Photo-Illustration: The Strategist
The right chair (plus a cooler, towel, and umbrella) can turn any stretch of Jacob Riis into a not-so-private beach club. Or, a little less ambitiously, just keep your wet butt off the sand. To find the comfiest and most durable options, from chaises lounges to quad chairs, we consulted beach enthusiasts and outdoor-gear experts. Their picks should cover all kinds of beachgoers — from casual day-trippers to season-long sun-worshippers.
Best overall | Best less expensive | Best chaise | Best cord | Best vintage-style | Best tote-bag-size | Best quad-style
What
we’re
looking
for
Durability: A long-lasting, worthwhile beach chair should have a body made of metal — specifically aluminum, which is more salt resistant and takes longer to rust. Likewise, the seat should be constructed from hard-wearing, ideally marine-grade fabric that won’t rip, rag, or stretch after a summer’s worth of salt, sand, and UV rays.
Portability: A good beach chair should be relatively lightweight and easy to carry. If you’re navigating your way to the Rockaways by bike or a series of buses and trains, you might desire a more packable beach chair that will slip into a tote or backpack. With a vehicle, you have considerably more options. Of course, if you’re hauling a lot of beach chairs and other supplies, a sturdy beach cart is always worth the investment.
Comfort: We looked for chairs with coolers, reclining backs and footrests, and even optional canopies — in case your beach umbrella just isn’t cutting it. Because comfort sometimes means minimalism (not everyone wants to lug a chaise longue up and down Long Island), we found a few chairs that’ll simply keep you off the sand in a fairly relaxed seated position. For all our chairs, we looked for a weight capacity of at least 250 pounds.
Aluminum and wood folding frame | 5.5 lbs | Four reclining positions, towel rack
Our favorite beach chair by far is Telescope Casual’s Original Mini-Sun Chaise. Telescope is a fifth-generation family business founded in 1903 in New York City. It’s the oldest, most experienced manufacturer of beach chairs in America, and the company uses a unique telescoping process (hence the name) that extrudes the aluminum and makes for a far stronger chair. So strong that these chairs are known to last a decade. The handles are made of hand-carved wood, and pulling them back and forth adjusts the chair among four positions — one of which is completely flat. There’s a towel rack on the back of the chair, and while the chair doesn’t come with backpack straps, it weighs less than six pounds, so it’s easy to carry around. These chairs are expensive. But like we said, they’ll last a decade. It’s worth noting that Eytan Benzeno, who founded one of the first online beach outlets back in 1999, calls this the Rolls-Royce of seating. “Once you’ve had one, you would spend the money again,” he says. “It’s really for connoisseurs.” That’s right, this is the status beach chair.
Aluminum and steel folding frame | 7.8 lbs | Five reclining positions, storage pouches, backpack straps, optional canopy
If you’re not in the market for a Telescope chair, there’s always Tommy Bahama — a tried and true beach brand that makes one of our favorite less expensive beach umbrellas. Admittedly, there’s a certain aesthetic to these chairs. When Bobby Graziose closed on his house in the Rockaways, his broker left him two of these chairs as a present. “When we got them, we were like, ‘Oh God, Tommy Bahama,’” he remembers. “Then we started walking around and saw everyone else had them.” That’s because (if you can get over the “vacationing dad at Margaritaville” look) they have really convenient backpack straps and two sizable back pouches — one of which is a very rare insulated cooler that fits about six cans. The frames are aluminum (so they won’t rust), the chair lies completely flat, and a drink and cell-phone pouch hangs off the armrest. Graziose was so taken that when he opened Beach Tripper (his former company that offered beach-chair and umbrella rentals along Rockaway Beach), he bought Tommy Bahama chairs to rent out to his customers.
