The Most Underrated Bar Cities in Europe

The problem with travel press coverage of underrated European bar cities is that the moment a city gets labelled underrated, it stops being underrated. Barcelona was underrated in 1998. Lisbon was underrated in 2012. Today they are two of the most visited cities in Europe. What we are looking for here are cities that remain under-covered relative to their actual quality, in 2024, right now. We found seven. Some of them you will recognise. One or two you might not.

Porto, Portugal: Still Ahead of Its Own Reputation

Porto has been called underrated for ten years. The difference now is that it has actually developed the bar infrastructure to justify the praise. The Ribeira waterfront and Miguel Bombarda gallery district have produced 30 genuinely excellent bars within a 15-minute walk of each other. Unlike Lisbon, the city has not yet smoothed out its rough edges, which is precisely what makes it worth visiting before it does.

Rua das Flores Wine Bar

Baixa $$ Natural Wine / Small Plates

A narrow wine bar on Porto's most beautiful street, running 40 Portuguese natural wines by the glass alongside small plates that change daily depending on what arrived from the market that morning. The room holds 22 people and fills by 7:30pm on weekdays. The staff here know their producers personally and talk about them the way other people talk about family. This is exactly the type of bar Porto does better than any city in Europe.

Order: Ask for an orange wine from a young Douro producer. They always have something worth trying.

Budapest, Hungary: Beyond the Ruin Bar Cliche

Budapest's reputation as an underrated European bar city took a hit when stag parties discovered it in the early 2010s. The ruin bars attracted the wrong kind of attention. What has happened since then is more interesting: a generation of serious bars has emerged in the 7th and 8th districts that operates entirely independently of the bachelor party economy, serving local residents and discerning visitors who know where to look.

Doblo Wine Bar

Jewish Quarter $$ Hungarian Wine Specialist

The best introduction to Hungarian wine in a city that produces some of Central Europe's most interesting bottles. Over 150 Hungarian wines, most available by the glass, with a focus on small producers from Eger, Tokaj, and the Villany region. The staff are genuinely evangelical about Hungarian wine and manage to be enthusiastic without being evangelical about it. A necessary stop for anyone who still thinks Hungary produces only Tokaji Aszu.

Order: A glass of Egri Bikaver from a small producer. Ask for something from the past three vintages.

Weekly editorial

The bars worth going to, weekly.

One email per week. The bars our editors are recommending right now, across 60 cities worldwide.

Free. Unsubscribe anytime.

Edinburgh, Scotland: More Than Whisky Bars

Edinburgh gets listed as a destination for whisky tourists and then gets overlooked by everyone else. This is a significant error. The city has 80 specialist whisky bars, yes, but it also has a cocktail scene in the New Town and Leith that would be celebrated if it existed in London or Barcelona. The prices are lower, the rooms are better, and the bartenders are hungrier than anywhere else in the UK.

The Devil's Advocate

Old Town $$ Victorian Pumphouse / Cocktail Bar

A bar housed in a converted Victorian pumphouse with the original machinery still visible behind glass. The cocktail program is serious, with a focus on Scottish spirits and seasonal local ingredients. The menu changes quarterly. The after-work crowd from the nearby financial district means weekday evenings have a particular energy that Edinburgh's tourist-facing bars lack entirely. One of the genuinely great bar rooms in the UK.

Order: Their current seasonal cocktail featuring a Scottish craft gin or whisky as the base spirit

Salt Horse Beer Shop

Old Town $$ Craft Beer / 400 Bottle Selection

A craft beer bottle shop and bar with over 400 labels and 16 rotating taps. The Scottish craft beer selection is the best in the country, with producers from Orkney, Dundee, and the Highlands appearing alongside more familiar Edinburgh breweries. The staff know their stock well enough to find you something specific based on what you actually want rather than what is moving fastest. One of the best specialist beer bars in Scotland.

Order: Ask for a Scottish craft beer you have not heard of. There are several worth discovering.

Ljubljana, Slovenia: The One Nobody Mentions

Ljubljana is the answer to the question of which underrated European bar city most people are missing entirely. Slovenia's capital has a pedestrianised old town with a concentration of bars along the Ljubljanica river that rivals anything in Croatia or the Czech Republic. The prices are 40 percent lower than Vienna. The natural wine scene has been developing for five years and is now genuinely excellent. Almost nobody talks about it yet.

Minimal

Old Town $$ Natural Wine / Slovenian Producers

The bar that put Ljubljana's natural wine scene on the map. Over 80 Slovenian labels, most from producers the owners visit personally, with a rotating selection of around 25 available by the glass. Slovenia's wine regions produce some of Central Europe's most interesting orange and skin-contact wines and Minimal is the best place to encounter them. The bar is small, the crowd is young and local, and the prices make you want to move to Ljubljana immediately.

Order: An orange wine from the Vipava Valley. Slovenia's most interesting wine region and criminally underexported.

Pritlicje

Mestni Trg $ Cultural Bar / Books and Beer

A bar that also functions as a reading room, gallery, and event space in Ljubljana's old town. The beer selection focuses on Slovenian craft breweries. The wine list is short and well-chosen. The space is warm and unhurried in a way that reflects Ljubljana's broader character. Locals use it as a third place, arriving with a book and leaving hours later having had three conversations they did not plan on. A genuinely rare thing.

Order: A glass of Slovenian craft lager and whatever they have on by the glass from the local wine list

Bar Nebotnicnik

Centre $$ Rooftop Bar / 13th Floor

On the 13th floor of Ljubljana's first skyscraper, a 1933 Art Deco building with a terrace bar that looks out over the old town, the castle, and the Alps beyond. The drinks are competent. The view is extraordinary. This is one of the best rooftop bar settings in Europe and receives approximately one hundredth of the press attention of its equivalents in London or Barcelona. Arrive before sunset and stay for two hours.

Order: A gin and tonic or Aperol Spritz. This is a drinks-plus-view bar. Simplicity is correct.

Movia Wine Bar

Old Town $$$ Fine Wine / Biodynamic Specialist

The Ljubljana outpost of one of Slovenia's most celebrated biodynamic estates, Movia, operating as both a retail shop and tasting bar. The wines are exceptional and have been since the estate converted to biodynamic farming in the 1980s. The bar pours the full Movia range alongside selected Slovenian and international natural producers. A serious destination for anyone who cares about how wine is made and why it matters.

Order: Movia Lunar, their flagship orange wine. One of Central Europe's benchmark natural wines.

Why These Cities Deserve Your Attention

The common thread across Porto, Budapest, Edinburgh, and Ljubljana is that each city's bar quality has outpaced its international reputation. The press coverage lags by three to five years. By the time travel magazines arrive in force, these cities will be as expensive and as crowded as the places they currently compare favourably against. The window for discovering them on their own terms is narrowing.

Our recommendation: visit one of these cities specifically for the bar culture rather than folding it into a broader European trip. Three nights in Porto or Ljubljana dedicated to drinking well costs less than two nights in Paris or Amsterdam and delivers more bars per evening that you will remember for years rather than days.