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A killer kitsch cocktail bar that serves classic cocktails to good tunes under bordello-red lighting. Leather booths make it even more sexy.
1222 Serrano
Google map: tinyurl.com/lblst9
All-white decor but not as poncey as it sounds - the service is down to earth. Great place for tapas, washed down with a mojito. It’s a tiny place with tables crammed in, so get there early if you want to secure a seat.
Honduras 5656, Tel: 4774 4224.
Google map: tinyurl.com/lr8a9c
Old-fashioned buzzy bar on the edge of the square where at weekends you can watch tango and browse the flea market. Speedy service from the ageing waiters... grab a table outside if you can, order a chop and watch the comings and goings in the square.
Plaza Dorrego, San Telmo
Of course you should eat the beef whilst in Buenos Aires, but at some point you might seek something a little different. If so, try Filo, an Italian restaurant, right in the heart of the city, by Plaza San Martin. The pizzas are divine, the wine sublime, and the tiramisu is the best in the southern hemisphere. There's even a tasteful gallery in the basement.
Address: San Martin, 975
Tel: 011 4311 0312
www.filo-ristorante.com
Google map: tinyurl.com/ndpmbp
Please be aware that the bar called Le Tof is as gay as Wetherspoons. It is full of overtly heterosexual punters who kept on reminding us that being gay is barely tolerated in France. Any self respecting gay person should avoid this place at all costs. Rather go to the Clubhouse, where being gay is accepted as a natural occurence.
Head up to the Caravelle Hotel's rooftop bar in the evening and watch the sun set over Ho Chi Minh City.
Non-residents are welcome, although it's probably a good idea not to turn up in a scruffy T-shirt and shorts.
It's a five-star hotel, so expect to pay five-star prices, but it's worth it for the view.
19 Lam Son Square, District 1.
www.caravellehotel.com/
The Bridge Cafe is one of Manhattan's oldest boozers - and, thankfully, one of the least known. It sits beneath the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge and gives you good honest food and good draft beer at its long bar.
Walk down Water Street to get there - it's one of the city's last remaining cobble stoned streets and is a small shout away from the touristy South Street Seaport. Have a pint of Brooklyn Brewery white beer - made just across the East River - and then wobble up to the bridge, walk halfway across, turn around and take in Manhattan- it's just like the movies.
You'll never forget the view and to reacquaint yourself with the Bridge Cafe - right down below- totter back to the long bar for another Brooklyn.
279 Water Street, Manhattan; nearest subway: Chambers Street and City Hall
The charm of this place overcomes its theme-park tackiness, despite the fake fairy-tale forest, waterfall and out-of-place four-poster bed which you’re frustratingly not aloud to lie on. Great for a first date as long as it's not a local.
Passatge de la Banca 7; nearest metro: Drassanes
Just behind the legendary Boqueria market, this is best practice in regeneration. It has an eclectic design, sunny terrace by day and discrete candle-light by night as well as best value multicultural dishes. Inclusive and yet trendy. Great brekkie and home-made milkshakes.
Plaça de la Gardunya 7; tel: 00 34 93 3014 163; nearest metro: Liceu
This is a small, atmospheric bar hidden in a side street just off the beaten track of the Fressgass. It has two floors and if you go upstairs there's a very novel way of getting your drinks. You lean over a railing to the bar below and shout down your order, which is placed in a basket on a rope. You then haul it up to access your beverages.
There's usually unobtrusive jazz playing, as the name suggests, and it's all very laid back and friendly. Don't go in large numbers though as there's limited space.
Kleinen Bockenheimer Str 12
This is a fun, cozy bar, filled with locals, with great live music (usually rock with a jazzy twist) in a funky neighborhood called Kitai Gorod. There are three 'mini' bars within the small cellar space, one of the bars is actually an airplane wing, hence the name. Dancing takes place in one of the small bar rooms, the other is for sitting and chatting, and the larger space has the band.
Proyezd Lubyansky 25, the Russian name of the bar is Kitaysky Lyotchik Dzhao-Da; nearesy metro: Kitai Gorod
A bar, a lounge and a swanky restaurant. From the summer through to mid-October, there is a gorgeous patio (blankets and heaters supplied for cool autumn days). The bar food includes one of the best hamburgers I've ever had, great chips, fresh salads and more.
