Neat, Shaken, or Stirred: A Guide to Some of the Best Bars in the World

Plenty of space has been devoted to bars: in literature, travel magazines, blogs, even poetry. Seems Ernest Hemingway couldn’t write a story without having at least one scene set in some atmosphere-rich bar or café, many of which seemed as interesting and appealing as the stories’ characters. 

The Aviary, Chicago.

For me, fellow Illinoisian Hemingway is one of the best. Whether it was the bars of Pamplona during the running of the bulls or Paris’ Ritz on liberation day, the master storyteller captured the beguiling, sometimes other-worldly feel, allure, grit, and character of bars. 

Could the vivid scenes he created or the conversations between iconic characters have occurred anywhere but a bar?

I’ve passed some pleasant hours in memorable bars where I’ve enjoyed inspired conversation, sublime surroundings, tasty cocktails and the chance to meet locals and soak up (sometimes literally) the culture and customs of the spot. 

To be clear, I’m not looking to get drunk or to spend all night in a bar while traveling. For me, a visit to a bar for a drink or two before dinner or for a nightcap after is ideal. The visit provides an opportunity to get warmed up for dinner or wind down before bed, but always to experience a bit of the local culture wherever I’ve landed. 

For those of us drawn to the allure and ambiance of a bar, a vacation that includes a visit to a good one is the cherry atop the sundae (er, Manhattan?) Good thing the world offers plenty—hotel bars, corner bars, tapas bars, neighborhood bars, pubs, dive bars, restaurant bars, rooftop bars. 

Here are some favorites:

The Elephant Bar, Raffles, Pnom Penh, Cambodia. While not as grand as the original Singapore Raffles, this outpost effectively channels its namesake. The bar’s signature cocktail, the Femme Fatale, was concocted for Jackie Kennedy’s visit in 1967. During my visit, we opted for refreshing, classic gin and tonics, surrounded by décor that channeled Joseph Conrad. 

View from the terrace at the Jigger Inn.

Jigger Inn, St. Andrew’s Old Golf Course, Scotland. Overlooking the idyllic rolling greens and rough of the iconic course of historic St. Andrew’s, the turbulent, indigo North Atlantic as a backdrop, this simple, pub-like outpost is the perfect place to soak up the views of one of the most scenic and storied golf courses on the planet. 

Closeries des Lilas, Paris. One-time haunt of writers from the Lost Generation and France’s literary canon, this Montparnasse institution offers perfectly-mixed cocktails, jazz, and formally-clad, attentive waiters (well, and I may as well confess homemade potato chips that are addictive.) Small brass name plates mark the spots for regulars from another era, such as Emile Zola, Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Hemingway.

Napoleon House, New Orleans. The air in this worn, musty and dark bar hangs heavy with history and offers just the right amount of dinge and character. The rich feel of history makes the perfect partner for expertly mixed cocktails. Or, during a sweltering Louisiana summer, an ice-cold beer. 

Brown Bars, Amsterdam. Flying to Europe from the States is a mini-marathon: a boarding not dissimilar to Pamplona’s running of the bulls, a mushy, wine-soaked dinner, a fitful night’s sleep, and then a bleary-eyed, early morning taxi ride to the hotel. If my room is ready, I take a nap. If not, I grab breakfast, walk around, and then check in. 

It’s not typical that I visit a bar on arrival morning, but it happened once. 

During a trip to Kenya which included a two-day layover in Amsterdam, my aunts and a friend and I had a few hours to kill before we could check in. Instead of grabbing breakfast, we headed to one of the city’s iconic brown bars (it was vacation, after all.) 

At these atmospheric, traditional spots you’ll find locals stopping in for an early morning short-pour on their way to work. Rich with patina, decades of smoke stains, well-worn wood, tarnished brass and marble, the bars are an Amsterdam tradition and a portal into a fast-disappearing world that is as Amsterdam as a canal or bicycle. For a list of the best brown bars, see this website. 

The Hassler bar.

The Hassler, Rome. Crowning  the Spanish Steps, the fabled Hassler offers one of the most intimate, atmosphere-rich bars in a city sprouting with enticing spots. Think polished wood, marble, murals of old Rome, impeccable service, and expertly-mixed drinks perfectly suited for this gilded, Lilliputian spot. 

Cherry Circle, Chicago. Tucked in the inner recesses of an historic, Venetian Gothic building on Michigan Avenue, this vintage L-shaped bar overlooks a dimly-lit dining room that channels its former identity as a private business club. 

