1 ATHENS Galaxy

Thirteen floors up, on top of the Hilton, you have godly views from Galaxy (00 30 210 728 1000, www.hilton.co.uk/athens ) - if it’s clear, you can see as far as the island of Aegina, 15 miles out, in the Saronic Gulf. Ahead is the Parthenon, its columns bathed in spotlights; and all around the city twinkles. Decor is marbled, dress is smart - after all, you’ll be rubbing (padded) shoulders with half the cast of Greek Hello! magazine.

2 BANGKOK Sirocco

You can’t come to Bangkok and miss Sirocco (00 66 2 624 9555, www.thedome bkk.com ): Thailand’s loftiest alfresco bar/restaurant is a smart eyrie, awash with blue and yellow light, set 63 floors above the night circuitry of the city. It’s preposterously glitzy for an open-air gin joint, and the crowd postures as if in an early Duran Duran video. But to have the whole of Bangkok laid out below you, with the Chao Phraya River weaving serenely, is heavenly indeed.

The world's star bars

Sinatra, Hemingway, DiCaprio, Churchill, Dietrich, Coward - we mix with the greats in the world’s celebrity cocktail bars

• The best pubs in England and Wales

• London's martini time

• Britain's best cocktail bars

The high guide to New York nightlife

New York’s all air-con and humidity in the summer; so hit the rooftop bars for a cool breeze and a natural high

• New York and Chicago's best jazz clubs

• £129 flights to New York

• Under the skin of The Big Apple

The world's best station bars

Richard Green visits the new champagne bar at St Pancras as Nick Redman sings the praises of other classic railway watering holes

• The best pubs in England and Wales

• The world's star bars

Related Links

• The high guide to New York nightlife

3 BERLIN Weekend

This late, great number on Alexander-platz inhabits the Haus des Reisens – the state travel agent of the old East – which looks like a dreary computer HQ in Croydon. So far, so unsexy – but inside there’s a surprising, fetishistic feel to Weekend (www.week-end-berlin.de ; entry £8). Lipstick-red neon, leather, minimal electro music – the nightlife equivalent of a Helmut Newton shot. On the terrace, you can nearly touch the iconic TV Tower, although we don’t suggest you try.

4 DUBAI Vu’s Bar

At 1,024ft, it may be the very height of “Emirati style”, but thank goodness Vu’s Bar (00 971 4 319 8088) doesn’t take itself too seriously – it’s possibly the only watering hole to have a “nosh menu”. If you’re not peckish, the cocktail list makes great reading. The pear sidecar – its take on the cognac-based original sidecar – is sweeter, even more slip-down. As for the views – they’re the future: the diamond Dubai skyline and the timeless Arabian Gulf beyond.

5 DUBLIN The Blue Light

Drinking in Dublin feel too theme-park Oirish? There’s a great escape in Sandyford, 30 minutes out of town. From here, the Blue Light (00 353 1216 0487) looks back over city and sea, metallic in the noon sun. It’s an unreconstructed pub – same furniture, probably, since the days U2 came in (Adam Clayton lived down the road). But wow, the view: Snowdonia, North Wales (the owner swears), on a fine day, Dublin in the distance, and the ferries sailing through.

6 EDINBURGH Oloroso

It’s everyone’s favourite cocktail bar in Edinburgh – not just for the drinks, although the eucalyptus martini (£8), with eucalyptus syrup, is officially addictive. On clear days, the roof terrace of Oloroso Bar & Restaurant (0131 226 7614, www.oloroso.co.uk ) is your ring-side seat for postcard-perfect views of the city and surrounds: the castle on its lumpy perch, the shining Firth of Forth estuary, and slow clouds towing their shadows across the hill-flanks of Arthur’s Seat.

Times recommends

• Oasis of the Seas: the Times review
• The 20 best new year party places to stay
• Green Spaces 2009: are you the winning writer?