Thirsty Thursdays: Top 9 Bars in Majuro City DUD, Marshall Islands🇲🇭

“On the rip in a country where nobody is on the rip!!!”

Anyone who has ever been to the Marshall Islands will remember something so unusual and distinctive about them – the thin narrow strip with ONE road straight through the capital city, Majuro, also known as DUD, (Delap-Uliga-Djarrit). In case, I’ve confused you, from the air, the islands look like this – crazy or what?

The actual name in English for this type of “island” is an Atoll, and therefore when you backpack the Pacific Ocean islands, you get used to landing on runways on such atolls. The Marshall Islands have many Atolls, such as the Majuro Atoll (where we stayed), Kwajalein Atoll, Arno Atoll and Bikini Atoll. We arrived early morning intill the Marshall Islands, at Amata Kabua International Airport in Majuro, and we would tour the districts of Delap, Uliga, and Darrit, three of which are in Majuro the capital city. We also visited Eneko Island. Eneko was a boat ride away on a separate island within the Majuro Atoll and is uninhabited. We also attended a Hot Dog Festival in Majuro.

I was on tour with Young Pioneer Tours and usually on YPT trips (I have been to North Korea and Saudi Arabia with them) we do some bar crawls or at least have a few beers. On this trip however, I was the only real drinker but that didn’t deter me from venturing out into the bars of Majuro and finding the best beer hang outs in the capital of this minute country, the Marshall Islands. Basically, on the rip in a country where nobody is on the rip!!!

Again though, the Lonely Planet Guide, Trip Advisor and most travel guides were very wrong, with many venues closed, moved, changed names, shut forever and many new venues now open and thriving. As of August 2019, these are my top 9 bars in Majuro (all in the districts of Delap, Uliga and Darrit). By the time you backpack it, don’t bank on these all being open. On life’s corridor, who knows if I’ll ever be back there.

1.Flame Tree
In the end Flame Tree proved to be the best bar for me in Majuro. Some publications claim it was also once a backpacker’s resort and a haven for tourists. Apart from those on my flight in, I didn’t see any other tourists here. I spoke to the bar staff and a lot of the drinkers and they were all Marshallese.

In here, I drank Bud Light ($2 US a can), played pool with a local girl called Morinn and spoke to some of the staff. There was random reggae music pumping and the bar was open late on the Saturday night that we were here. I also spoke to a drunk geezer for a while!

The pool cost $1 US Dollar per game. There were pool tables, a balcony, a dancefloor and Japanese guns and some relics on the walls.

2.Jittak
A few people in the first bars I was in mentioned Jittak, which is also known as Dar-Jittak. This was a really huge outdoor bar with a large roof covering it. It was raining the night I went and it was good to be undercover.

Entrance fee on the Saturday night was $2 US Dollars and there was a live band on the huge stage at the back of the venue. The bar was a simple long bar and the 2 members of staff I spoke to (the bar girl and the waitress) came from the Philippines. I met a local lady called Meliana too (in one of the photos). I had a Colt beer in here, which was $2.50.

3.The Pub
The first bar I saw in the entire country was The Pub, as we passed it on the way from the airport to the Marshall Islands Resort. Curiosity got to me and the pub looked cool from the outside. I went there on my own the first night – I just walked it.

Inside, it was an upstairs bar with a pool table, a dancefloor and a basic bar. I had a Bud Light in here for $2 US Dollars and played pool (which was free) with one of the locals. It’s worth a trip for sure, but was not even busy on the Friday night at 10 p.m.

4.Awa Zero (Too)
I misheard this place as “Hour Zero Two” the first time and even my taxi driver couldn’t find it. However, one of the fellow passengers told him where it was, which was halfway between The Pub and the main airport in Majuro.

Of all the bars I was in, this was the one that felt most like the Marshall Islands. It also had a pool table, a TV on and lots of local guys around the bar, ordering you guessed it – Bud Light for $2 US. The other guys in the bar were happy to chat but they didn’t want to be photographed.

5.Jakaro Bar, MIR Bars (Marshall Islands Resort)
Well we slept here for two nights at the Marshall Islands Resort, so the MIR was a certain and easy hangout for a brace of nights. The bar is the Jakaro Bar but there was also the outside beer garden area. However the beer in here was dearer than in the rest of the bars on this list, possibly as the outdoor bar had a huge balcony overlooking the bay, which can be enjoyed marvellously for sunset.

I also had breakfast and dinner in here, and although over-priced it’s quite a safe bet for both as service and quality for food and drink in the Marshall Islands is one of the worst I have ever experienced. The Jakaro Bar I only had one beer in, with my beef dish on the first night.

6.Tide Table Bar
The Tide Table Bar is an upstairs bar inside the Robert Reimers Hotel, the other main hotel in Majuro. It has one of the best beer, cider, wine and spirits selections on the whole island and is also one of the dearest. I had a Strongbow cider in here which was $3 US Dollars, actually a fair enough price but the beers were dearer than in the other bars.

The Tide Table Bar also has a decent food menu but expect higher prices.

7.Eneko Island Ferry Terminal Bar
This was the budget bar in the country, but one that is only open in day time due to the fact that the Eneko Island and other island ferries leave from this very terminal.

Beers here were just $1.50 and I grabbed one before we boarded our boat for Eneko Island.

8.The Riwut Corner
The Riwut Corner has a quirky boat themed bar almost out of a Titanic movie and it really reminded me of my time staying in the Eclectic Hotel in Vank, Nagorno Karabakh.

However, it’s the worst bar and restaurant on this list. It is located near a petrol station in Majuro and has terrible food and bad service. 6 of us ordered food. The first two dishes arrived 1 hour 15 minutes later. The second two dishes arrived after 1 hour 35 minutes, One more dish arrived after 1 hour 45 minutes and the final dish never arrived. One of our group had food poisoning and I didn’t finish my meal as it felt too oily.

9.The Hangar
For a final beer in the country, head to the Hangar, which is located in Amata Kabua International Airport in Majuro. This was the final bar on the Marshall Islands that we saw. Despite being at the airport 2.5 hours before our flight to Tarawa, Kiribati, this bar didn’t open, but it looked like it could be decent and makes the top 9.

In the short 3 day stint we had here, I scoured the islands for bars and these were the only ones I found. I was also told about bars called MIC and Lani (the Lonely Planet and other guides claim they are still open), but they were closed when I was there. Perhaps just closed on those days, or perhaps it was off-season. We also visited Eneko Island, which had no bars, cafes or restaurants, but I had a few beers there on a day where we relaxed.

In short, Marshall Islands is definitely worth a visit, especially due to the weird shape of the Majuro Atoll, and the beauty is that you can easily pub crawl ALL of the bars in Majuro on one night! 

The wankers at WordPress deleted this post about 3 times, so it has taken 3 weeks to put it up, this is why the post is so bad and all original writing and photos were deleted by the wankers. It is not my fault.

Here are some videos from my time in the bars of Majuro, Marshall Islands: