Editorial
Solo bar crawl tips are something we get asked for constantly, and it is because most people have never tried it and assume it will be awkward. Our editors have collectively done bar crawls alone in 24 cities. The reality is that a solo bar crawl is frequently better than doing it in a group. You move at your own pace. You sit at the bar. You talk to bartenders and strangers without managing anyone else's preferences. It is one of the best ways to actually experience a city's bar culture rather than just pass through it.
The first solo bar crawl tip is to reframe the entire exercise. You are not alone at a bar. You are a customer with full control over your evening. Bars are social environments designed for strangers to occupy the same space comfortably. When you sit at the bar counter rather than at a table, you position yourself at the social centre of the room, next to the bartender and adjacent to other single patrons. This is the correct seat for a solo bar crawl and we will return to it throughout this guide.
A good solo bar crawl follows a simple structure: start somewhere low-key to settle in, build to something more social in the middle, and end somewhere with strong bar seating and late hours. For New York, that means beginning in the West Village or Lower East Side, moving through Nolita or SoHo, and finishing in the East Village. For London, start in Clerkenwell or Fitzrovia, move through Soho, and finish in Shoreditch. The total distance should be walkable in 25 minutes if you moved in a straight line. You will not, but it sets the outer limit.
The number one mistake on a solo bar crawl is drinking at the same pace you would in a group. In a group, drinks are social. Alone, they are personal, and the evening is longer. One drink per stop, roughly 45 minutes per stop, and water between locations is the framework that keeps a solo crawl enjoyable for four or five hours rather than ending at two. Eat something substantial before you start and eat again midway through. This is not cautious advice. It is what makes the second half of the crawl as good as the first.
Hidden gem bars are disproportionately good for solo bar crawls. They tend to have smaller rooms, which means everyone is closer together. They have regulars who come alone. The bartenders know each customer's name by the second visit. And because they are not full of groups on organised nights out, the social atmosphere is one that a solo visitor can enter naturally rather than feeling peripheral to. We include at least one hidden gem on every crawl we plan.
A solo bar crawl is not a compromise position. It is a specific way to spend an evening that is available to anyone who is willing to sit at the bar counter and treat each stop as its own conversation rather than a waypoint on a group itinerary. The solo bar crawl tips in this guide all come down to one principle: position yourself at the centre of each room, order something worth talking about, and let the evening develop at whatever pace it wants to. You will not always end up in the same place you planned. That is almost always an improvement.
James has done solo bar crawls in 24 cities across three continents. He started because he was travelling alone for work and found it more interesting than staying in. He has not stopped since.