Where To Party During The End-Of-Summer Three-Day Weekend
Looking for a great place to party on Labor Day Weekend? PubClub’s picks range from boat tie-ups and beach bars to pool parties, Key West and college football tailgates. Here are some of the best places to spend the end-of-summer three-day weekend.
By Kevin Wilkerson, Editor & Publisher, PubClub.com
You can be at the beach this Labor Day Weekend.
But you could be on a boat.
Or at a pool party. Or at a college football game or in an alumni bar watching a college football game.
There are many fun party places ot be for this end-of-summer three-day weekend and here are the best ones with a focus on beaches and boats. The 2026 Labor Day dates are Sept. 5-7.
Lake Travis, Austin, Texas
This is a boat tie-up party with hundreds of boats and a couple thousand people. You pull up to Devil’s Cove, find a spot and secure a line to another boat, then jump in the water and “boat hop” to join all the other party people. There are even houseboats with kegs and DJs. And all those Texas hotties—the girls wear cowboy hats with bikinis! Once the day ends, everyone goes across the water to the bar.
See more here!
Key West, FL
Not only is it, well, Key West, but it is also having a full weekend for Parrotheads starting with Jimmy Buffett Day on Friday.
Pacific Beach, CA
This is the “hey dude” hangout in San Diego where people who mentally have never left college party at places like Lahina overlooking the beach, Maverick’s, the Duck Dive, Hideaway, the Beverly, the Firehouse and countless other bars in this beach community. It’s wild on any normal weekend and toss in Labor Day Weekend and it’s out of control. In a fun way, of course.
Hermosa Beach, CA
This Southern California beach city of Hermosa Beach is full of the young and fun (and young here is all relative for many locals are young in their mindest) with several bars on and around Pier Plaza at the pier. There’s live music as some of the bars. A large part of the movie La La Land was filmed in Hermosa Beach.
Pool Parties
A bunch of us used to spend Labor Day Weekend at the Palm Desert Marriott and the pool party scene was worth the trip. Alas, it’s a lot of famlies now but the point is to get a group of friends (who have more friends) for a three-day adventure a close drive from where you live at a place where a pool is the centerpiece of daytime activity.
College Football Games
Labor Day Weekend is the beginning of the college football season and one thing that’s bigger than the actual games are the tailgate parties. Key games are Clemson at LSU on Saturday (7:30 ET), Louisville at Ole Miss and Wisconson at Notre Dame on Sunday (both at 7:30 p.m.), a move-to-the-Big-10-forced-this-rivalry-game-to-be-played-now Washington State at Washington (4 p.m. on Sunday) and SMU at Florida State on Monday (7:30 p.m.).
Top teams play second-tier teams such as Ohio State hosting Ball State, Texas playing Texas State (but hey, watch out, the latter is supposedly a sleeping mini-giant) and North Texas at Indiana.
More Labor Day Weekend Party Destinations
Here are some other Labor Day suggestions: Waikiki Beach (be sure and do “Duke’s on Sunday”); Ocean City, MD; The Hamptons and Lake Havasu, AZ.
Kevin Wilkerson is the founder of PubClub.com, an award-winning journalist and nightlife expert who has covered destinations, events and nightlife for more than two decades. While working as a newspaper reporter, he received an Associated Press award for investigative journalism.
Leave a Reply