lauderdale is not a legendary location for beach clubs and when the mayor of Miami approached Jack Penrod in 1985 to shift his business to Miami, that’s exactly what happened.
Penrod’s Beach Club opened its doors to the public as part of a $4 million entertainment complex at One Ocean Drive, Miami Beach in 1988.
Croatia
In 1987, over in Europe the first European Beach Club opened its doors in Croatia, Kalypso Zrce Beach Club.
The club had very humble beginnings and it was really nothing more than a beach bar when it first started on Zrce Beach on the island of Pag in the Adriatic.
However, over the coming years, Kalypso Zrce Beach Club would become a force to be reckoned with thanks to the regular festivals and live music events that it hosted.
The club is still open today, and now it has multiple pools, seating areas, day and night stages, a large open-air dance floor, go-go platforms and much more to offer its customers.
One thing that sets Kalypso Zrce Beach Club from many other big name beach clubs in Europe is that it tends to prefer local DJ talent rather than international names.
The 1990s
Ibiza
It’s impossible to overestimate the importance of Ibiza to the beach club scene globally, but the Balearic Island only opened its first beach club in 1990.
Tropicana Beach Club
It was Tropicana Beach Club that was the first club to open its doors led by Toni Mari who said that “tourists who seek quality look for tranquility and unique places” and “that is what we will give them”.
Tropicana Beach Club was built in Cala Jandal and featured a beachfront bar, a restaurant, comfortable sun-beds (“day beds” in the current industry jargon) and it featured massage tents.
The club is still serving guests today in the same location where it began but it has become distinctly more refined over the years.
Cafe Del Mar
Tropicana paved the way for many more beach clubs, including Cafe Del Mar, which in the early 80s, like Kalypso Zrce Beach Club, had began as a fairly humble beachfront cafe.
In 1991, Cafe del Mar began to host DJ Jose Padilla, who was well-known for his incredible chilled out sunset sets. He was responsible for the first 6 volumes of the legendary Cafe Del Mar compilation albums which were released between 1994 and 1999.
By the year 2000, the Cafe Del Mar brand was famous throughout Europe and the cafe had established its own best selling record label as well as a beach club.
Today, the Cafe Del Mar brand is well known throughout the world and they have 7 other beach clubs bearing the name in various locations including the one here in Bali.
Miami
While the beach club movement was slowly building up steam in Europe, nobody had really defined what the modern beach club would look like at this point.
Cafe Nikki
However, that changed in 1997, when Cafe Nikki was opened as a garden pool club extension to Penrod’s Beach Cafe.
Jack Penrod had wanted to expand the brand he’d been building and he named Cafe Nikki after his daughter, Nicole Penrod, who had perished in a car accident earlier in the year.
Nikki Beach
In 1998, Penrod saw the opportunity to reinvent the beach club entirely. He combined Penrod’s and Cafe Nikki into a single entity that he called “Nikki Beach”.
He opted to give the overall club a French flavour and installed a new French restaurant to support this. He also overhauled the entire business to combine a luxurious lifestyle with incredible entertainment by the beach.
Nikki Beach is considered by many in the beach club industry to be the first true “modern beach club”.
The brand went from strength to strength and since 1997 the club has opened other entities around the world in Thailand, Barbados, Dubai, Cabo San Lucas, Marrakech and many other locations.
Jack Penrod
Jack’s influence on the beach club scene cannot be understated and nor can his contribution to the tourism industry in Miami. To recognize this April 17, 2012 was named “Jack Penrod Day” by the officials of Miami Dade Country and the City of Miami Beach!
Jack Penrod remained the driving force behind Nikki Beach right up until his unfortunate death of cancer in February of this year (2025). It may be of some interest that he chose to spend his last days where his beach club career had begun, in Fort Lauderdale.
The 2000s
Ibiza
There’s no doubt about it, the first decade of the 2000s, belonged to Ibiza. The island’s beach club scene exploded onto the international consciousness of millions of partygoers.
And while the nightclubs of Ibiza may have dominated the parties, the beach clubs were not far behind it.
In fact, even today, for many Europeans the Ibizan beach club scene is the destination of choice with clubs like Nassau Beach Club, Cotton Beach Club, Casa Jandal, Tanit Beach Club, Nikki Beach (yes, from the group led by Jack Penrod), Beso Beach, Nobu Hotel Ibiza Bay, Cala Bassa, Amante, and Omakase by Walt leading the pack.
