SteveEvery time we go away we’re always seeking out a drink with a view! The best rooftop bars or sky bars tend to offer that for obvious reasons. I wanted to include both of these, as the definition between them can be a bit blurry. For me, Iām including bars that have a view from a height! Some sky bars don’t actually have an outside, whilst others do for instance. Iāve seen plenty of other posts about sky bars, but I wanted to add my tuppence with bars that Iāve actually been to. Much better than cutting and pasting a ‘best of’ list from somewhere. So, are they called Rooftop bars or Sky bars?
Anyway, enough waffle. In no particular order – check out my favourites below.
Castle Cafe and Bar, Marmaris, Turkey
Castle Cafe & Bar āthe highest point on Marmarisā is a very relaxed and friendly bar. It is situated in the old town of Marmaris. The place is a hidden gem ā quite literally ā as it can be a little tricky to find. There are two entrances to this bar, with quite a few steps to climb (sorry, there is no lift). That said, the views are definitely worth it.
There are several outdoor terraces offering superb views, but my favourite is the rooftop terrace (accessed via the indoor bar). Most of which offer panoramic views of Marmaris. We have been to Marmaris several times over the last few years and always visit here for a relaxing sunset drink.
CĆ LA VI, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
CĆ LA VI is one of the best rooftop bars and is found on the very top of the Marina Bay Sands hotel – on the 57th floor. It is an amazing vantage point to see the Singapore skyline across the marina. You can also see great views of gardens by the bay and the straits of Singapore.
There was no cover charge when we visited because we were staying at the Marina Bay Sands hotel itself. We did see other patrons having to pay to get in, as it is open to the public.
CĆ LA VI has an outdoor area with a square bar. There is also a covered indoor area in case the weather is inclement. During one of our visits, we watched an amazing lightning storm happening somewhere over Downtown Singapore. With Singapore having a tropical climate, on occasion the bar does have to close.
Whilst itās not a cheap place for a cocktail, the views and ambience are definitely worth the price of a drink! Their DJ was playing some great tunes, and on occasion, they have live performers too.
Skyline, Hilton Molino Stucky, Venice
Having decided to spend an evening on Giudecca island, it was lovely to relax with a Bellini and admire the views of Venice from a height!
The Skyline bar is on the 8th floor of the Hilton Molino Stucky, which is towards one end of Giudecca. There aren’t too many rooftop bars in Venice. We chose this one as it offered great views looking over to Venice itself. Getting over to Giudecca is easy with a Vaporetto from the main island of Venice, and took about 2 minutes.
The cocktails were great, especially their Bellini! It was early evening and still sunny when we were there, and surprisingly not too busy. They had some decent music on, and the service from the staff was very attentive. We loved the free nibbles that came with the drinks!
If youāre planning on spending an evening on Giudecca then visiting the bar is a must. The views of the Canale Giudecca and the occasional cruise ship sailing past was brilliant.
Sugar, East Hotel, Miami
Sugar is to be found on the 40th floor of the East Hotel in the Brickell area of Miami. We arrived early evening on a Wednesday, and was slightly surprised to find out how busy it was!
It looked like the after-work crowd, with a handful of tourists thrown in. They have a large wooden square bar that offered some great cocktails, and the service was pretty good. There were plenty of tables that looked like they had been pre-booked around the outer edge of the bar. At the time these had a minimum spend of $100 per person.
Not a cheap place for drinks, but even standing up in the crowd we still got to see some great views of Miami. Be aware that there is a dress code in the evening. That said, this is the sort of place you would want to make a bit of an effort at least. The place had a great vibe with its Asian theme, and managing to combine a roof garden and bar was genius.
SkyLounge, Doubletree by Hilton, Amsterdam
This sky bar, called the SkyLounge, sits on top of the Doubletree by Hilton Amsterdam. The hotel itself is easy to find, being a 400 metre walk directly to the left of Centraal station.
The SkyLounge has a large indoor area that has a mixture of comfy chairs and high stools. There is also an outdoor terrace although this was not a good choice for us as it was bloody freezing outside!
