You can learn a lot about a city by ticking off its top landmarks, museums and monuments, but if you really want to get under its skin, there’s arguably no better place to start than at the bar.
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From centuries-old pubs to gloriously chaotic drinking dens, Europe’s best watering holes offer a glimpse into local life that you won’t find in your usual guidebook.
Now, the European Bar Guide, an independent website which publishes reviews of the best pubs and bars across the continent, has revealed its annual ranking of Europe’s 100 best bars.
On its website, the guide says it rates venues “simply on how well they do what they’re trying to do”, with a focus on “spectacle, atmosphere, social scene, intriguing customs, local culture and yes, the quality and choice of drinks”. It also adds that “sometimes a bar’s deficiencies can be handsomely compensated for in other ways”.
That means that, unlike other rankings, glitz and glamour are not the most important thing, so it’s little surprise that Szimpla Kert, Budapest’s original ruin bar, topped the list.
These are the top 10 best bars in Europe, according to the ranking.
Szimpla Kert, Budapest, Hungary
The Hungarian capital is well-known for its ruin bars – spots that are housed inside abandoned or “ruined’ buildings, and Szimpla Kert was the first, launching in 2002.
Located inside an abandoned factory, the bar guide calls a visit here “like entering a portal to another dimension”.
It’s a maze of graffiti-covered rooms, mismatched furniture, fairy lights and wonderfully random objects, all arranged around a leafy courtyard.
Throughout the week, you can drink pálinka, a traditional fruit spirit, or smoke shisha while sitting in a converted car or a bathtub chopped in half.
On Sundays, though, the chaos takes a more wholesome turn as local producers fill the space with cheese, bread, honey and Hungarian treats, often accompanied by live films and music.
Retsins Lucifernum, Bruges, Belgium
Famous for its vast array of beers, Belgium appears five times in the top 10 and Retsins Lucifernum is in second place, with the guide calling this spot in Bruges “a departure into another world entirely” and “simply unmissable”.
This quirky bar is actually the home of a local celebrity named Don "Willy" Retsin, who introduces himself at the door as the "butler" and claims to be a vampire.
The space is packed full of antiques, gothic art and ephemera which leads to a downstairs bar and courtyard garden.
The bar seats just 20 guests, so advance planning is a must if you want to sample unusual cocktails and speak to others experiencing the madness too.
La Fleur en Papier Doré, Brussels, Belgium
La Fleur en Papier Doré is a wonderfully atmospheric Brussels brown café - a traditional, cosy neighborhood pub named for its dark wood interiors and warm lighting – with frosted windows, stained glass, wood, old tiled floors and walls crowded with medieval-style artwork and floral curiosities.
Once a favourite meeting place for Magritte and Brussels’ surrealist crowd, it now draws a cosmopolitan mix of locals and curious travellers.
The Belgian beer list is reasonably priced, while music and local events add to the cosy, lived-in atmosphere.
Goupil Le Fol, Brussels, Belgium
Goupil Le Fol is a candle-lit rabbit hole of low ceilings, vinyl records, old books, portraits and 1950s jazz memorabilia, hidden just off Brussels’ tourist trail.
Follow the narrow passage past the original Wurlitzer jukebox and into its cosy upholstered rooms, where records hang from the ceiling and books cover the walls.
The Belgian beer selection is solid, but fruity wines laced with Cassis and Cognac are the real draw.
Zlatna Ribica, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
According to the guide, many bars in Bosnia and Herzegovina are a little too western-influenced, but this must-visit place in the capital Sarajevo is a true tribute to what makes the country special.
Zlatna Ribica, which translates as gold fish, is described as wonderfully eccentric and like a mad professor’s study, crammed with antiques, ornate lampshades, waxed sideboards and books, with the clutter spilling out onto the street.
Every surface seems to hide another oddity, from crenellated furniture to a tiny black-and-white TV in the bathroom showing lions mating in the Savannah.
Recline among the chaos with a cocktail or local beer and enjoy one of Europe’s most quirky drinking spots.
Papa Joe’s Jazz Lokal, Cologne, Germany
The ranking’s authors say Papa Joe’s is “one of the ultimate jazz bars on the globe”, and it’s actually one of Germany’s oldest jazz bars.
This wonderfully unpretentious watering hole is all about fun, with stage-like seating facing daily live concerts, a scoreboard announcing the evening’s line-up and mechanical puppets seemingly playing instruments behind the bar.
There’s even a cocktail machine and Roman ruins tucked beneath the entrance.
Friendly, loud and very unrefined, it’s the kind of place that sweeps you up in the action.
t’Brugse Beertje, Bruges, Belgium
Despite not being the first pub in Bruges in this list, the ranking hails t’Brugs Beertje as “the best pub” in the city.
A cosy, wood-panelled brown café, it boasts an enormous Belgian beer menu which comes in an almanac-style book that takes time to work through, while shelves of gleaming glasses hang above the bar.
Pair a Flemish red or Oud Bruin with Gouda, meat platters or other simple snacks, then settle into the snug, communal atmosphere. It’s hugely popular, but the wait is worth it.
Bar Marsella, Barcelona
Bar Marsella has welcomed plenty of famous names over the past two centuries, with the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí all said to have drunk here.
Today, you can order the same famous absinthe and imagine the artists and writers who once soaked up the bar’s wonderfully bohemian atmosphere.
Barcelona’s Bar Marsella looks as though it has barely changed in two centuries – and that’s exactly the appeal.
Behind its faded façade are cracked plaster walls, dark wood panelling, dusty bottles and a wonderfully decaying old-world atmosphere. Order the famous absinthe, settle in and soak up one of the city’s most atmospheric drinking institutions.
U Hrocha, Prague, Czechia
Described as “the epitome of a traditional Czech boozer” in the ranking, U Hrocha – or ‘the hippo’ – is a wonderfully old-fashioned Czech pivnice in the Malá Strana district, with five communal tables, leaning posts, a tiny bar and plenty of atmosphere.
Though opened as a pub in 1994, it feels far older.
Try well-priced Czech beer as the room fills with locals and visitors. Intimate, traditional and unpolished, it’s Czech pub culture at its best.
Le Pot au Lait, Liège, Belgium
Le Pot au Lait is one of those bars where the décor is almost as much of a draw as the drinks.
Hidden behind a narrow courtyard in the heart of Liège, this 19th-century former house is filled with bizarre artwork, cartoon gorillas, carnival scenes, macabre taxidermy, graffiti and huge plants, creating a wonderfully surreal, slightly spooky atmosphere.
It began life as a student meeting place in the 1970s and has since become a much-loved local institution, with communal tables, a terrace and plenty of strange little corners to settle into.
Expect Belgian beers, a lively crowd and the feeling that you’ve stumbled into a bar, art gallery and funfair all at once.