However, in the second decade of the 2000s, Ibiza began to lose its shine for many international visitors who were deterred by the high prices and loutish antics of certain groups of European tourists in Ibiza and there was one place ready to welcome them to a new home.
Bali
Bali was a relative latecomer to the beach club scene and its first beach club didn’t even open its doors to the public until the year 2000.
Ku De Ta
The beach club was Ku De Ta in Seminyak. It’s notable for the fact that it’s still open today and, in fact, it still sits in third in our current list of the best beach clubs in Bali!
It was the first venue here to combine partying, dining, and a full beachfront lifestyle. They brought in DJs and served a mix of international and local cuisines and some of the most tropical cocktails ever invented.
The venue has regularly upgraded and reinvented itself over the years and there’s no doubt that it remains popular with visitors to Bali.
However, it’s fair to say that one Balinese beach club has set the standard for beach clubs globally and that beach club, is…
FINNS Beach Club
Yes, it’s the world’s best beach club and the beach club that tops our list of the best beach clubs in Bali with the only perfect score that we’ve ever awarded.
FINNS opened originally in 2011 as part of The Semara Collection back in 2011 on the Bukit Peninsula in the town of Uluwatu. It was and is named after the owner, Tony Smith’s, son which, of course, draws parallels with Nikki Beach and Jack Penrod’s daughter.
However, FINNS didn’t remain in Uluwatu and by 2016, it had moved to Berawa Beach in Canggu and had been rebadged as “the world’s best beach club”. The original site in Uluwatu is now home to Sunday’s Beach Club.
From 2016, FINNS set out to redefine excellence in the beach club scene.
The club’s management had a vision of constant improvement and reinvention so that nothing was ever “good enough” as they sought not just to be the best in the world but to remain the best in the world.
If you visit FINNS’ next door neighbour, you can see how much of an impact FINNS has had locally as Atlas regularly tries to imitate its more successful neighbour on Berawa Beach.
Incredibly, 1 in 8 people who visit Bali pass through the doors of FINNS. That makes FINNS synonymous with this tropical paradise and the club employs over 2,000 Indonesian staff members in peak season, nearly 90% of who are Balinese locals.
That makes FINNS a bigger employer than many of the luxury resorts on the island.
And it’s all down to the fact that they create the world’s best beach beach club party experiences every single day. (You can read our full review on FINNS Beach Club here).
If you revisit FINNS every other year or so, the changes are incredibly dramatic, as they will be later in 2026 when the club launches its new ultra-luxury beach club brand, Empire.
But even on a day-to-day basis, FINNS constantly changes up the entertainment, the brand deals, and seeks to improve the overall customer experience. It’s really quite something.
The Future Of Beach Clubs
However, FINNS can’t rest on its laurels while the South China Morning Post acknowledged in 2024, that FINNS is the best beach club in the world and Bali is the best beach club destination, there’s a lot going on in the rest of the world.
Between 2020 and 2025, Tulum in Mexico and Mykonos in Greece both saw explosive growth as destinations for luxury party goers with huge investments in their beach club scenes.
In 2023, Fiji saw the opening of the Malamala Beach Club a short 30 minute boat ride from Port Denaru. It’s the first beach club in the world to be situated on its own private island.
In 2024, Dubai displaced any claims Atlas Beach Club in Bali might have had to be “the world’s largest beach club” (by area) when it opened the enormous Serene by GAIA on Jumeirah Beach. Dubai’s beach club scene is also booming with, at least, 17 clubs in the Emirate as 2024 drew to a close.
This year, 2025, Yona Beach Club in Phuket opened in Thailand and became the first fully floating beach club and it’s built on a multi-level boat!
We don’t see FINNS being displaced as the best beach club in the world by any other beach club any time soon, but we can state with confidence that the club will have to continue to refine and improve continuously as it always has to keep the lead that it has.
FAQs
What Is Beach Club Culture?
The beach club scene around the world is so varied that there’s really no defined “beach club culture”.
In fact, we’d say that it’s almost like there are two ends to the beach club culture.
