The 100 Best Places to Drink and Stay in the World

The entrance is a secret door, which is either thrilling or exhausting depending on your mood. Once inside, Handshake is a dimly lit speakeasy in Juárez where the cocktail program leans heavily on vintage spirits and the whole room feels like someone's very expensive idea of the 1920s. It holds the number two spot on the World's 50 Best Bars list, which the regulars probably know and definitely don't mention.

1. The 50 #2 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
3. The 50 #12 · North America's 50 Best Bars

A brandy crusta in a 19th-century Creole cottage on the edge of the French Quarter sets the tone for this cocktail bar, which took home the James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar in 2024. The room is unhurried and genuinely romantic, the kind of place that makes ordering a second drink feel like the responsible choice. The drinks lean into New Orleans' deep cocktail history without feeling like a museum.

1. James Beard Awards 2024 · Winner · Outstanding Bar
2. The 50 #44 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. The 50 #6 · North America's 50 Best Bars

Julia Momosé's Japanese-inspired dining bar on West Lake holds a James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar and the Spirited Awards title for World's Best Bar, which tells you something before you've even sat down. Staff in sharp black uniforms somehow manage to feel genuinely warm rather than stiff, and the tasting menu now matches the cocktail program's precision, leaning into Japanese flavors and technique. Come for the drinks, stay through dinner, and plan to linger longer than you intended.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 3 Pins
2. Spirited Awards 2025 · Winner · World’s Best Bar
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Winner · Outstanding Bar

The dining room is styled after a yacht interior, which could read as a gimmick but lands as a mood. Providence is a three-Michelin-star seafood tasting menu restaurant on Melrose, where Michael Cimarusti builds multi-course meals around wild-caught American fish and whatever the farmers market offers that morning. The James Beard Award for Outstanding Hospitality is on the wall, and the front-of-house earns it. North America's 50 Best lists it at number 32.

1. AAA Five Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide 3 Stars
3. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

1. The 50 #12 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #9 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Winner · Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service · Ignacio "Nacho" Jimenez

Walk-ins only, no reservations, queues that can stretch an hour on a busy night: that's Bar Leone's terms, and half of Central seems happy to accept them. The cocktail bar holds the top spot on both Asia's 50 Best Bars and the World's 50 Best Bars lists, the first Asian bar to claim the global title. The drinks lean toward simple and timeless rather than theatrical, which somehow makes the whole thing harder to pull off.

1. The 50 #1 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #1 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. The 50 Roku Industry Icon Award 2025 · The World's 50 Best Bars · Simone Caporale

Jon Yao's tasting menu restaurant lives in the Row DTLA, where polished concrete and an open kitchen set a spare stage for cooking rooted in Taiwanese heritage and San Gabriel Valley muscle memory. The ten courses are not shy about seasoning, and the drinks program, a James Beard winner in its own right, pulls equal weight. Kato holds a Michelin star and a spot on North America's 50 Best, and Yao won the James Beard for Best Chef: California.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Stars
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Winner · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
3. The 50 #49 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants

Santiago Lastra's Michelin-starred Marylebone restaurant runs on a single conviction: Mexican soul, British ingredients. Nearly everything on the tasting menu is sourced from the UK, with sea buckthorn standing in for lime where lime won't grow. The wine list leans into Slovakia, Georgia, and Croatia rather than the usual suspects, and the final courses move downstairs to a mezcaleria that smells exactly like you'd hope.

1. The 50 #49 · The World’s 50 Best Restaurants
2. Michelin Guide 1 Star
3. National Restaurant Awards 2026 · #52 · The National Restaurant Awards

1. The Pinnacle Guide 3 Pins
2. The 50 #8 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. The 50 #1 · Europe's 50 Best Bars

A former textile warehouse in the semi-central city holds a Michelin-starred cocktail bar and restaurant that Europe's 50 Best Bars ranks seventh in the world. The ground floor runs as a bistrot and cocktail bar, while twelve seats upstairs, half of them at the kitchen counter, host an experimental tasting menu that travels from Romagna to Spain without quite settling anywhere. The chef stops by every table, which at twelve covers is less a gesture than a genuine conversation.

1. The 50 #7 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #6 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
3. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin

You get in through the freezer door at the back of a pastrami shop, which tells you most of what you need to know about Paradiso's priorities. The narrow wood-panelled cocktail bar beyond it has a DJ, elaborate glassware that borders on theatrical, and a second secret room behind the bathroom mirror, because one hidden bar was apparently not enough. It sits at number four on the World's 50 Best Bars list.

1. The 50 #4 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
3. The 50 #9 · Europe's 50 Best Bars

1. The 50 #39 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #1 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2025 · Winner · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar

One cocktail bar split into two very different moods. Elementary faces the street with draft Old Fashioneds and Aquavit on tap, a One Sip Martini menu, and prices that won't require a sit-down afterward. Pass through the partition and Tayēr goes darker and quieter, with seasonal menus that change fast and ingredients that lean toward the unusual. The brutalist concrete and exposed steel read warmer than they should. Ranked fifth on the World's 50 Best Bars.

1. The 50 #5 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
3. The 50 #12 · Europe's 50 Best Bars

The menu at this cocktail bar is organized like a tasting dinner, moving through starters, mains, and afters, with combinations like beef and onion or almond and ylang-ylang landing in your glass instead of on a plate. Seating is arranged so guests face each other across a lit surface, giving the room the feel of an omakase counter or possibly a very stylish interrogation. Ranked in the World's 50 Best Bars, it helped push Bangkok's bar scene toward the savory and strange.

