America’s Top 10 Beaches & BBQ Joints for Memorial Day Weekend

Where are you off to this Memorial Day? I’m willing to bet there’s a good chance it’s to a beach or barbecue. To help travelers enjoy the best Memorial Day celebrations, Foursquare Explore — a resource for helping you to search for popular places and spots that only the locals know about — has created a list of the Top Beaches and Top BBQ Joints around the country. To compile the lists, the company looked at check-ins over the course of last summer (Memorial Day to Labor Day). Are any of these on your itinerary for the coming holiday?

Top Beaches

1. Coney Island Beach and Boardwalk, Brooklyn, NY (above)

2. Venice Beach, Venice, CA

3. North Avenue Beach, Chicago, IL

4. Santa Monica State Beach, Santa Monica, CA

5. Bradford Beach, Milwaukee, WI

6. Clearwater Beach, Clearwater Beach, FL

7. Seaside Heights Boardwalk, Seaside Heights, NJ

8. Rohoboth Beach, Rohoboth Beach, DE

9. Pacific Beach, San Diego, CA

10. Fort Lauderdale Beach, Fort Lauderdale, FL

BBQ Joints

1. Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, New York NY

2. Phil’s BBQ, San Diego CA

3. Hill Country Barbecue Market, New York NY

4. The Salt Lick, Driftwood TX

5. Oklahoma Joe’s BBQ & Catering, Kansas City KS

6. Fette Sau, Brooklyn NY

7. Slows Bar-B-Q, Detroit MI

8. Fox Bros Bar-B-Q, Atlanta GA

9. Stubb’s Bar-B-Q, Austin TX

10. The Pit, Raleigh NC

Jessica Festa

Jessica Festa is the editor of the travel sites Jessie on a Journey (http://jessieonajourney.com) and Epicure & Culture (http://epicureandculture.com). Along with blogging at We Blog The World, her byline has appeared in publications like Huffington Post, Gadling, Fodor's, Travel + Escape, Matador, Viator, The Culture-Ist and many others. After getting her BA/MA in Communication from the State University of New York at Albany, she realized she wasn't really to stop backpacking and made travel her full time job. Some of her most memorable experiences include studying abroad in Sydney, teaching English in Thailand, doing orphanage work in Ghana, hiking her way through South America and traveling solo through Europe. She has a passion for backpacking, adventure, hiking, wine and getting off the beaten path.