- The party culture – a hard drinking, hard dancing, and fun loving crowd that chase the sun, sea and surf to have a great time. You probably don’t want to bring little kids to a club which embraces this culture but no matter how old you are as an adult, you can have amazing fun in this kind of club.
- The chill out culture – the other end of the spectrum, people who want to sit by the ocean with a good book or chat with friends, sure they might engage in a bit of alcoholic consumption but it’s not a major component of their day out. These clubs tend to be more family-friendly and many of them are only open during the day rather than all through the night.
But both groups tend to enjoy the comfort of luxury day beds, amazing service from highly trained staff and great food and drink.
What Is The Purpose Of A Beach Club?
A beach club is a place on a beach that offers both comfort and convenience to its customers (and/or members). It usually combines dining, bar services and entertainment along with a pool area and other amenities.
There is no official organization that governs the use of the term “beach club” however, and that means businesses are free to appropriate the title as they see fit.
Some of the 114 beach clubs in Bali, for example, are barely more than an old school beach bar with some beanbags on the sand and some cheap beers in the fridge.
Others, are high-level entertainment, and fine dining destinations that rival the best 5-star resorts on the island for their service and presentation.
What Is The Meaning Of “Beach Club”?
There is no official definition of “beach club”. At its loosest, it’s any beachfront hospitality business that delivers the opportunity to drink and dine on the sand or by a pool directly adjacent to the beach.
However, we’d suggest that a good beach club is also focused on delivering exceptional service and entertainment to contrast itself from a basic beach restaurant or bar.
What Does A Beach Club Offer?
It varies from club to club. But most beach clubs will offer: beach access (though not all do – ironically Cafe Del Mar in Bali, for example, has no direct access to the beach and you need to leave the club to get to the beach), pool access (again, not every beach club has a pool), food and drink as well as entertainment and potentially other amenities.
Where Is The World’s Biggest Beach Club?
If you mean by land area, the biggest beach club in the world is Sirene by GAIA in Jumeirah Dubai.
However, if you mean by reputation, then we’d say it’s FINNS Beach Club right here in Bali.
Why Do People Go To Beach Clubs?
People go to beach clubs to have fun and enjoy being pampered a little while on vacation or as a break from everyday life.
Everyone has a different favourite beach club experience and the good news is that there are plenty of beach clubs to choose from.
Are Kids Allowed Into Beach Clubs?
It depends on the beach club. Some beach clubs are very family-oriented and will delight in welcoming the youngest to the oldest members of any family.
Other beach clubs are more adult-oriented and the drinking and partying aren’t really suited to children. These clubs often have set age limits for entry but these limits can vary depending on where you are in the world and the club that’s setting the limit.
What Do You Bring To A Beach Club?
While some beach clubs may have amenities such as water sports equipment that require you to bring something specific to use them, most do not.
You will normally need to bring yourself, some appropriate clothing (dress codes can vary dramatically between beach clubs particularly in Europe) and some money.
You may also want to bring some sun protection such as sunscreen, sunglasses, a hat, etc. as being out in the sun all day long can cause serious burns.
What Happens At A Beach Party?
There is no standard definition of a “beach party” and, in fact, it’s even less well-defined than “beach club”.
So, you could, for example, visit FINNS Beach Club for a party by the beach with live DJs, entertainers, cold cocktails, stunning Balinese sunsets and amazing food.
Or you could have your own party on the beach where you organize a scavenger hunt, play some volleyball and drink cold beers out of an Esky.
The only thing you need for a “beach party” is a group of friends who want to have fun and a beach.
The biggest beach party in history was the infamous, Big Beach Boutique II, a free concert held on Brighton Beach in England by Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook). It was meant to bring in around 60,000 revellers but ended up having over 250,000 people in attendance!
Final Thoughts On The History Of Beach Clubs And Beach Club Culture
So, the history of the modern beach club isn’t all that long. In fact, it’s probably only 50 years at the most and just under 30 if we all agree to start with Nikki Beach.
It’s an amazing achievement that Bali, a small island which is part of a much larger developing nation, has managed to carve out a leadership position in this popular scene.
And we can’t wait to see what the future holds for everyone in this scene and especially to find out how FINNS Beach Club continues to dominate the scene for the foreseeable future.
If you enjoyed this article, we think you might appreciate our guide to beach club etiquette as well as our insight into the history of the beach club music scene.
