The 5-star Palazzo Manfredi hotel has unobstructed, spectacular views of the Colosseum. Long before the rest of the world, Italians discovered that God, food, and family were the keys to a good life. Therefore, alcohol serves to enhance the taste of food, and the country’s spirits are categorized as such — before, during, or after meals. Dinners begin with a dry, bitter aperitivo, like Aperol or Campari, to stimulate the appetite, and end with a richer, bittersweet digestivo like amaro.

Spice travel routes sound like ancient — or rather, classical — history, but at Lyaness, they’re top of mind for the owner, Chetiyawardana, who is concerned with how ingredients get to him. His past experiments (pre-batched cocktails, extracting flavors from fruit pits, or banning ice and citrus) were about expressing exciting flavors with minimal impact on their places of origin. The spirit of this lives in their cocktail, the Return Ticket which has sustainable, dry, Colombo gin at its heart.

The quintessential tiki tavern. Appearing like a hidden cave inside the majestic old Fairmont Hotel, the Tonga Room was designed with help from a Hollywood set director, and it’s cinematically and dimly lit, with a pool in the center made to look like a lagoon. While they are best known for their umbrella drinks, their Pacific Rim cuisine is an absolute must while you’re in the bay.

Charles H. is #13 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars list — the highest position for any Korean bar. Their cocktail menu is inspired by the adventures of Charles H. Baker, an American travel writer who shared drinks with William Faulkner, Errol Flynn, and Ernest Hemingway. Try the Raspberry Calling, which builds on his favorite cocktail, the London Calling, created at Milk & Honey’s London location. This complex version adds Bokbunja — a fruit wine made from Korean black raspberries.

El Quijote is a storied Spanish restaurant located in New York City’s Hotel Chelsea. Put against the contemporary-chic glossy white and light wood of so many New York eateries and bars, El Quijote’s aged textured brown felt soul-warming and transportive. An after-dinner drink, rich and viscous and impossible to remember the name of (some kind of sherry we think?), haunts us to this day. To be there was to break bread with ghosts, through delightfully lively flavors.

Often referred to as the living room of Memphis, the Lobby Bar of the Peabody Hotel is best known for the march of the peabody ducks. Each morning at 11am, the hotel’s resident ducks, followed by the hotel’s duckmaster (which is a real job), descend by elevator from their rooftop mansion. On a red carpet, the ducks promenade across the lobby to a marble fountain, where they frolic until cocktail hour. Sip a Ducky Sunshine, the bar's famed whiskey beverage, and enjoy.

On the ground floor of the Kimpton Alton Hotel on Fisherman’s Wharf sits Abacá. Draped in luscious greenery and decorated with woven abacá baskets — the space has a uniquely escapist vibe. The mix of bar seating, cozy tables, and communal corners invites couples and large groups. Everyone looks great under the shimmering string lights. The place is perpetually busy. What we recommend from the cocktail menu — Ube-Colada (Appleton Estate rum, pineapple, ube-coconut cream).

Walking into Bemelmans Bar is like stepping through a portal to the past. Located inside the historic Carlyle Hotel in the heart of the Upper East Side, the bar has remained virtually unchanged since the 1940s, when it first opened. It offers a dreamy ascension into an old-school era of decadence and delight, something that’s increasingly difficult to find in Manhattan. Tucked away on the first floor of the hotel, Bemelmans Bar offers a reprieve from the hustle and bustle of the city outside.

Celebrities love whiling away evenings at Gabbiano Bar inside Hotel Cipriani. Although it’s minutes from there to the tourist hub of St. Mark’s Square, its location on the island of Giudecca imbues the bar with a hushed otherworldliness. For four decades, visitors took a boat over to Cipriani just to sip a cocktail made by legendary barman Walter Bolzonella — luckily his successor is equally charismatic. Sink into their rounded fuchsia and sage chairs and order their famous fresh peach Bellini.

The bar is named for the hotel’s most famous imbiber. Artifacts from Hemingway's Paris years decorate the bar's masculine interior, and myths abound. What's undisputed: The Ritz Paris is where wonderfully spontaneous, potentially legendary things can happen. We recommend The Serendipity, deemed as “France in a glass,” with Calvados and Champagne both originating in the country’s northern region. Like much of France’s food and drink, the ingredients are simple, but they require finesse.