Dublin's Kelly's Cellar,

Kelly’s Cellars, Belfast. This traditional, craic-filled Irish pub in operation since the 1700s features music most nights, Guinness on tap (of course!), and sometimes a simple Irish stew to soak up the beer. 

The Langham, Chicago. While it might seem counter intuitive, newer hotel bars have plenty to offer. One of the best, in the Mies van der Rohe-designed Langham, is tucked into an aerie with expansive views of the Chicago River and a stunning wall of one-of-a-kind skyscrapers lining the river. 

The Norfolk Hotel, Nairobi.

The Norfolk, Nairobi. When Americans and Europeans first set off on safaris to experience  East Africa’s vast wilderness areas and wildlife, most headed to Kenya. While there, a good share idled away a few hours at the Norfolk Hotel’s bar. While the simple, well-preserved bar I visited in the original hotel has been replaced, there remains a bit of the old bar’s atmosphere in this expanded and renovated Nairobi mainstay. For a distinctly local libation, try the dawa (medicine, in Swahili) concocted with vodka, lime and honey. 

Matchbox, Chicago. Before cocktail culture was a thing, this cozy corner bar took the time and effort to concoct classic drinks. A well-stocked bar, Old School bartenders, and standing room only offer a rare experience that’s changed little in half a century or more. 

I Frattelini, Florence. While Florence’s I Frattelini may not exactly qualify as a bar, it’s also not exactly a restaurant. Open since 1875, the curbside stand tucked into a medieval building in the historic city center offers an impressive array of Italian wines by the glass. Hankering to try a Barolo or lesser-known Italian wines but hesitant to drop a hundred euro for a bottle? This is the spot for you. 

Hotel Bristol, Oslo. In the heart of Oslo’s old city center, this hotel bar, festooned with fresh herbs and mixers, offers cocktails mixed with Scandinavian precision. While not technically a bar, the Oslo Opera House’s café serves drinks with stellar views of the harbor. 

Seville’s Bullfighting Sports Bars: While plenty of bars the world over might resemble each other, a particular type of sports bar in Seville is unique. With décor that celebrates bullfighting, including giant mounted bull’s heads, posters, photographs of famous fighters, and related mementos, the bars are unique to Spain. For two of the best, visit Bar El Baratillo or Casa Pepe Hillo. 

Scotch bars in Edinburgh: While this scenic city of patinaed stones and Gothic gables may not be the center of Scotch production, you wouldn’t know it based on the number of tasting rooms and bars that boast vast selections of the stuff. Whether a large-windowed spot with views of the city’s medieval streets or a musty old bar that mixes the smell of the dust of centuries with a flavorful dram, Scotch bars in this city of mossy stones and fairy tale turrets offer plenty of options. See this Decanter list for some of the best. 

An Edinburgh Scotch bar.

The Oslo Opera House bar/terrace.

The Langham, Chicago.

Bars to Skip

Oddly enough, two bars I recommend skipping are housed in hotels by the name of Ritz—Paris’ storied hotel’s Hemingway Bar and Cairo’s Ritz bar. The former was renovated and sanitized as to remove any hint of patina or age. It now resembles a rather bland middle-of-the-road hotel bar—with cocktails that run $30. It’s the sort of place Hemingway would hate. 

The Cairo Ritz has little atmosphere and staff who don’t know the difference between a vodka tonic and Manhattan. To order a cocktail here is a patience-testing game of Russian roulette. Cairo doesn’t have many bar options so if you do visit, stick to uncomplicated classics—like a beer or glass of wine. 

The Enduring Delights of Traditional Hotels

The Duke's Palace, Bruge, Belgium. 

For a few millennia, inns have existed. Until the last century or two, however, places to plop your head typically hosted working travelers and tradesmen, not leisure travelers and vacationers. 

In fact, the concept of a vacation is a recent development. (Decades ago, a French instructor taught me that the word “travel” is related to the French word “travaille”, which means work. In the not-too-distant past, there was not much that was enjoyable about travel. It was work.) 

Good thing for the modern-day traveler that enterprising individuals figured out that all travel might not be work and that there was a market for grand hotels and quaint inns. These spots took advantage of stunning views, inspiring settings, cozy rooms, or palatial surroundings. And a newly-hatched leisure class checked in. 

 

These days, travelers have another option, of course. With the Internet, we can easily book villas or homes via Air BnB and other apps. As a result, many of us have forsaken traditional hotels. 

