Best Bars for Tourists (That Aren't Tourist Traps)
JH
James Harlow
5 min read
There is a version of being a tourist in a new city where you end up in a bar with laminated menus, staff who have memorised a four-word sales pitch, and a cocktail that costs eighteen dollars and tastes like cordial. These are not those bars. The best bars for tourists are the ones that are genuinely worth visiting — places with a real story, real bartenders, and drinks that justify the trip.
Best Bars for Tourists in New York
New York is a city that rewards the tourist who does their homework. The genuinely great bars are not in Times Square. They are in the East Village, the West Village, and Williamsburg — a short subway ride from anywhere you are likely to be staying.
01
Death & Company
East Village$$$Cocktail / Iconic
One of the bars that defined the modern American cocktail movement, and it still earns that reputation every night. The space is intimate and dark, the bartenders are some of the most technically precise in the country, and the seasonal menu changes often enough that repeat visits always turn up something new. Expect a queue after 9pm on weekends — arrive at 6pm or book in advance.
Order: Ask for the bartender's current recommendation — they change the menu constantly
02
McSorley's Old Ale House
East Village$Historic / Beer only
Open since 1854 and essentially unchanged. Sawdust on the floor, gas lamps on the walls, and a menu of exactly two choices: light ale or dark ale. McSorley's is the kind of bar that makes you feel the weight of everything that has happened in New York since the Civil War. Tourists who go expecting cocktails leave confused; tourists who embrace the brief menu leave converted.
Order: Two lights and a plate of cheese and crackers
03
The Ear Inn
SoHo$$Historic / Neighbourhood
One of the oldest continuously operating bars in New York, housed in a Federal-style townhouse built in 1817. The Ear Inn has the energy of a place that has nothing left to prove — the regulars include shipping workers, artists, and the occasional film crew. The food is straightforward and good. The beer list is longer than the room suggests. Go on a Tuesday when it is quieter.
Order: Whatever they have on tap from Brooklyn Brewery
The complete New York cocktail bar guide
For visitors who want something beyond the classics — our New York cocktail bar guide covers 40+ current picks.
London has a handful of bars that every visitor should go to once — not because they are the trendiest, but because they are genuinely exceptional places that happen to be famous. Paris has fewer bars that earn that description, but the ones that do are worth going out of your way for.
04
The American Bar at The Savoy
Strand, London$$$$Classic / Legendary
The most famous hotel bar in the world and it justifies every word of that. The service is faultless, the martini programme is the best in London, and the room itself — all mirrored walls and leather banquettes — makes you feel that you are in the right city doing the right thing. The Hanky Panky cocktail was invented here in 1903 and is still on the menu. Prices are high. Worth every pound.
Order: A Hanky Panky or the house dry martini
05
Dukes Bar
Mayfair, London$$$$Martini / Intimate
James Bond's preferred watering hole, and Ian Fleming drank here while writing the character. The bar itself is tiny — twelve seats — and the martinis are made tableside from a trolley by a barman named Alessandro who has been perfecting the pour for decades. They use Tanqueray No. Ten directly from the freezer. There is no ice and no dilution. It is the best martini in England.
Order: The Vesper martini, following Fleming's original specification
06
Bar Hemingway at The Ritz Paris
1st Arrondissement, Paris$$$$Legend / White-glove
Colin Field has been running this bar for over twenty-five years and the result is one of the great bartender-to-bar marriages in the world. The room is small and covered in Hemingway memorabilia, the cocktail list runs to eighty pages, and the service has a warmth that the Ritz's reputation does not quite prepare you for. Reservations are essential and weeks in advance at peak season.
Order: The Clean Dirty Martini — Field's most requested creation
Weekly editorial
The bars worth going to, weekly.
One email per week. The bars our editors are recommending right now, across 60 cities worldwide.
Free. Unsubscribe anytime.
Best Bars for Tourists in Amsterdam, Dublin and Barcelona
Three cities that regularly appear on best-of tourist lists, and three cities where the gap between a good bar and a bad one is enormous. These are the ones we send people to when they ask us where to actually drink.
07
Wynand Fockink
City Centre, Amsterdam$$Tasting room / Historic
A jenever and liqueur tasting room that has operated from the same address since 1679. The interior has not changed meaningfully since the eighteenth century, and the staff pour the traditional way: tulip glass filled to the very top of the brim, so you have to lean down and sip from the bar without lifting it. It is the most authentically Dutch drinking experience in the city — and one of the cheapest.
Order: Aged jenever — the 10-year is exceptional value
08
The Long Hall
Dublin City Centre$Victorian pub / Guinness
The most beautiful pub interior in Dublin, which is a city with strong competition for that title. The Long Hall dates from the 1860s and the carved mahogany bar, gilded mirrors, and original gas lamp fittings have been maintained with evident care. The Guinness is always in excellent condition. Tourists come for the room; locals stay for the atmosphere. Both are right to be here.
Order: A pint of Guinness — and wait the full two minutes for the pour
09
Bar Marsella
Gothic Quarter, Barcelona$$Absinthe / Ancient
Open since 1820 and selling the same house absinthe to Picasso, Hemingway, and now to you. The bottles behind the bar are so old they have dust welded to them. The lights are gas-dim. The owner appears and disappears from a back room without ceremony. Bar Marsella is the bar that every tourist in Barcelona should go to once, because no other experience in the city feels quite this far back in time.
Order: House absinthe with sugar and a splash of water
More cocktail bars worth visiting
For the tourist who wants world-class drinks alongside the history — our cocktail bar category has you covered.
The best bars for tourists are not the ones in travel magazines with the widest reach — they are the ones that have survived long enough to develop a character no marketing department could invent. Every bar on this list has a reason to exist beyond serving drinks. They have history, personality, and at least one thing you cannot get anywhere else in the world.
Our recommendation: book the legendary rooms in advance, turn up to the neighbourhood bars without a reservation, and ask the bartender what they would drink if they were off the clock. The answers are almost always more interesting than the menu.
Travelling solo? Read our solo travel bar guide
The best bars for solo travellers across every major city — where to drink alone without feeling alone.
