Nativa Bambu is the biggest bar in Montañita — a large open-sided bamboo structure right on the beach with a dance floor that fills on Friday and Saturday nights. The music ranges from reggaeton to cumbia to electronic, and by midnight on a weekend it is genuinely packed. The cocktails are cheap by any standard outside Ecuador, the rum-based drinks particularly so.
During the day it operates as a beach bar and is quieter. The bamboo construction gives it an appropriate tropical feel without being kitsch. This is the place to be on full moon weekends when the town swells with visitors from across Ecuador and beyond. If you prefer a quieter evening, go earlier in the week when the staff outnumber the customers and you can hear yourself think.