7 Maly Palashevsky Per; nearest metro: Pushkinskaya; www.scandinavia.ru
An open air DJ bar with an underground flavour. Held every Friday and Saturday night in summertime (weather permitting) the DJs spin a plethora of discs ranging from electropunk to drum 'n' bass via goa trance, acid house and the occasionally rather commercial dance set. The party is held in what is known as the Royal Park opposite the Royal Palace and starts around 11 in the evening, steaming on until the early hours (6-7am, although the party ended earlier last summer).
It's best to have a meeting place in case you get lost as the crowds are thick and it's easy to misplace friends in the happy chaos. Drink prices are average for Brussels (ie cheaper than most expat bars).
Le Parc de Bruxelles, opposite the Royal Palace; nearest metro: Kunst-Wet/Arts-Loi;
www.legazon.be
This is a very fancy bar located on the 22nd floor of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The view over Moscow is fascinating and so are the prices. But if you're in Moscow, you have to experience its high life at least once, no matter what the cost.
Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky Prospekt, 32a; nearest metro: Leninsky Prospekt, walk towards the tall buildings with the orange roofs; Tel: 495 938 5104, 782 5045; www.skylounge.ru
Either heaven or hell, depending on your preference. Affectionately known as "The Whorehouse", all expats and many tourists arrive here eventually unaware of the horrors that lie within. Any sports event worth its salt is shown here, from American football to League Two play-off semi finals.
There are surly bartenders who will only answer shouts of 'Dyevushka!' (“girl!”), a happy hour before 6pm and decent American food. The real draw card for the expat community is on Sunday, when the place is packed with prostitutes and prospective expat clients.
If it's culture you're looking for, you've come to the wrong place, but it's open all night and you're guaranteed some sort of a spectacle at some point. In spite of everything, it's difficult not to have a good time here.
Zemlyonoi Val; nearest metro: Kurskaya (brown ring / dark blue line)
The Union is a bohemian piratical bar in a bohemian, piratical area (St Gilles). It was originally the home of the Union of St Gilles football club (holders of the longest unbeaten record of any football club in Belgium) and now plays host to punks, hippies, and stoners of every description (although I wouldn't recommend lighting one up there, new Belgian legislation regarding cannabis notwithstanding).
The décor is composed of insane clowns, grinning pirates, a nice poster of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and various other head toys that will both amuse and fascinate the casual observer. Some nice runework in the loos is representative of the anarchistic spirit of this counter-cultural icon.
St Gilles, the 'Parvis'; nearest tram stop: Parvis de St Gilles
Bizon café is a blues bar in the St Gery area. It offers a wide range of chilled vodkas, genevers, Belgian beers and bison blood (try it you'll like it) in a smoky blues atmosphere. About the only party going on in Brussels on a Monday night is the café's jam session, which hosts such blues circuit favourites as Bai Kamara, Geezer Young, Roman, Stevie and Rob Fewster.
A genuine crowd spirit with the chance to get trollied on a Monday night whenever it's been hard getting back to work.
Karperbrug 7; near central station and the Grand Place; www.cafebizon.com
Genuine London Routemaster bus situated behind the Bolshoi Theatre. Serves pizza, chips and not very tasty sandwiches - but it is a great place for cheapish beer and awful Russian rock music. Candle-lit and full of Moscow skate kids. Looks beautiful in the snow.
Be warned though, the place is smoke-filled and its strongest point is its location.
Nearest metro: Teatralnaya; behind the Bolshoi Theatre. It's just parked up. You can't miss it
Generally, beer in Moscow is either crap or very expensive crap pretending to be German at £3 a glass. 317 serves a good pint called Rubinovoe (Ruby) at 70 roubles a go.
The place is relaxing, none of the modern Russian pomp and forced chic. TV with endless reels of fashion walks is, alas, on all the time (muted), but concentrate on beer and you'll be fine.
Find the White House, the seat of government. Turn your back to the river. The very next street to the left of the government compound is the one you need. Nearest metro: Smolenskaya or Krasnopresnenskaya metro
Cracking good night life in this country city of 50,000 includes airy restaurants and a string of small bars with exuberant young revelers, and a larger outdoor disco in summer.
downtown Strumica
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