We visited one evening in December between Christmas and New Year and found it to be pretty busy. A host found us a table quickly though, and the waitress service for drinks was great too. The atmosphere was really nice, with a good DJ playing decent lounge/house music. I should also mention that the cocktails were very good as well. One nice little touch was they brought out small cartons of sweet and spicy popcorn with the drinks. Soooo moorish too!
I thought this lounge had some good views over Amsterdam and isn’t the sort of place where dress code would be an issue. Most guests were dressed in a smart casual way, without going full-on dress to impress. Cocktails were a little pricey, at ā¬17 at the time of writing, but considering everything we thought it worthwhile. After all, we were on holiday! It was a great bar to have a couple of pre-dinner cocktails in before we moved on. Oh, did I mention that they do food as well?
SkyBar, Waldorf Astoria, Las Vegas
The Waldorf Astoria (previously Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas) sits on the Las Vegas Strip, just south of the Aria and the cosmopolitan hotels. The sky bar is actually located on the 23rd floor out of 47, but has some epics view looking up and down the strip so Iāll let them off calling it a sky bar! Las Vegas has lots of high-end lounge bars with discerning cocktails and cool music, but this one has the views to boot too.
You probably won’t find your ‘standard’ type of cocktails here, but what you will find is some really nice unique ones to try. Cocktails start at around $20 and rise from there, but the view of the lights of the strip make prices a bit more palatable. Of course, being Vegas you can go full out and splurge on a bottle of Dom Perignon champers for $600 too! You might also notice a Moet vending machine too in the lobby just outside the entrance to the sky bar ā how very Vegas!
We booked a table ahead of time using Opentable and were lucky to get a decent size table with comfy chairs right by a window. The bar can get pretty busy, so wise to book ahead although they do accept walk-ins. The bar snacks are great too ā try the mini sliders!
The WA SkyBar is not a cheap place, but if you have shelled out to visit Las Vegas you probably wonāt want to skimp and miss out on the amazing nighttime views from here.
Voodoo Lounge and Nightclub, Rio All Suite Hotel, Las Vegas
The Rio, as it’s simply known, is set about a mile from the middle of the Vegas strip. With so much going on at the strip itself as well as downtown, not many would be bothered to visit the Rio. We stumbled upon the Voodoo lounge almost by chance as we had tickets to see Penn and Teller who have a residency at the Rio.
The Voodoo Lounge and Nightclub is a bit of all things to all men (and women). It is a rooftop lounge and club on the 51st floor, as well as having the Voodoo steakhouse indoors. Weād had a table booked at the steakhouse, but arrived early for a drink on the roof beforehand. There was no cover charge, but I think this was because we were quite early in the evening.
We had a bit of a surprise to get to the lounge. There is a lift that takes you to Voodoo from deep inside the casino and all appears normal at first. Once the lift starts moving upwards, you realise the lift is actually stuck on the side of the building. Those with vertigo need not apply!
The rooftop lounge has great views looking back at the whole strip from a distance and looks really impressive as the sun sets and the glimmering lights are turned on. Drinks were reasonably priced for Vegas (which is to say a bit pricey compared to other parts of the world) and as youād expect ā really good. Cocktails are around $18 during the āsunset social hourā, plus usual taxes and tips.
If youāve booked Voodoo steakhouse or have tickets for Penn and Teller, then itās worth a visit to the Voodoo Lounge beforehand. It may not be quite as trendy as other Vegas lounges, but it does have stunning unique views.
Lounge24, Radisson Blu Sky Hotel, Tallinn
About a 10-minute walk from the Viru gates of Tallinnās old town is the Radisson Blu Sky Hotel. On the 24th floor is their rooftop bar called Lounge24.
The bar is a bit of a mix of things, offering food and drinks during the day and deep into the night. It has indoor and outdoor seating areas, although when we visited a couple of years ago in December the outdoor section was closed.
As weāve come to expect from Radisson lounges, the service was excellent. The staff were all Estonian and spoke English better than I do! The best thing about the lounge is the views of Tallinn old town, which are just mesmerising. We visited during the daytime, so the music was muted and it was fairly quiet.
Drinks-wise, the cocktails were pretty good. Whilst the menu was a bit expensive compared to other places in Tallinn, it was worth the uplift. Tallinn is a pretty reasonably priced place anyhow for a capital city.
