The world's best bars

By Lee Ward

You know how it is. You’ve been sight-seeing all day, you’re laden down with souvenirs and the prospect of traipsing round another tourist attraction is making you suicidal. What you really want to do is to find the nearest bar and forget your troubles with a cold beer or an expertly-made Martini

But not all bars are created equal. You need to know whether you’re entering a temple of cool or a locals-only dive, whether you’ll be hanging with the beautiful people - or explaining to a surly bar-fly exactly why you’ve just ordered a banana daiquiri.

Well, never fear. We’ve circled the globe, sampling cocktails and atmospheres - all in the name of bringing you a definitive guide to our planet’s finest watering holes, be they vertiginous Bangkok hang-outs, trendy St Tropez night-spots, elegant Parisian hotels or just unpretentious Aussie cocktail bars…