1. The 50 #15 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #4 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. The Infatuation The 20 Best Bars In Bangkok

The martini trolley arrives tableside like a small piece of theater, the bartender waiting while you choose your gin, your bitters, shaken or stirred. This is a cocktail bar inside one of Mayfair's grand hotels, all platinum silver leaf walls and candlelit grey marble, and it holds a Forbes Five Star and a spot on the World's 50 Best Bars. Bar snacks run through the afternoon; canapes take over by evening. Dress accordingly.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. The 50 #6 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. The 50 #41 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. The 50 #35 · North America's 50 Best Bars

The cocktail menu here is formatted as a magazine, which tells you something about how seriously this bar takes its own mythology. Tucked inside the Amara Hotel in Tanjong Pagar, Jigger & Pony manages to feel nothing like a hotel bar, which is a quiet miracle. The focus falls on reimagined classics, done with enough precision that the place holds spots on both Asia's 50 Best Bars and The World's 50 Best Bars.

1. The 50 #9 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 Altos Bartenders’ Bartender Award 2025 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. The 50 #3 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars

Victoria Harbour fills the windows of the classic rooms, and the city's social scene has been gravitating to the bars and restaurants here for longer than most guests have been alive. A grand full-service luxury hotel on Hong Kong Island, it holds a Forbes Five Star, a Michelin Key, and a spot on the World's 50 Best Hotels list. The Aubrey upstairs does the harbor view properly, and the spa runs two full floors.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. The 50 #41 · The World's 50 Best Hotels
3. Michelin Guide 1 Key

The entrance is a fake barbershop front on Queen Street, complete with foreign currency in the window as the only signal you're in the right place. Head downstairs and you're in a dim, prohibition-themed cocktail bar with curiosities on the walls and a menu built around freezing techniques: cryo-concentration, freeze-drying, the works. It's on Europe's 50 Best Bars and The World's 50 Best Bars lists, which the pandas on the walls take in stride.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. The 50 #34 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. The 50 #20 · Europe's 50 Best Bars

Sitting on the Kowloon waterfront with most of its 400-plus rooms aimed straight at the Hong Kong skyline, this 65-floor luxury hotel holds the top spot on the World's 50 Best Hotels list and three Michelin Keys. Designer Tony Chi folded checked wool, tweed, and Damien Hirst sculptures into something that feels more like a very grand private residence than a tower block. Eleven bars and restaurants, the Asaya spa, and entry-level rooms that start at 53 square metres keep you from ever needing to leave.

1. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
2. The 50 #1 · The World's 50 Best Hotels
3. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

Taxidermy on the walls, vintage booze ads by candlelight, and hip-hop on the sound system: Satan's Whiskers is a Bethnal Green cocktail bar that looks grungy from the outside and somewhat like hell from the inside, in the best possible sense. The menu changes daily, so regulars who've memorized the classics are always slightly off-balance. It holds a spot on the World's 50 Best Bars and has done the top-slot thing at Top 50 Cocktail Bars more than once.

1. The 50 #21 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
3. The 50 #11 · Europe's 50 Best Bars

Gerald Scarfe's caricatures cover the walls of this cocktail bar inside the Rosewood London, turning a room full of leather-bound books and low couches into something between a drawing room and a satirist's fever dream. The fire is real, the wood panelling is deep, and live jazz runs nightly. It holds a spot on The World's 50 Best Bars, and the crowd around the fireplace rarely whispers.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. The 50 #31 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. The 50 #47 · Europe's 50 Best Bars

Crimson walls, floor cushions, and sculptures that look borrowed from a warehouse no one was using anyway: Schmuck is a cocktail bar on 1st Avenue that landed at number four on North America's 50 Best Bars in its first year open. The Barcelona sibling to Two Schmucks, it splits into a lounge side and a communal kitchen table side, so you can either settle in or make friends faster than planned.

1. The 50 #59 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #4 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. VinePair Bar Program of the Year · The Next Wave Awards

The bar is an island in the middle of the room, bartenders working every side of it with no stools, no counter, no customers in the way. That setup tells you something: this Eixample cocktail bar takes the craft seriously enough to rearrange the furniture around it. Rotovap stills and custom glassware do the heavy lifting, and the whole project landed Sips at number three on the World's 50 Best Bars list.

1. The 50 #3 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
3. The 50 #3 · Europe's 50 Best Bars

It's an English pub in the Marais that decided the pint wasn't enough, so the cocktails arrive in small etched glasses while meat pies and wood paneling keep everything honest. A stuffed animal head presides over the tables. The after-work crowd and casual gossip groups ordering half-sized drinks keep things cheerful, and it sits at #7 on Europe's 50 Best Bars, which no one seems to be discussing loudly.

1. The 50 #20 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
3. The 50 Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award 2025 · The World's 50 Best Bars

The lobby ceiling is washi paper, cathedral-tall, and the city you just left is thirty-three floors below: gone. Aman Tokyo is a luxury hotel occupying the top six floors of an Otemachi skyscraper, and it earned its reputation by making urban Tokyo feel like a remote retreat. Rooms read like a modernist ryokan, the spa runs to onsen-style stone baths with hypnotic city views, and the Imperial Gardens sit conveniently in your sightline. Ranked in The World's 50 Best Hotels.

1. The 50 #25 · The World's 50 Best Hotels
2. Michelin Guide 2 Keys
3. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. The 50 #27 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. The 50 Rémy Martin Legend of the List Award 2025 · The World's 50 Best Bars

Bar Nouveau is a two-level Art Nouveau cocktail bar in the Marais, tucked away from the shopping and the crowds. It's an unusually good place to be overstimulated by museums and have nobody ask you to decide anything, since the menu is short and the classics are the point. Upstairs is intimate, downstairs is a moody den, and it sits at #17 on the World's 50 Best Bars list. Go early or late if you'd like a table.