Ostrich Chaise Lounge
From $59
Steel folding frame | 9.8 lbs | Four reclining positions, face cavity, head pillow
For that true vacation feel, you can’t overlook a chaise. Strategist contributor and longtime beach-head Bianca Buchanan told us that this one, which has three reclining positions, “folds up really well, despite the fact that it’s very large,” and has a strap, so you can carry it around. Once unfurled, it has a hole for your head — “like one you’d see on a massage table, so you can lie on your stomach and tan,” Buchanan explains. It doesn’t get much more relaxing than that.
From $59
at Amazon$59
at WalmartIta Leisure Chair
$281
$281
Powder-coated aluminum folding frame and PVC cord seat | 13 lbs | Low-profile recliner
Chelsea Rizzo and Allison Levy, co-founders of women’s outdoor-gear brand and New York City–based hiking club Hikerkind, pointed us to these delightful low-rise chairs from Ita — the first ever Black-owned outdoor-furniture brand. The chairs collapse into stackable squares and can be popped into position in less than one minute. They are thoughtfully crafted from powder-coated aluminum, which should hold its own against rust even in salt and sand, and designed to last. “I’ve made the bad decision before of buying the cheaper, heavier thing,” says Rizzo. “What we love to promote is buying intentionally with a purpose, then using it forever.”
$281
at Ita LeisureLawn Chair USA Webbing Chair
$70
$70
Aluminum folding frame | 4.2 lbs | Webbing seat
Simple and old-school, these classic chairs are a favorite of New York City–based photographer and regular daytripper Jennifer Trahan. She keeps two of them in her car “at all times.” The chairs are deceptive: They look appealingly retro and come in many different colors but have an updated construction with slightly stretchy UV-resistant webbing — meaning the seat isn’t uncomfortably stiff. Nor will it sink to the ground. An aluminum frame, meanwhile, makes the chair plenty durable in coastal conditions. These are available in high-back and low-rise styles.
$70
at Amazon$70
at AmazonHelinox Chair One
$110
$110
Aluminum pole frame | 2.2 lbs | Slingback style
Taking the train? Here’s a chair that’ll fit in your beach bag. Brian Rottman and Bryant Jimenez, graduate students in the University of Oregon’s Sports Product Design program, tell us that Korean brand Helinox has been at the forefront of ultralight chair tech since the early 2010s. The Chair One comes in two parts: a set of lightweight shock-cord aluminum poles and a seat that slings over the top. Packed down, the chair is a little larger than a Nalgene bottle. Set up, it’s a comfy, low-rise seat that’s perfect for a few hours on the sand.
$110
at Zappos$110
at HelinoxColeman Portable Camping Quad Chair with 4-Can Cooler
$35
Steel collapsible frame | 8.4 lbs | Cooler, drink holders, storage pouch
Our favorite camping chair is perfect for the beach, as it’s designed with a roomy insulated cooler sleeve that can store a day’s worth of drinks and snacks. While many big-box-store quad chairs are created equal, Coleman’s stands out for being larger in size and padded for comfort while still plenty affordable. In addition to the cooler, it has a handy side pocket — so you won’t have to leave your phone and wallet in the sand. Travel journalists and photographers Berty and Emily Mandagie, the husband-and-wife duo behind the outdoors-focused website The Mandagies, have recommended this chair to us in the past. More than 38,000 five-star Amazon reviews glow with praise. As one happy customer writes, “There’s plenty of room in the seat. I can sit crisscross applesauce in it. It’s sturdy enough for my kids to sit on my lap without feeling like it will tip, dip, or break.”
$35
at Amazon$40
at Walmart
Our
experts
• Eytan Benzeno, Florida-based realtor and former CEO of beachstore.com
• Bianca Buchanan, weekly New York City beachgoer
• Bobby Graziose, founder of Beach Tripper
• Allison Levy and Chelsea Rizzo, co-founders of Hikerkind
• Berty and Emily Mandagie, founders of The Mandagies
• Brian Rottman and Bryant Jimenez, graduate students in the University of Oregon’s Sports Product Design program
• Jennifer Trahan, photographer
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