The Best Rooftop Bars in Singapore

On the 63rd floor of One Raffles Place, 1-Altitude claims the title of the world's highest al fresco bar. The view from up here is Singapore in its entirety — the grid of the CBD below, the bay curving south, Sentosa and the straits beyond. The cocktail menu is ambitious and priced accordingly. Go on a Tuesday or Wednesday to avoid weekend crowds and get a terrace table without a two-hour wait.

Order: The Singapore Sling riff, a house interpretation with local pandan and fresh pineapple

On the sixth floor of the National Gallery Singapore, Smoke and Mirrors faces the Padang and Marina Bay from a position that combines the city's colonial history with its current skyline. The bar is one of the most thoughtfully designed in Singapore — a cocktail menu that references Southeast Asian ingredients and a wine list that takes as much care. The terrace fills by 7pm on weekends, but the interior bar is worth knowing about when seats outside are gone.

Order: Tamarind Old Fashioned, a house cocktail with tamarind-washed bourbon and palm sugar bitters

At the top of Marina Bay Sands, Ce La Vi looks out over the infinity pool and Marina Bay in one of the most photographed bar positions on earth. The experience is deliberately theatrical and it delivers. The cocktail menu is well-executed, the service is polished, and the view is genuinely unbeatable. Non-hotel guests access the rooftop via the SkyPark Observation Deck admission or with a food and beverage minimum. Worth either option.

Order: Yuzu Bee's Knees, a house signature with yuzu, local honey, and The Botanist gin

Loof has been on the Bugis rooftop since 2006, which makes it ancient by Singapore standards, and the bar has never tried to be anything other than exactly what it is: a relaxed, creative rooftop that feels like the real Singapore rather than the hotel version. The cocktail menu leans into local flavours — pandan, lemongrass, kaya — and the prices stay at a level that allows multiple rounds. One of the most genuinely enjoyable bars in the city.

Order: Pandan Gin Sling, a local reinterpretation of the classic with fresh pandan leaf and lime

FEO sits above a restored shophouse in Chinatown and looks out over the heritage precinct's tiled rooftops and the distant CBD towers. The contrast between old and new Singapore is visible from one spot, which makes this one of the most interesting views in the city. The bar is deliberately low-key. Craft beer and simple cocktails, prices that reflect the neighbourhood rather than the hotel, and a crowd that is primarily local.

Order: Craft lager from a Singapore microbrewery with a plate of char siu bao from the kitchen below

Dempsey Hill is where Singapore's old British colonial barracks have been converted into restaurants and bars, and Straits Bar occupies a rooftop terrace that looks over the surrounding forest rather than the city. It is a different kind of rooftop experience — green and quiet rather than glass and vertical. The cocktail program takes the colonial history seriously and reinterprets it, with drinks that reference the British and Peranakan cultures that shaped this neighbourhood.

Order: Straits Gimlet, a Singapore Gin Company base with fresh lime and kaffir lime leaf cordial

Barbary Coast is a multi-floor venue in Clarke Quay, but the rooftop terrace is where the best of it happens. The cocktail list references the California gold rush and San Francisco of the 1850s, which is a more coherent concept than it sounds. The bartenders here are among the best in the city and the menu changes seasonally. Live jazz on Thursday evenings means it is frequently full, but they do not take reservations for the rooftop level.

Order: The Forty-Niner, a rye whiskey and chamomile cocktail with gold-dusted ice sphere

Neon Pigeon's rooftop addition sits above the Telok Ayer conservation area and looks over the shophouses and the CBD periphery. The cocktail menu takes Japanese izakaya culture and runs it through a Singapore lens — yuzu, shochu, sake-washed spirits alongside more conventional options. The food from the kitchen below is excellent and worth ordering alongside your drinks. The open-air section catches the evening breeze reliably from 6pm onward.

Order: Sakura Highball, a Japanese whisky and sakura cordial serve with hand-chipped ice

The Clifford Pier at Fullerton Bay Hotel is not technically a rooftop, but the elevated terrace position over the water and the view back toward the Merlion and Marina Bay qualifies it for this list. The setting inside the restored 1933 pier building is extraordinary, and the drinks match the room. The cocktail list is classic-forward with Singapore-specific twists. This is the bar to go to when you want to understand why Singapore drinks so well.

Order: Singapore Sling, made with the original Raffles recipe using fresh pineapple juice

Atlas Bar's gin tower holds over 1,300 bottles and the cocktail program is among the most serious in Asia. The terrace level provides a slightly elevated position over Parkview Square's extraordinary Art Deco courtyard. It is a bar designed for people who take gin seriously, which means the recommendations from the staff are worth asking for. The bar snacks program is exceptional and pairs with the cocktails in a way that most bars in the city do not attempt.

Order: A Martinez, made with one of the pre-Prohibition gins from the 1920s section of the tower