1. The 50 #17 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #5 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
3. The Infatuation The 22 Best Bars In Paris

Carrara marble and hand-blown Venetian glass share space with kimono textiles and bamboo wall baskets, forty floors above Tokyo Station. This 98-room luxury hotel is Bvlgari in its Roman jeweler mode, fusing sharp Italian design with a subtle Japanese sensibility, and doing it with a straight face. Rooms open to cinematic city views; the spa runs to a 25-metre pool and nine treatment rooms. It holds a Forbes Five Star, three Michelin Keys, and a spot at number fifteen on the World's 50 Best Hotels list.

1. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
3. The 50 #15 · The World's 50 Best Hotels

A former Department of Education building, all golden Edwardian sandstone and ornate bones, now holds one of Sydney's more considered luxury hotels. The restoration layers Aboriginal art and bush-scented spa products into what could easily have been a generic grand-hotel renovation. The 20-metre pool sits where an art gallery once stood, which feels about right. Ranked 12th on the World's 50 Best Hotels list, and holding a Michelin Key.

1. The 50 #12 · The World's 50 Best Hotels
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
3. Michelin Guide 1 Key

The safe in every room comes with three watch winders, which tells you most of what you need to know about this hotel. Cheval Blanc occupies the restored La Samaritaine building above the Pont Neuf, where nearly all 72 rooms look out over the Seine toward Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. Peter Marino's interiors swing between hushed gold-toned rooms and riotous public spaces hung with serious art. It holds a Forbes Five Star, three Michelin Keys, and a spot on the World's 50 Best Hotels list.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
3. The 50 #21 · The World's 50 Best Hotels

The brass banister gets polished every day, which tells you everything about this Art Deco Mayfair hotel. Claridge's is old-school London grandeur without irony: gilded columns, Lalique vases, bathrooms with showerheads so spectacular that guests have reportedly tried to pocket them. Service runs on courteous familiarity rather than cool detachment. It holds a Forbes Five Star, three Michelin Keys, and a spot at number 16 on the World's 50 Best Hotels list.

1. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
3. The 50 #16 · The World's 50 Best Hotels

Danico is a cocktail bar tucked inside the Italian restaurant Daroco, reached through the covered Galerie Vivienne, a former Jean Paul Gaultier shop whose staff still wear the striped shirts. The menu rotates every few months and picks one country, so you might get Japan's sake and whisky. It's on the World's 50 Best Bars list, with couples, pre-opera drinkers, and out-of-towners at the bar.

1. The 50 #30 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #19 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
3. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin

Floor-to-ceiling windows frame Victoria Harbour from most rooms in this high-rise luxury hotel tucked into the International Finance Centre in Central. The mosaic-tiled outdoor infinity pools compete with that same view and mostly hold their own. Rooms run large by Hong Kong standards, finished in the kind of crisp, neutral calm that makes you forget you're in one of the densest cities on earth. A Forbes Five Star and a Michelin Key.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. The 50 #86 · The World's 50 Best Hotels
3. Michelin Guide 1 Key

The name translates as moonshine, which tells you where this cocktail bar's priorities lie. Himkok distills its own aquavit, gin, and vodka on the premises, grows its herbs in a purpose-built greenhouse out back, and delivers much of it via tap. The whole operation is tucked into an old Oslo brick building that sprawls into a warren of bars and cozy corners. It holds a spot on the World's 50 Best Bars list.

1. The 50 #14 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #4 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Cocktail Bar – Europe

A neoclassical palace on the Place de la Concorde, the Crillon's address alone is the kind of thing that makes other addresses feel apologetic. This Rosewood hotel holds 78 rooms and suites dressed in parquet, marble, and calm neutral tones, plus a suite Karl Lagerfeld designed as if the 18th century had simply decided not to end. The subterranean pool, the tasting-menu restaurant, and Bar Les Ambassadeurs complete the picture. It holds a Forbes Five Star and ranks 23rd on the World's 50 Best Hotels list.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. The 50 #23 · The World's 50 Best Hotels
3. Michelin Guide 2 Keys

A weeping cherry tree anchors the central courtyard pond, and the whole hotel seems organized around the idea that you should keep looking at it. Hotel The Mitsui is a luxury property on the former Mitsui family estate, directly facing Nijo Castle, with an onsen fed by hot springs pulled from beneath the grounds. Forbes Five Star, and ranked on the World's 50 Best Hotels list.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
3. The 50 #46 · The World's 50 Best Hotels

1. The 50 #13 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 Michter's Art of Hospitality Award 2025 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best International Restaurant Bar

The glowing iceberg bar top gives away the vibe: this Avenue Montaigne palace hotel has always dressed like it's going somewhere important. Belle Époque bones run through the whole building, but the rooms tilt toward the Eiffel Tower and the Dior Institut spa does light therapy in what used to be a setting for Josephine Baker sightings. Celebrity chef Jean Imbert oversees the dining. Forbes Five Star, three Michelin Keys, and a spot on the World's 50 Best Hotels list.

1. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
3. The 50 #80 · The World's 50 Best Hotels

The former Old War Office, where Churchill paced and Ian Fleming quietly took notes for a certain fictional spy, is now a Raffles hotel. The 120 suites carry names like Churchill and Granville, the corridors run two and a half miles, and a hidden bar in the old MI6 interrogation rooms bans photography. Nine restaurants, a Guerlain spa, and a Forbes Five Star plus a spot on the World's 50 Best Hotels round out a place that takes its own mythology rather seriously.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
3. The 50 #31 · The World's 50 Best Hotels

A Richard Rogers glass tower tucked into a cobbled Belgravia yard, London's first all-suite hotel announced itself quietly and then let the details do the shouting. Sixty-one suites divided among a dream team of designers give each floor its own personality, while the subterranean spa, rooftop bar, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant keep guests from needing to leave. On the World's 50 Best Hotels list at number 32, and holding a Michelin Key.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
3. The 50 #32 · The World's 50 Best Hotels

Pillbox-hatted pageboys at the door set the tone before you've even checked in. The Peninsula is Hong Kong's grand colonial hotel, the one locals call "the Pen," where afternoon tea in the gilded lobby comes with a string quartet and petit fours as a matter of course. Rooms run high-tech alongside genuine antiques, the views back across to Hong Kong Island are quietly spectacular, and the staff have a talent for appearing and vanishing at exactly the right moment. Forbes Five Star.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 2 Keys
3. The 50 #54 · The World's 50 Best Hotels

The name means "place of fire" in Nahuatl, and the Roma Norte agave bar commits to that fully: monochrome earthy materials, sparse dramatic lighting, burning incense, and a design meant to feel like walking into an ancient tomb. It's moody in the way that actually works, where the atmosphere doesn't fight the drinking. North America's 50 Best Bars ranked it fifth, and The World's 50 Best Bars placed it at 23.

1. The 50 #23 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #5 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. MexBest Mejor Bartender: Ganador · Premios MexBest · Eli Martínez Bello

1. The 50 #10 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Cocktail Bar – Latin America & Caribbean
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Bar Team – Latin America & Caribbean

The custom-designed everything, down to the furniture, signals that True Laurel takes itself seriously, which would be more insufferable if the drinks weren't so good. This cocktail bar and restaurant from the Lazy Bear team lands at number 14 on North America's 50 Best Bars list. Small plates rotate with the seasons, and the bar program is tight, inventive, and the clear reason most people show up.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. The 50 #64 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. The 50 #14 · North America's 50 Best Bars

The check-in desk doesn't exist, which tells you something about this hotel's priorities. André Fu's design runs the full length of a Pacific Place tower, with rooms large enough to embarrass most Hong Kong apartments, limestone tubs, and floor-to-ceiling windows facing the skyline. The art collection runs to 400 pieces. Salisterra on the 49th floor handles Mediterranean food and harbour views. Ranked tenth on the World's 50 Best Hotels list.

1. The 50 #10 · The World's 50 Best Hotels
2. Michelin Guide 2 Keys
3. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

The back bar glows a warm amber orange, and most of what's in your glass started life as something that might otherwise have ended up in a bin. Zest is a seasonal cocktail bar in Cheongdam built around a zero-waste philosophy: house-made tonic, upcycled local produce, and a menu of signatures leaning on Korean spirits you won't find everywhere. It holds a spot on The World's 50 Best Bars.

1. The 50 #16 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #2 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Seoul, South Korea

1. The 50 #43 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #22 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
3. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. Spirited Awards 2025 · Winner · Best U.S. Bar Team
3. Spirited Awards 2024 · Winner · Best U.S. Hotel Bar

The chef's counter overlooking the kitchen is the seat to book at this sleek, third-floor tasting menu restaurant from Patrick Kriss. Six or ten courses move between European and Asian sensibilities without announcing the pivot each time. The bar takes walk-ins and treats them accordingly. A Michelin star sits on the shelf. Somehow the room, all burgundy and diffused light, never tips into solemnity.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. AAA Three Diamonds
3. Michelin Guide 1 Star

Every suite has a working fireplace, which feels like a minor miracle in Midtown Manhattan. Aman New York is a hotel occupying the upper floors of the old Crown Building on Fifth Avenue, with 83 residential-style suites, a three-floor wellness complex mixing cryotherapy with Traditional Chinese Medicine, an omakase restaurant, and a speakeasy-style jazz club below. It holds three Michelin Keys and a spot on the World's 50 Best Hotels list.

1. AAA Five Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
3. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

The cocktail menu here is built around local collaborators, a banana jam from LoCoFarms turning up in one drink, a pickled kale riff on the G&T in another. Argo is the cocktail bar inside the Four Seasons in Central, so the room is polished and the prices are committed. It lands on Asia's 50 Best Bars and The World's 50 Best Bars lists, which means the out-of-towners are easy to spot, though the bartenders treat everyone the same.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. The 50 #56 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. The 50 #11 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars

The shelves behind the bar are stacked floor to ceiling with jars of homegrown spices and homemade infusions, which sets the tone. This intimate eight-seat cocktail bar on the ninth floor of a Shinjuku building runs on ingredients Hiroyasu Kayama grows on his family's farm, yuzu, wormwood, fennel, all finding their way into farm-to-glass drinks built on amaro, whisky, gin, or house-made absinthe. It holds a spot on the World's 50 Best Bars list.

1. The 50 #18 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #9 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Tokyo

Black-and-white photos of a man named Mauro watch over the room while his grandsons run the bar below him, which tells you most of what you need to know about Bar Mauro. This Italian cocktail bar in Roma Norte pours vermouth and amari the way Milan used to, somewhere between a classic aperitivo hour and a very considered modern lounge. Ranked second on North America's 50 Best Bars, it also holds a spot on the World's 50 Best Bars list.

1. The 50 Campari One To Watch Award 2025 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #54 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. The 50 #2 · North America's 50 Best Bars

Bentwood chairs, a marble bar, and jazz on Sundays give this College Street cocktail bar the plausible deniability of a Parisian café. The drinks are where things get interesting: curry leaf and rum, cognac stirred with masala chai, combinations that sound like a dare and drink like they were inevitable. North America's 50 Best Bars places it at number eight, and the hospitality matches the ambition. The garden patio fills up fast.

