If your holiday plans tend to revolve around where you'll be drinking, the new Top 500 Bars ranking is worth a scroll. Compiled from the opinions of journalists, drinks experts and influencers, plus reviews across social media and search engines, the list crowns Bar Leone in Hong Kong as the best bar on the planet.
Bar Leone, co-founded by Lorenzo Antinori (who also owns Montana, ranked third), keeps things simple: classic cocktails, done properly, in a room themed around Italian pop culture. It's no fluke — the bar has also twice topped the separate World's 50 Best list, most recently in 2026. Hong Kong places three bars in the global top 25, with ARGO at 24.
Europe's strongest showing comes from Oslo, where HIMKOK took second overall and the title of best bar in Europe. It's a working distillery as much as a bar, producing its own aquavit, gin and vodka, with drinks built around Norwegian nature and ingredients. Athens follows at fifth with Line, which makes and bottles its fruit wines on site using produce from local Greek growers — it was already named Europe's best by the 50 Best list in July.
Edinburgh's Panda & Sons sits seventh, hiding behind a barbershop front and famous for freeze-based techniques. Milan's Moebius (ninth) gives bartenders more than 300 spirits to play with — pesto martini included — while Barcelona's Paradiso (10th) is a speakeasy entered through a fridge door in a pastrami shop, with a themed menu that rotates yearly.
Beyond the top 10, Europe stacks up nicely: The Connaught Bar in London (11th), SIPS in Barcelona (12th), Locale Firenze in Florence (13th), Angelita in Madrid (14th), De Vie and Danico and The Cambridge Public House in Paris (15th, 18th, 21st), and Lyaness in London (19th). That's 13 European bars in the top 25 — handy if you're plotting a city break around drinks.
Elsewhere, the list leans towards Latin America and Asia: Alquímico in Cartagena (4th), Handshake Speakeasy and Bar Mauro in Mexico City (6th and 22nd), Hope & Sesame in Guangzhou, Jigger & Pony in Singapore, Bar Us in Bangkok, Tres Monos in Buenos Aires, Exímia in São Paulo and Lady Bee in Lima.
Why does this matter for travellers? Because a ranking like this is essentially a ready-made itinerary. Barcelona and Paris each land three bars, so you could build a whole weekend around them; Oslo, Athens and Edinburgh give you a flagship bar plus a genuinely great city to explore between rounds. Just remember the list is crowd-sourced from reviews and expert picks, so treat it as a starting point rather than gospel — and book ahead, because these places fill up fast once the rankings drop.
