Whether you’re sipping on a glass of wine, guzzling a beer or draining the last of your mocktail, happy hour is a lot more fun when you’re in unusual surroundings. From bars made entirely out of ice and lounges decorated in bones to and watering holes more literal than you’d imagine, it doesn’t get much stranger than these ten.
Top 10 Bars in the World: The Strangest
1 Bicicleta Bar, Bucharest
Located inside a historical building in Bucharest, Romania; Bicicleta is made almost entirely out of bicycle parts. From bar stools and lighting to table decoration and artwork – it’s all made out of British bicycles from the 1930s.
2 The Ice Bar, Quebec City
Set within the Hotel de Glace in Quebec City, Canada this ice bar isn’t like just any other ice bar you’d come across in a major city. The bar, along with the hotel, is reconstructed every year out of 30,000 tonnes of snow and 500 tonnes of ice which take 50 workers six weeks to put together.
3 Sunland Baobab, Limpopo
Whilst tree house accommodation was all the rage a few years ago, things have moved on in 2015 – now in-tree bars are the big thing. And it doesn’t get much bigger than the 1,060-year-old 10.64m-diameter Sunland Baobab in Limpopo, South Africa.
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Sunland Baobab via TripAdvisor, Werner P4 H.R. Giger Bar, Gruyere
Best known for his creative design work for the “Alien” films, H. R. Giger went to town with his namesake bar in Gruyere, Switzerland, decorating it with vertebrae-like vaulted ceilings, skeletal chairs and bizarrely head-focused statues.
5 The Clinic Bar, Singapore
With wheelchair seating, hospital bed dining, operation room lighting and nurses serving your drinks through IVs, this one-of-a-kind bar in Singapore is definitely not for the faint-hearted.
6 Alux Caverna Lounge, Playa del Carmen
This magical bar in Playa del Carmen, Mexico is nestled into a cavern crafted by nature over thousands of years, complete with authentic stalactites, flowstones and colourful mood lighting. A great place to dine after visiting Rio Secreto Caves.
7 Red Sea Star Bar, Eilat
Thanks to this innovative bar in Eilat, Israel which plunges down 5m below the water’s surface, you can dine on fish whilst watching them swim right by your table just outside the window.
8 Modern Toilet, Taipei
From toilet seating and tables made of sinks to toilet-shaped serving dishes and indescribable-looking chocolate ice cream, you simply cannot get away from the bathroom theme at this inconceivable restaurant in Taipei, Taiwan.
9 Kayabukiya Tavern, Utsunomiya
Situated in Utsunomiya one hour outside Tokyo, this bar beats all the others in Asia for a concept so bizarre that travellers still can’t get their heads around it even after a bottle of sake – monkey waiters. That’s right – make a reservation here and you’ll be waited on by monkeys who take down your drinks orders and bring your food.
10 Das Klo Bar, Berlin
A confusing blend of theme park, zoo and flea market, this bar in Berlin, Germany has so much going on that it’s impossible to take it all in. Red wine served in blood transfusion packs, rotating bar stools, electric shocks from tables, novelty hammers which slam down randomly, water sprinklers, rocks falling from the ceiling and a seating choice of toilets or coffins are just some of the pleasant things you can expect here.