 

For me, though, there’s a lot to like about Old School hotels. And while I occasionally rent a house or condo, I’m reluctant to give up my hotel habit. 

 

I’m no Luddite or hopelessly-out-of-touch Boomer, mind you. I’ve used Vrbo and Airbnb, and while the villas and condos I booked offered sweet spots to vacation, there was always something lacking. 

 

The Mayan Inn, Chichicastenango, Guatemala. 

I’m not talking about the fact that a Vrbo “luxury” home near Sonoma offered five bedrooms, but only two bathrooms, or that a fifth floor Paris pied-à-terre was tucked at the top of a building without a working elevator. No, these were minor inconveniences in the scheme of things. It’s something else, something far more fundamental I’m missing when I don’t stay in a hotel. 

 

For starters, I love the breakfasts that only traditional hotels offer. Travel ought to include trying a new thing or two and it’s rare that I belly up to a buffet at an international or small U.S. hotel that doesn’t feature a food I’ve never eaten. And then there’s the mesmerizing murmur of conversation—tourists plan their day, studying subway maps and plotting walking routes. Businesspeople make notes and talk shop with co-workers. 

 

Hotel breakfasts are an invitation to linger, to read an entire newspaper or a few chapters of that difficult-to-put-down novel. Or perhaps to ponder life’s great questions. 

 

The Hassler Bar, Rome.

And then there’s the breakfast room itself. “Rooms” range from the palatial at Rome’s Hassler to Eden-like in the courtyard garden of Austria’s Weingut Nigl. Or there’s the verdant patio of Cambodia’s Shinta Mani.

 

While a good breakfast room can make a hotel, it’s hardly the only interesting room. For downtime in the afternoon, libraries, sitting rooms, and sunny nooks with comfortable armchairs seduce. 

 

And for evenings—both early and late—the bar. There is no quintessential hotel bar: good ones are as varied as hotels themselves—dark, tiny, grand, marbled, worn, cozy, hushed or lively. 

 

And then there’s perhaps the most obvious room of all: the lobby. Like the much-ballyhooed hotel bar, a great hotel lobby is unique. There is no exact formula that creates the perfect space, but we know a great lobby the moment we enter it. 

 

A great lobby tempts you to linger to soak up the space, observe fellow guests coming and going, and maybe sip a drink. It might have semi-private corners for hushed conversations (or to quietly observe others) or prominent, comfortable chairs and sofas that invite lounging. 

 

Finally, traditional hotels have the upper hand come check-out time. Unlike rented rooms or houses, there is no cleaning, no bed-stripping, no tidying things up prior to departure. Departure options can include a scheduled taxi to the airport or a breakfast to-go bag, if you’d like, and almost always a cheery farewell. 

 

While a sizable chunk of the modern traveling world may have checked out of checking in to hotels, I won’t be giving up my traditional hotel habit anytime soon. 

 

For some of my favorite spots, as well as some of the things that make them unique, read on. 

The Hassler (Rome, Italy) Atop the Spanish Steps, the fabled Hassler offers one of the most intimate, atmosphere-rich bars in a city brimming with enticing spots. Think polished wood, marble, murals of old Rome, impeccable service, and expertly-mixed drinks perfectly suited for this gilded spot. 

Shinta Mani (Siam Reap, Cambodia) Warm smiles, cool, jasmine-scented towels and icy lemongrass-flavored water greet you after a day of exploring the tumbled ruins of steamy Angkor Wat. Sublime, work-of-art flower displays created daily complement immense contemporary paintings—all illuminated by candlelight come nightfall. This Bensley Collection property competes with the nearby ancient ruins for attention and time. 

Hotel Pensione Villa Accademia (Venice, Italy) The former Russian embassy, this sleepy, quaint spot near the Accademia boasts an antique- and light-filled second story sala perfect for lounging—or cocktails. 

 

Hotel Captain Cook (Anchorage, Alaska) Don’t let the somewhat bland, contemporary façade fool you: this Anchorage hotel full of paintings documenting Captain Cook’s travels around the Pacific couldn’t be anywhere but Alaska. And it’s anything but bland inside. Many rooms offer views of distant volcanoes and an occasional ghostly-white beluga whale plying the waters just below the hotel.

