LA is one of the worst US cities for outdoor…
If you’re in Los Angeles and wanting for a enjoyable spot to sip, mingle, and soak up some sunshine — you may want to head south to Long Beach.
The Southern California metropolis’s beer gardens, breweries, and breezy patios put it at the top of a new rating of America’s best cities for outdoor socializing.
The Pike space in Long Beach. Getty Images/iStockphoto
The new record from Maxwell Social, a personal membership membership and event venue, ranked Long Beach No. 1 in the nation, while LA landed at the backside of the record.
Maxwell Social ranked 45 major U.S. cities based their patios, rooftop bars, beer gardens, and breweries per capita, as properly as search curiosity in outdoor social venues.
Oakland got here in second, rating practically as properly in those classes as Long Beach, while Atlanta took third thanks to its rooftop bars and residents’ curiosity in outdoor social life.
Oakland got here in second on the rating. Visit Oakland
Phoenix and Houston landed at the backside of the rating along with the City of Angels.
To determine the best cities for outdoor socializing, Maxwell Social analyzed the 45 most populous U.S. cities, utilizing population figures from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Vintage 2025 estimates.
For each metropolis, the company also measured 5 metrics, all expressed per 100,000 residents: patios (via Google Maps), rooftop bars (via Google Maps), beer gardens (via Yelp), breweries (via Yelp), and search quantity for the following outdoor-venue phrases from 2025–2026 (via Google): “patios near me,” “outdoor bars,” “rooftop bars,” “beer gardens,” and “outdoor restaurants.”
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Long Beach’s beer gardens, breweries and breezy patios put it at the top of the record. Visiting Long Beach
Together, these metrics highlighted which cities supplied well-liked venues for socializing.
Virginia Beach, Va., Mesa, Ariz., and Colorado Springs did properly when it got here to patios, while Mesa and Detroit led for rooftop bars, with 21.6 and 17.2 per 100,000 residents, respectively.
The company also surveyed 1,000 Americans in the cities it reviewed about how, where and why they collect exterior.
The survey discovered Americans are wanting for more locations to socialize and spend time outdoor, but many say their cities aren’t assembly that need.
The Long Beach Waterfront. Getty Images
Nearly 1 in 5 Americans (18%) have wished to hang around exterior with mates but couldn’t discover a place that was good, legal or comfy, while 19% say they’ve been requested to go away or quiet down while socializing outdoor in the past yr.
Another 15% imagine their metropolis merely doesn’t have enough outdoor gathering areas.
New York City leads the nation as the perceived outdoor social capital, with 16% naming it the best metropolis for informal outdoor gatherings, forward of LA, Miami, and San Diego at 11% each.
The demand to socialize is particularly strong among youthful Americans, with 41% of Gen Z saying they’d exit more often if their metropolis supplied better outdoor social areas.
The survey also discovered that when people don’t discover what they need at home, they journey elsewhere. More than 1 in 4 Americans (28%) have traveled someplace just because outdoor social consuming felt simpler than it was at home, and New Orleans and Las Vegas topped the record of locations.
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