12th Knot, Sea Containers Hotel, London
Formerly the Rumpus Room at the Mondrian, the 12th Knot at Sea Containers Hotel is a rooftop bar in central London situated on the 12th floor. It sits on the Thames Path on the South Bank of the River Thames and is 10 minutes from Waterloo and Blackfriars train/tube stations.
12th knot is a smart casual kind of place. We didnāt bother booking a table on our last visit as it was a spur of the moment thing. They accepted us as walk-ins quite late at night. Even though there were no spare tables or seats, there were plenty of people standing around having a great time (do I need to say we last visited pre-Covid?).
There is a large indoor area and a small narrow outdoor terrace with a few tables. As it was busy, they had a really good queue system to be served at the bar. There was a dignified line to wait to be served and then handed off to someone else who just made your drinks. The resident DJ was doing a great job, and really made the atmosphere for the bar.
The drinks were good, at typical London evening prices too (around Ā£14 for a cocktail). Like many others, the selling point for the 12th Knot is the view over the River Thames at night. We luckily found a couple of seats outside in our drunken stooper (it was quite late and weād been out for a while!). From there we could see the London skyline lit up from left to right behind the river.
Worth a look if you are in the South Bank area as part of a bar crawl! We combined our visit with an earlier trip to Tonight Josephine followed by a Hawksmoor steak. 12th knot completed our evening perfectly.
Jin Bo Law, Dorsett City Hotel, London
We were lucky enough to stay at the newly opened Dorsett City Hotel in London 3 years ago on a trip to London with friends. The hotel is just to the right of Aldgate East tube station on the circle and metropolitan lines and is on the edge of the east end of London.
Jin Bo Law is on the 14th floor of the hotel and has an indoor and outdoor terrace. At the weekends, itās open from 12pm, and closes at 1am on Saturday night. Cocktails start at Ā£13, and the sky bar has a wide range of beers and spirits too.
The sky bar often has special events on and provided great music when we visited. In busy times it might be worth booking a table. As guests of the hotel, we had a quick drink in the afternoon before heading off out. We also popped in for a quick drink in the evening before dinner.
The views of London’s buildings are spectacular from the sky bar, so if visiting itās worth getting outside to take some pictures.
The hotel itself is a good base to explore London, as are so many others. Being right next to the tube station certainly helps.
Lounge and Bar, Ritz Carlton, Hong Kong
Located inside the ICC building in Kowloon, Hong Kong, the Lounge and Bar can be found on the 102nd floor. There is another bar called Ozone on the 118th floor, but as we visited the hotel during the daytime we were not able to check this one out. Maybe next time eh!
The Lounge and Bar had gentle background music on during the day and had a very relaxed feel with comfy tables and chairs everywhere. As luck would have it, our host guided us to a small two-seater sofa on a slightly sunken level directly in front of one of the huge windows. We felt very privileged to be seated here, especially as we were dressed quite casually and carrying our hand luggage as our flight departed later that day.
It was quite busy, with lots of business type people having a kind of afternoon tea. We decided on a couple of drinks and a bar snack and were not disappointed. Not a cheap place, and probably the highest bar weāve ever had a drink in. We had amazing views over Victoria Harbour looking over to Hong Kong island. I bet this is a fabulous view at night!
Despite wearing jeans and a hoodie, we had great service from the bar and would definitely visit again when in Hong Kong. Iām not sure if it was the cocktails, but Iām sure I could feel the building sway very slightly too! Whilst this is not a roof bar, it qualifies as one of the highest bars in the world!
So whether they are called Rooftop bars or Sky bars, the ones above are definitely worth seeking out!
Weight the Suitcase has a list of the best rooftop bars in London, so you don’t have to look any further. You’ll find all the information you need to decide where to drink, eat, and look out over the city.
The guide tells you where to find the best views, the best drinks, and even a bar with a pool. So, if you want a romantic place to watch the sunset or a place to party all night, Weight the Suitcase has you covered.
So, why don’t you just do it? Check out the guide and start planning your night out at one of top rooftop bars London.