The World's Coolest Bars

From Singapore to South Africa, these are the best and most beautiful bars on the planet

- By Jared Paul Stern

Those with a passion for both great bars and great cocktails eagerly await the annual announcement of The World’s 50 Best Bars list, as the integrity, global reach, and sheer expertise of the 50 Best organization that produces it (as well as The World’s 50 Best Restaurants) is second to none. It was readily apparent from this year’s list, released in December, that truly fantastic bars are now cropping up in all corners of the globe. And so in compiling this feature we decided to cast a wider net and look at more resources from the 50 Best boffins: the extended 2021 list of 100 of The World’s Best Bars and 2021’s Asia’s 50 Best Bars list—both excellent places to seek out future World’s 50 Best winners, in our opinion.

When all was said and done we had 15 candidates for our own world’s coolest bars roundup, thanks to the initial curation of the 50 Best’s organization’s experts—more than 600 of them from across the globe. And for our image-driven purposes, we decided to lean heavily on those watering holes that have matched the impeccable quality of their drinks with equally captivating design and decor. Consequently the boîtes on our list should be on any serious brand-design lover’s bucket list.