Congratulations if you’ve made it to the end of Dry January, and even bigger congratulations if you’re taking your pledge into February. On our part, the Independent’s travel team is relishing the thought of getting back to some of the world’s best beers, bars, cocktails and local spirits on our travels. But where to head first — a sunset bar perhaps, or a city rooftop? Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, we recommend a much-needed drink in these venues:
My top city for a cocktail is New York, but as prices are high (make sure you factor in that per-drink tip!) I have a high and a lowbrow option for you. For a swanky nightcap, go for Bemelmans Bar in the 93-year-old Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side. There’s a pianist tinkling the ivories, curious illustrations by its namesake artist on the walls, and that old-fashioned style of cocktail serve where they give you a mini cocktail shaker with a top up amount beside your glass (order a Manhattan for the full experience ). Lucy Thackray
For a cheaper NYC beer or colorful tiki cocktail, Trailer Park Lounge in Midtown is great fun. Its walls are covered with vintage adverts and road signs, Elvis memorabilia and plastic palm trees. Americana fun. LT
In Prague, you are rarely more than 10 meters from the next drinking opportunity and I love them all. But the terrace of the Hotel U Prince overlooking the Old Town has to be the top choice: good Pilsner beer, better views. A 400ml glass of Staropramen is 99 crowns (£3.70). Sunset is around 5pm right now, extending to 5.42pm at the end of February. Simon Calder
(Szimpla Kert)
Budapest’s ruins bars are a bucket list item, not merely a drink. Old shells of buildings repurposed as pop-up bars, with fairylights, road signs and bric-a-bar decorating them, they’re rowdy and a great place to get chatting to locals. You’ll find them in the Hungarian capital’s Jewish Quarter: my tip is Szimpla Kerta huge, rambling watering hole with a lively crowd. LT
Portugal has a thousand great waterside venues in which to self-soothe with alcohol – the bars on the Douro in Porto, on the Tagus in Lisbon and scattered along the Atlantic coast immediately to mind. But last year I discovered somewhere even more atmospheric: the rooftop bar of the Casa do Turismo in Setubal, the charming port an hour south of the capital by train. Mine’s a chilled white port, please. CS
Everyone hunts out the Lost in Translation hotel bar in Tokyo (in the Park Hyatt hotel); and while it is big-screen famous, it’s echoingly large, not the prettiest and a bit underwhelming all round. Prettier, smaller and more atmospheric is the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo’s hotel bara glossy little cube where you can get a great skyline view and listen to a trickling indoor water feature. LT
Also seek out Tokyo’s tiny, whiskey-specialist cocktail haunts: my favorite was Bar High Five, in a nondescript office building in Ginza. You’ll need to ask your host or hotel for specific directions, but it’s worth the adventure. LT
Most tourists to Brussels are content with a beer surrounded by the gabled guildhalls in the Grand-Place. Yet just five minutes’ walk south takes you to the dainty, triangular Place de la Vieille Halle aux Blés – and The Coming Soon. The name celebrates cinema, and the interior is decorated with images of celluloid heroes. Or take a table outside on the square, order a local beer and create your own drama. CS
Istanbul’s Bosphorus shore has always felt strangely short of venues from which to look across to Asia. The new GalataPort complex addresses that issue, with bars interspersed with shops dispensing luxury goods. The upper deck of the Cafe Populist is the place to sip rakidiluted with water to a milky white while you contemplate Asia across the water. CS
In Singapore, start or end the evening 39 floors above the streets at Mr Stork, atop the Andaz Hotel. The city-state sparkles beneath you. Heighten your appreciation with a cocktail (S$27/£17). Get there on a moonlit night soon (before February 17) and you can order a Lunar New Year special: the Hao Yun Lai, which mixes salted plum gin and Campari with pomegranate and roasted pineapple soda. CS
