Book some flights and raise your glass – these travel plans are for those led by their tastebuds.
Thrill seekers travel for sport, religious folk travel for faith, fashionistas travel for runways, and some of us travel to eat and drink our way through a city. If local food and drinks are always the highlight of your holidays, you’ll know you can learn a lot about a place through its bars and pubs, cocktails and wine culture. An aperitivo can reflect a generations-old tradition, or perfected produce, or both. A new nightclub can show reaction and progression from what came before. Travelling for world-class watering holes can satisfy a thirst for knowledge and, you know, literal thirst.
Of course, you’re always going to find exciting drinks in the obvious places – New York, London, Paris – but the drinks scene is always evolving, with new hotspots giving us countless reasons to beg our bosses for leave. Below, we round up our top three travel-worthy drink destinations for the year ahead.
Athens is a city full of great venues. Bar restaurants, rooftops, wine bars, jazz bars, whisky bars, hotel bars… all legendary bars. This is because Greeks never drink alone; they spend long afternoons in tavernas and cafes, and their feasts last hours. Celebrations? Days! That’s why all drinks in Greece are served with water and a small snack – it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and the real fun doesn’t start ’til after midnight. In recent years, the Athens cocktail game has gone from strength to strength with a new wave of bartenders leaning into local fruit-based liqueurs, spirits and mixers: Otto Vermouth, Kernel’s Mahlepi and 3 Cent Aegean tonics are all kalós.
Don’t forget to order: Manhattan Highballs
In Athens, they like to stretch a classic cocktail with something bubbly. A tall rendition of the Manhattan was made popular at Theory Bar. It’s made as a low-ABV drink by turning down the rye and vermouth, and adding ice and a local tonic.
Don’t forget to visit: Walk In
A new project from some of the award-winning team from Line (number 12 in The World’s 50 Best Bars 2023), Walk In is set to bring something new with a sustainability goal and zero waste operations. Set to open in mid-to-late 2024, the all-day venue will serve tap wine, craft cocktails, coffee, and a retail space with a whole sandwich section. Yum.
Stick it in your suitcase: Tsipouro
A distilled spirit with ABV 40-45%, it’s produced from either the residue of the wine press (known as pomace) or from wine after the grapes have been separated from the juice. It is either pure “puro” or has an anise-flavour (which tastes a lot like ouzo, but is made entirely different). Like sake, it’s usually served chilled in shot glasses, but can be served hot.
Osakans literally have a word for going bankrupt from spending too much on food and drink: kuidaore. It’s how they approach food and wine. More is more. Considered less busy than Tokyo or Kyoto, Osaka boasts 3,000 bars and restaurants. How? They like to cram them in. Misono Universe, an ex-cabaret spot from the ’60s, is now home to 40 tiny dive bars. With hole-in-the-wall bars at one end, there are exquisite, luxurious locations at the other. In Osaka, everything is on offer.
Don’t forget to order: Shochu
Whether “rokku” (on the rocks), or “mizu-wari” (cut with water), shochu is a staple of wining and dining in Osaka. Shochu is a clear, distilled spirit with a 500-year legacy and greater popularity than sake. A shochu flavour is based on how it’s made (something that varies from sweet potatoes to sugar cane), so try a few to see what you like.
Don’t forget to visit: Bar K
Opening in 1988, Bar K has set the standard in Osaka for high-class drinking. It is now owned by Michihiko Matsuba who started there as a trainee, and his highball – Hakushu, Glen Grant, Bushmills and Ardmore – is a testament to his bartending prowess. Elegant, refreshing, superb.
Stick it in your suitcase: Whisky
Osaka is the birthplace of Japanese whisky. It has several distilleries, and a whisky festival in June, but you’ll find upwards of 800 bottles at the Umeda branch of Liquor Mountain, a spirits retailer. About half of them are available to try for a dollar or two a pour, so start tasting and find the perfect souvenir from your trip.
Porteños (the people of Buenos Aires) aren’t necessarily ravers, but they can stay out to the early hours of the morning engrossed in conversation, sipping craft lagers or Buenos Aires-style Old Fashioneds (it’s all about the process: sugar and bitters mixed to make a paste that coats the inside of the glass, ice cubes, bourbon and either a cherry or orange peel garnish). In recent years, almost as a reaction to coming out of some of the world’s strictest lockdowns over the pandemic, the hospitality scene has a renewed interest in native ingredients, local produce and traditional – and to be honest, nostalgic – recipes. The city’s natural wine scene is coming in fast and strong from known Argentinian wine regions as well as newly established wineries.
Don’t forget to order: Clarito
Every place has its take on a Martini, but Argentina’s is really good. It was developed by a celebrity bartender in 1935 who created it for a patron who ordered a “sweeter dry Martini”, so it has a signature sugar rim. Get it at any good Buenos Aires bar.
Don’t forget to visit: Costa
Set to open in mid-2024, Costa will be the biggest venture to date from the undisputed leader of the Argentine cocktail scene, Inés de los Santos. The sister venue to Buenos Aires’ beloved CoChinChina (named number 26 in The World’s 50 Best Bars for 2023), her new bar will sprawl over 900 square metres of indoor and outdoor spaces on one of the city's most iconic streets, La Costanera.
Stick it in your suitcase: Local bitter liqueurs
Argentina is the world’s largest consumer of Fernet-Branca (they have one of only two distilleries in the world, the other is in Milan). The Fernandito is half Fernet and half cola, and it’s a Porteño’s go-to. Aside from Fernet, Buenos Aires is South America’s aperitivo capital – they make many bitter liqueurs you should definitely make room for in your bag. You’ll want Amargo Obrero, Hesperidina or Pineral.