1. The 50 #55 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #8 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin

A doorman in a top hat meets you outside eleven joined Georgian townhouses in Mayfair, which sets the tone for this grand, old-school London hotel. Brown's has been around forever, and a top-to-bottom renovation by Olga Polizzi brought the interiors into something more cultured and contemporary than the usual country-house look. Shelves of British literature, the Donovan Bar, and Charlie's for pre-theatre dinners round things out. Forbes Five Star and Michelin 2 Keys.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 2 Keys
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 #19 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best International Cocktail Bar
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best International Bar Team

The penthouse terrace looks straight at the Eiffel Tower, which feels almost too on the nose, yet here we are. This is a grand palace hotel in the 8th, where Art Deco bones meet Louis XV interiors and rooms that, even at their smallest, feel like a proper Parisian apartment. The wine cave holds around 50,000 bottles, the spa is among the most lavish in the city, and three Michelin-starred restaurants occupy the ground floor. Forbes Five Star and Michelin's 3 Keys.

1. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
3. The 50 2025 · Most Admired Hotel Group Award

The first Four Seasons to open in Europe, this Mayfair hotel has aged the way Mayfair pretends to, with genuine care rather than denial. Rooms come with city or Hyde Park views from private balconies, the tenth-floor spa sits above most of the neighborhood, and Yannick Alléno's Pavyllon London handles dinner. The concierge team holds more Les Clefs d'Or keys than any other London hotel. Forbes Five Star and three Michelin Keys.

1. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
3. The 50 2025 · Most Admired Hotel Group Award

The grand foyer alone tells you what you're in for: marble floors, birds of paradise, and ornamental stonework salvaged from the banks and social clubs that once occupied this corner of Centro. It's a luxury hotel in the most old-Madrid sense, except the rooms are thoroughly modern and the service is Four Seasons, which earns a Forbes Five Star and a spot on the World's 50 Best Hotels. The building's angled facade at Sevilla and Alcalá has already become part of the skyline.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 2 Keys
3. The 50 #66 · The World's 50 Best Hotels

One street off the Champs-Élysées and practically next door to the Élysée Palace, this boutique hotel occupies a stately Haussmannian building with interiors by Jacques Garcia at his most refined. Suites outnumber rooms by design, each scaled and furnished closer to a private residence than a hotel room, with butler service to match. It holds a Forbes Five Star and three Michelin Keys. The wine cellar runs to over a thousand labels, which the name quietly hints at.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Rooms facing the Jardin des Tuileries and a seventh-floor suite with a 360-degree rooftop terrace set the tone at this palace hotel on the rue de Rivoli. The Versailles-inspired interiors survived their recent renovation largely intact, the service remains old-world without apology, and the Valmont spa is the only one of its kind in Paris. A Forbes Five Star and Michelin's 3 Keys confirm what the address already implies.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Suites named after Somerset Maugham and James Michener tell you something about the company this riverside hotel has kept for a very long time. It sits on the Chao Phraya in Bangkok, all teak, marble, and tropical gardens, with 393 rooms attended by 24-hour butlers. The Authors' Lounge does afternoon tea in the original Victorian building, and the spa has a reputation that travels well beyond Thailand. Number 7 on the World's 50 Best Hotels, Forbes Five Star.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
3. The 50 #7 · The World's 50 Best Hotels

The floor managers stationed on every level around the clock give you a sense of what kind of hotel this is. A grand Edwardian pile on Knightsbridge, with Hyde Park on one side and Harrods on the other, it holds a Forbes Five Star and three Michelin Keys, and the service runs accordingly. Rooms are classic and traditional rather than fashionably stark. The shopping options outside are, to put it gently, dangerous.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

The gold cutlery is not a flex, it's just the baseline here. This grande dame hotel on the Golden Triangle of Art has been collecting Belle Époque grandeur since forever, and a major renovation brought it back without softening a single gilded edge. The 153 rooms run white and gold throughout, the marble pool is heated, and Quique Dacosta runs the kitchen. It holds a Forbes Five Star and a spot on the World's 50 Best Hotels list.

1. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
3. The 50 #71 · The World's 50 Best Hotels

Black wood floors greet you at check-in, and the rooms are reportedly the largest on Hong Kong Island, which helps explain the crowd of finance types who treat the place as a second address. This Forbes Five Star hotel in Central keeps only around 100 rooms, so the staff tends to learn your name fast. The spa spans two floors and the adjacent Landmark mall makes impulse shopping a structural hazard.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The building was once a carriage house, then a sculptor's studio, and now a three-level Japanese cocktail bar in Gramercy where the drinks are as considered as the history. The team behind it spent years at Angel's Share before going solo here, and it shows in every measured pour. Nikka whisky and yuzu turn up alongside immaculate riffs on classics. Named among North America's 50 Best Bars, and the room earns the quiet confidence.

1. The 50 #75 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #23 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Esquire The Best Bars in America

Dark wood and deep emerald velvet set the scene at this cocktail bar inside Bratislava's Radisson Blu Carlton, where the menu splits between riffs on classics and a showier gallery section served in bespoke glassware. It ranks among Europe's 50 Best Bars and holds the World's 50 Best Bars Michter's Art of Hospitality Award, which tracks: the bartenders here treat a drink order like correspondence they've been waiting for.

