48 Hours of Drinking in Hamburg

20up sits on top of the Empire Riverside Hotel and delivers a panoramic harbour view at a more accessible price point than Tower Bar or Clouds. The 20th-floor c Drop bags. Find a hotel-adjacent bar within a five-minute walk. Order something simple to anchor yourself to the city.

Clouds Heaven's Bar & Kitchen draws a steady local crowd in St Pauli. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the ev The polished room you'd take a first date to. Sit at the bar. Talk to the bartender. Stay one drink — you're scouting, not committing.

Finn Warwick draws a steady local crowd in Altstadt. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. Walk into the city's drinking quarter (the heart of the night, not the tourist version). Two drinks, two rooms. Pace yourself — Saturday is the long day.

Altes Machwerk Bar draws a steady local crowd in Sternschanze. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. Sunset. Find a rooftop. Order whatever the house specials around sundown. Take photos but don't lose 90 minutes to your phone.

Bar am Wasser Hafencity draws a steady local crowd in Hafencity. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. Eat somewhere with serious bartending built in. The right room is one you order both your dinner and your nightcap from.

Barfly is the Eimsbüttel neighbourhood cocktail bar from a long-running Hamburg bartender — a tight programme of well-built classics in a no-pretensions corner- The bar that made you book the trip. The pre-research one. Reservation-only ideally. Stay until last call.

Blockbrau draws a steady local crowd in Landungsbrucken. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. Mary, Mimosa, or whatever low-ABV house play the room runs. Eat. Pay. Walk.

Boilerman Bar at 25hours Hafencity draws a steady local crowd in Hafencity. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the eveni Find the hotel bar at your departure airport equivalent — somewhere quiet, low-volume, well-staffed. End the trip on a martini and a clean conversation.