 

Bosque del Cabo (Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica) Part of the wild and sometimes raucous rainforest, this eco-resort and its serene sea-view villas allow you to experience Costa Rican nature without leaving your private terrace. Several species of monkeys, endangered macaws, flocks of toucans, and an occasional puma prowl and cavort on the manicured grounds surrounding the villas. Communal dinners in an open-air main lodge offer abundant candlelight and conversation under the warm blanket of jungle darkness. Interested? Read more about my experiences here.

Chicago Athletic Association (Chicago, USA) A cavernous, dimly-lit lobby bar channels an old Venetian palace and the hotel’s earlier incarnation as a private men’s club. In winter, grab a table in front of one of the immense fireplaces or peer over Michigan Avenue and Millennium Park while nibbling breakfast or sipping a cocktail. 

Hotel Bristol (Oslo, Norway) One of Scandinavia’s great gifts to the world is the smorgasbord. And the Hotel Bristol, set in the heart of the city, may render all previous smorgasbord experiences inferior. Come evening, carefully-concocted cocktails are shaken and stirred by fastidious bartenders in the atmosphere-rich bar.

 

Old Cataract (Aswan, Egypt) Virginia Woolf knew how to write a mystery, but she also clearly knew how to choose a hotel. Perched above the serene Nile with views of Elephantine Island and the Western Desert beyond (just as depicted in the 70’s Death on the Nile), the Old Cataract is to Egypt what Claridge’s is to London. Spacious rooms in a new tower offer expansive terraces with unforgettable views of the Nile speckled with feluccas and brightly painted boats. Happy Hour here comes with unrivaled, cinematic views and the hypnotic, other-worldly call to prayer while the sun sinks behind dun-colored western hills and the mausoleum of the Aga Khan. 

Hotel Imperial (Vienna, Austria) That this former Hapsburg pad feels palatial isn’t by chance—it is, in fact, a former palace. The historic property is full of fine paintings (some of which decorate rooms) and a staircase that cannot be passed by without taking a regal selfie. Breakfast is served by formally attired, fastidious and friendly waiters in the sunny café with Viennese coffee specialties and a selection of newspapers. 

Norfolk (Nairobi, Kenya) When I stayed at this storied haunt in the late 1990s and early aughts, it wasn’t yet owned by a luxury chain. Today, the hotel retains an aura of its early days when corridors were roamed by Lord Delamere, Theodore Roosevelt and Karen Blixen. During my stays, we kicked off and ended trips to Kenya with a traditional dowa (medicine, in Swahili) served by stylishly-attired waiters at the old school bar.

 

Weingut Nigl (Wachau Valley, Austria) Nestled in steep vineyard-cloaked hills near the Danube, Weingut’s rooms include private terraces overlooking a sleepy, bucolic river valley. Magnificent breakfasts in the quaint cobblestoned courtyard feature local cheeses, wines, and locally-made apricot jam.

The Mayan Inn (Chichicastenango, Guatemala) Steeped in history and loaded with traditional Guatemalan art and textiles, this one-of-a-kind inn offers antique-filled rooms with fireplaces, an essential amenity to ward off the chill of highland nights. Enjoy dinner in a dining room lined with historic, captivating paintings of indigenous Guatemalans and return to your room to find a blazing fire started by the Inn’s resident fire-tender—the only hotel I’ve visited with such a position. 

And a few more: 

The main building of Villa San Michele, nestled in the Eden-like hills above Florence,
was designed by little-known Renaissance architect/artist Michelangelo.  

Dinner with a view.
Villa San Michele's multiple terraces offer views of the Tuscan countryside and Florence.
  

Table service at Al Moudira on Luxor's West Bank.

Multi-course breakfasts at Pura Vida in San Jose, Costa Rica 
begin with flavor-packed local fruit and tropical fruit smoothies. And Costa Rican coffee. 

A Michigan institution and Arts & Crafts gem, the Lakeside Inn offers vintage 
charms and easy access to the broad, powdery beaches of Lake Michigan.

Rooms at Costa Rica's Lost Iguana offer 
mesmerizing views of verdant rainforest and jungle-clad Volcan Arenal.

The courtyard and lounge, perfect spots for breakfast, cocktails and lantern-lit 
dinners at Al Moudira on Luxor's West Bank.

Amsterdam's quirky Pulitzer offers a serene garden courtyard and 
its own vintage canal boat. 

The Robey Hotel's rooms and terrace offer 
expansive views of historic Wicker Park and Chicago's iconic skyline. 

The Langham, a modernist delight, occupies a Mies van der Rohe-designed building with killer views of iconic architecture lining the Chicago River.