1. The 50 #25 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #8 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
3. The 50 Michter's Art of Hospitality Award 2026 · Europe's 50 Best Bars

1. The 50 #46 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #33 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar

The rooms on upper floors look directly across the Imperial Palace moat, which means your morning coffee comes with a view most Tokyo residents will never get. This luxury hotel in Marunouchi sits about as close to the Imperial Palace grounds as a civilian can get, and it leans into that proximity with calm, considered interiors that feel genuinely Japanese rather than generically grand. A Forbes Five Star and three Michelin Keys. Service here has a way of quietly resetting your expectations.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

The hotel folds so quietly into Higashiyama's narrow lanes, with black-tiled roofs and natural materials echoing the neighborhood's old temples, that you might mistake it for a traditional townhouse complex. Inside is a luxury hotel with airy rooms that sit somewhere between a ryokan's calm and a proper international stay. Kyoyamato, one of Kyoto's most storied restaurants, is on the premises. The World's 50 Best Hotels list has it at number 59.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. The 50 #59 · The World's 50 Best Hotels
3. Michelin Guide 1 Key

Every room is a suite, and every suite comes with a dedicated butler, which sets the tone before you've even spotted the liveried Sikh doormen at the door. This storied Singapore hotel holds a Forbes Five Star and sits at number five on the World's 50 Best Hotels list. The white neo-Renaissance building, lush gardens, rooftop pool, and Long Bar, where the Singapore Sling was invented, give guests plenty of reasons to never actually leave.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. The 50 #5 · The World's 50 Best Hotels

The tulip lamps on the bedside tables survived the renovation intact, which tells you everything about how the Ritz Paris approaches change. This is the grande dame of Place Vendôme, a Belle Époque palace hotel where Coco Chanel kept a suite for decades and the Hemingway Bar still feels like a shrine. Suites are named for past residents. The spa could swallow a lesser hotel whole. Forbes Five Star and Michelin's 3 Keys.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Scotch Lodge is a dark, wood-paneled whisky bar with towering walls of bottles, marble counters, and the kind of lighting that forgives everything. It won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar. Drinks come smoky and layered, the kitchen turns out silky pasta and fried brie sticks, and someone in the corner is usually having a quiet moment with a rare pour. Dress like you've read a book, then decline to mention it.

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Winner · Outstanding Bar
2. James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Outstanding Bar
3. The 50 #63 · North America's 50 Best Bars

The fried chicken sandwich at a cocktail bar is either a cry for help or a statement of intent, and at Service Bar it's the latter. This relaxed U Street neighborhood bar keeps the classics balanced and the housemade drinks genuinely inventive, pulling from ingredients most menus wouldn't dare touch. The Spirited Awards named it U.S. Bartender of the Year in 2025, and North America's 50 Best Bars has it at number 39.

1. Spirited Awards 2025 · Winner · U.S. Bartender of the Year · Christine Kim
2. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
3. The 50 #39 · North America's 50 Best Bars

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. The 50 #47 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. The 50 #2 · Europe's 50 Best Bars

The house martini arrives before you've settled in, which tells you everything about the bar at this Shoreditch Town Hall restaurant. It's a place to drink while the open kitchen fires on all cylinders around you, the kind of pre-dinner perch that makes waiting feel like the point. The room carries the weight of the old civic building without taking itself too seriously, and the team moves like they've done this a few thousand times.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Stars
2. The 50 #86 · The World’s 50 Best Restaurants
3. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

A Damien Hirst hangs in the corridor and a Barbara Hepworth sits around the corner, which tells you roughly what kind of hotel this is. The Connaught is old Mayfair luxury, renovated enough to stay relevant but not so much that anyone would mistake it for a boutique. Guy Oliver's muted, clean-lined interiors hold their seriousness well. The Connaught Bar and Hélène Darroze's three-Michelin-star restaurant keep guests from leaving. On the World's 50 Best Hotels list.

1. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
2. The 50 #29 · The World's 50 Best Hotels

The building stands alone, a 24-story structure designed to resemble a traditional Japanese lantern, which at night, thanks to careful lighting, it actually does. A luxury hotel in Marunouchi, it sits across from the Imperial Palace gardens, giving rooms a rare patch of darkness in a city that never dims. A fleet of Rolls-Royces handles ground transport, room service arrives through a wall hatch, and the 24th-floor views are the kind that make the room rate feel like a separate conversation. It holds a Forbes Five Star and a Michelin Key.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

The forecourt's famous covered driveway, the only street in Britain where traffic drives on the right, is a reliable hint that ordinary rules don't apply here. This landmark London hotel holds a Forbes Five Star and three Michelin Keys, and splits its rooms between Art Deco and Edwardian styles. Gordon Ramsay runs three dining rooms on site. The American Bar, restored to its precise 1889 state, is the draw for anyone not staying.

1. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

The cocktail menu at this Mission bar changes twice a year, each edition built around a new theme, the kind of concept that sounds like a gimmick until you're on your second drink and deeply invested in 1960s counterculture. Trick Dog won the Spirited Award for Best U.S. Cocktail Bar in 2025, and the room fills with people who know exactly which round they're on. Loaded fries upstairs hold everything together.

1. Spirited Awards 2025 · Winner · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar
2. Punch Industry Icon
3. Food & Wine The 10 Top Bars in the US

A cocktail bar that calls itself a nerdy cocktail bar, a natural wine bar, and your favorite dive bar, and then has the audacity to be all three. The Old Bay Martini landed it on Esquire's radar and the Spirited Awards named it the top U.S. cocktail bar, but the room itself is the tell: hot dogs share menu space with wine you've never heard of, and nobody in here seems to think that's unusual.

1. Spirited Awards 2024 · Winner · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar
2. The 50 #67 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Esquire The Best Bars in America

1. The 50 #11 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

Beyoncé performed at the opening party, which tells you everything about the register this Palm Jumeirah resort is operating at. Ninety pools, sixteen restaurants anchored by names like Heston Blumenthal, a salt cave, a jellyfish aquarium, and gold-plated toothbrushes waiting in the bathroom. The rooms are, somehow, calm and minimalist. The suites have glass-sided sky pools. It holds a Forbes Five Star and sits at number six on the World's 50 Best Hotels list.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
3. The 50 #6 · The World's 50 Best Hotels

A 24-hour light installation made from 2,000 LED-embedded Harcourt glasses greets you in the foyer, and that's just the warm-up. This Midtown luxury hotel, the crystal brand's first, sits across from MoMA and commits fully to the bit: silver-leaf paneling, pleated-silk walls, fresh roses in orb arrangements, and enough Baccarat crystal to humble a museum gift shop. Forbes Five Star and a Michelin Key. Resign yourself to being out-dressed by the lobby.

1. AAA Five Diamonds
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
3. Michelin Guide 1 Key

A cocktail bar inside a converted hanok, the traditional Korean timber house, that has landed on both Asia's 50 Best Bars and the World's 50 Best Bars lists. The concept is soju, treated seriously, with the bar team building signature cocktails from both classic and fruit-forward versions of Korea's national spirit. The low wooden rooms do most of the atmospheric heavy lifting, and the drinks handle the rest.

1. The 50 #53 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #6 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. The Infatuation Where To Eat & Drink When You're Visiting Seoul

Athens' first tequilaria, Barro Negro built its identity around agave spirits long before the city caught on. The shelves lean heavily toward tequila and mezcal, sipped neat or shaken into Margaritas, and the bar holds the world's first Paloma Embassy designation, which is as good a reason as any to start there. Ranked on both Europe's and the World's 50 Best Bars lists, it pairs a serious drinks program with tacos, making the argument that this was always a food group.

1. The 50 #62 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #13 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
3. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin

A private park in the middle of Zürich is the first clue that this old-school luxury hotel operates by its own rules. It sits just off the Bahnhofstrasse, the city's main shopping corridor, yet the grounds feel genuinely removed from it. Chagall and Miró have slept here, as have a small roster of European royals who apparently found the alpine views agreeable. Forbes Four Star. The kind of address where the concierge has seen everything and shows nothing.

1. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

A cocktail bar inside the Four Seasons Bangkok that has quietly pivoted to Mexico, so the drinks now run on agave, spice, and cultural mythology. Expect a Frida Kahlo-inspired sour and the kind of Santana highball that sounds like a joke until you taste it. Non-drinkers get tepache and horchata instead of the usual sad sparkling water. It holds a spot on the World's 50 Best Bars and Asia's 50 Best Bars.

1. The 50 #49 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #19 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · World’s Best Cocktail Menu

Antonio Citterio's minimalist interiors sit on the fringes of Hyde Park, all dark oak, Italian marble, and vintage Bvlgari jewellery cases lit like relics. This is a luxury hotel in the deep Knightsbridge sense, meaning Harrods is a short walk and the prices assume you aren't counting. Forbes Five Star and Michelin's 3 Keys. The spa is genuinely monumental, the service is the kind that anticipates rather than reacts, and the Continental cool quietly unsettles old-school London hotel traditionalists.

1. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star

A marble statue of Emperor Augustus, on loan from the Torlonia Collection, holds court in the five-metre entrance hall of this luxury hotel on Piazza Augusto Imperatore. Rooms come in four color moods, bathrooms run to rare stone and bespoke mosaics, and the spa pools draw on ancient Roman bath architecture. Niko Romito oversees the restaurant upstairs. It sits at number 22 on the World's 50 Best Hotels list, which the building wears lightly.

1. The 50 #22 · The World's 50 Best Hotels
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

A riverside hotel on the Chao Phraya where the rooms come with private terraces and the villas have plunge pools and their own gardens, all of it calibrated to feel like an antidote to Bangkok's cheerful chaos. The design leans clean and neutral, the service reportedly borders on telepathic, and dedicated "Culturists" will arrange a private meditation session at a centuries-old temple if that's your afternoon. Holds a Forbes Five Star and sits at number three on the World's 50 Best Hotels list.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. The 50 #3 · The World's 50 Best Hotels
3. Michelin Guide 2 Keys

Perched above Eleven Madison Park and co-conceived by Daniel Humm and painter Francesco Clemente, this cocktail lounge wears its inspirations visibly, with Clemente's murals covering the walls in the spirit of Zurich's Kronenhalle Bar. Every cocktail on the menu is vegan and built with serious technical ambition, fermented ingredients and infused oils included. It landed at number fifteen on North America's 50 Best Bars in 2026.

1. The 50 #15 · North America's 50 Best Bars
2. Esquire Martini of the Year: Clemente Martini · The Best Martinis in America
3. VinePair Bartender of the Year · The Next Wave Awards · Sebastian Tollius

Bitter melon, green curry, and tequila sharing a glass is either a terrible idea or a stroke of genius, and Coa has built a following on exactly that tension. This agave cocktail bar in Central pulls from local Hong Kong ingredients to make mezcal and tequila feel native to the city, with long queues to prove it. It holds a spot on the World's 50 Best Bars list, and the room stays packed enough that the team has clearly figured out how to scale without cutting corners.

1. The 50 #38 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The 50 #17 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best International Cocktail Bar

The cobblestone block it sits on feels more like a Soho mews than Soho, which is rather the point. This boutique hotel from the London-rooted Firmdale group layers bold English country house fabric and color against warehouse-style windows, so every room reads like a very confident decorator's private flat. A sculpture garden, a drawing room with an honor bar, and a Sunday Film Club keep the mood firmly residential. It holds a Michelin 3 Keys and a Forbes Four Star.

1. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

A converted firehouse on Freret Street, bare concrete underfoot and a long bar anchoring the room, Cure is a cocktail bar that made Uptown worth the cab ride from the Quarter. The bottle-green banquettes fill with locals who already know what they're ordering. Food & Wine ranked it the top bar in the country, and North America's 50 Best Bars puts it at number 21. The drinks are the argument; the room just makes it easier to stay.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. The 50 #21 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Food & Wine #1 · The 10 Top Bars in the US

Behind an unmarked stretch of wall on a quiet avenue sits what amounts to a Renaissance museum you can sleep in. The hotel spans two historic palazzi, with bas-relief friezes, restored frescoes, and silk wallpaper filling corridors that connect to one of Florence's largest private gardens. The pool runs ninety feet, the spa has ten treatment rooms, and a shuttle ferries guests to the Uffizi. Ranked ninth on the World's 50 Best Hotels list, it holds a Forbes Five Star.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. The 50 #9 · The World's 50 Best Hotels
3. The 50 2025 · Most Admired Hotel Group Award

Two riverfront infinity pools and a spa the size of a small village signal that this Four Seasons, sitting on the Chao Phraya, was never going to be a place you just sleep in. Jean-Michel Gathy's design runs from gilded opulence to breezy tropical modernism across cascading courtyards that pull the river inside. The hotel ranks second on the World's 50 Best Hotels list, and with BKK Social Club, multiple restaurants, and a private longtail, that tracks.

1. The 50 #2 · The World's 50 Best Hotels
2. Michelin Guide 2 Keys
3. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

On a clear day, the upper floors of this tower look straight out to Mount Fuji over the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace. A sleek, modern Four Seasons in the high-rise financial district, it holds a Michelin star at its French restaurant, where the chef sources ingredients from across Japan and keeps the butter mostly out of it. The spa runs deep on Zen design. Forbes Four Star and Michelin 3 Keys.

1. Michelin Guide 3 Keys
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
3. The 50 2025 · Most Admired Hotel Group Award

1. VinePair Food & Beverage Program of the Year · The Next Wave Awards
2. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
3. The 50 #27 · North America's 50 Best Bars

1. Time Out The Turkey Leg Sandwich · The 18 best sandwiches in the world right now
2. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

A 17th-century convent on the Cimiez hillside above Nice's old town, converted into an 88-room hotel where the nuns' cells now come with lime-plaster walls and Italian antiques, and occasionally a La Cornue range cooker. The cloister gardens slope toward a lap pool with Med views, and the subterranean spa draws on Roman bath logic. The restaurant leans into Riviera produce with minimal drama. Ranked 27th on the World's 50 Best Hotels list and holding a Michelin Key.

1. The 50 #27 · The World's 50 Best Hotels
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key
3. Le Fooding Le Fooding Guide

The Aman family's more sociable sibling, Janu Tokyo occupies the first 13 floors of a Cesar Pelli tower in the Azabudai Hills development, and unlike its cooler, more reclusive parent brand, it actually wants to be part of the city. A luxury hotel with 122 rooms, most with balconies facing Tokyo Tower, plus eight restaurants and bars, and a 4,000-square-metre wellness centre with a hammam, a banya, and one of the largest gyms in Tokyo. It holds a spot on the World's 50 Best Hotels.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Keys
2. The 50 #37 · The World's 50 Best Hotels

The man who ran the American Bar at the Savoy for nearly eight years now runs this sleek Mayfair cocktail bar a short walk from Green Park. Erik Lorincz built Kwãnt around drinks that don't resemble anything else in London, layering fermented teas, misos, and awamori into compositions that feel genuinely considered rather than merely unusual. It ranks on the World's 50 Best Bars list. The room is calm and grown-up, which lets the cocktails do the talking.

1. The 50 #79 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
3. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

An old-school institution in DIFC where regulars rattle off their order without glancing at the menu, which tells you most of what you need to know. LPM is a French-Mediterranean restaurant and bar with white walls, bright art, and a Mediterranean breeziness that somehow survives the Dubai setting. The bar sits at No. 60 on The World's 50 Best Bars list, and the cocktail program draws on Jean Cocteau's life, which is a more interesting premise than it sounds.

1. The 50 #60 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
3. The 50 #27 · MENA's 50 Best Restaurants

The old bank safes are still here, repurposed into the Banker's Bar, which tells you something about how this Forbes Five Star hotel on Passeig de Gràcia earns its drama. Casa Batlló is a short walk away, Las Ramblas and the Gothic Quarter not much farther. Back at the hotel there's a rooftop dipping pool, a garden, and a spa to help you recover from all that architecture.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 2 Keys
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

The rooms start around the 35th floor, so Central Park and the Hudson are laid out below you like a diorama, and that view does a lot of the talking for a luxury hotel that also works hard to earn it. Wood paneling, marble, framed kimonos, and gold throw pillows signal the Mandarin group's Far Eastern aesthetic, carried off without feeling like a theme park. It holds a Forbes Five Star, and the spa alone draws guests who aren't even sleeping here.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. AAA Five Diamonds
3. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The hotel starts at the 38th floor, which means the Tokyo skyline arrives before your luggage does. On clear days, Mount Fuji makes an appearance from the floor-to-ceiling windows, which the rooms are essentially designed around. Guest rooms lean restrained, fitting the Nihonbashi banking district, though the bathrooms are spa-sized enough to cause confusion. It holds a Forbes Five Star and a Michelin Key, and the actual spa justifies both.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Jacketed bartenders with accents spanning small Slovakian towns to big Italian cities set the tone at this cocktail bar in The Rocks. The hospitality runs flamboyant, the kind where staff practically compete for your affection and the host seats everyone like a penthouse guest. Named one of the World's 50 Best Bars, Maybe Sammy drinks from a European hotel-bar playbook that Sydney had no idea it was missing.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. The 50 #42 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin

The bar program here landed at No. 36 on the World's 50 Best Bars list, which is a lot for a restaurant inside a Four Seasons to live up to, and yet the kitchen keeps pace. Mimi Kakushi is a contemporary Japanese dining room and cocktail bar where sushi, wagyu, and donabe rice pots share the evening with drinks that have made the global circuit. The crowd arrives dressed for it, and the room obliges.