Travellers looking for adventure need look no further than these 9 out-of-this-world bars. In most countries you’ll probably come across a few bars that are a little… unconventional. One thing is for sure when you visit one of these, you’re guaranteed to have a story to take home.
1. Panty Bar, South Africa
Image from Paternoster Hotel
Washing lines of briefs, lacy g-strings and knickers decorate the Panty Bar in Paternoster. The owner, Johan Carosini, started collecting underwear in 1974. The memorabilia hangs from the ceiling, but that shouldn’t stop you from ordering a beer.
2. HR Giger Museum Bar, Gruyères, Switzerland
Image from HR Giger
The HR Giger Museum Bar, designed by Hans Rudi Giger, transports you to the remains of ancient civilisation — the entire interior is lined with vertebrae.
3. Vampire Café – Ginza, Tokyo
Image from Tokyo Treat
Every day is Halloween at the Vampire Cafe in Tokyo, where a waiter or waitress dressed as a vampire waits your table. The bar and restaurant are spookily-themed; one of the rooms even has a coffin.
4. Dive Bar – Sacramento, California
Image by Terri Brindisi
Tanks with live mermaids swimming around in them? Yes, they’re a thing, and it turns out that they make for beautiful décor. The Diver Bar allows you to buy a drink and look up at mermaids as they glide along in tanks near the ceiling.
5. Ruin Bars, Budapest
Image from We Love Budapest
Ruin Bars are a trend in Budapest. You can identify these pre-war buildings by the mismatched furniture and the hippies loitering outside.
6. Depeche Mode Bar, Estonia
Image from DM Bar
Depeche Mode fans will love this bar in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. The walls of the Depeche Mode Bar are decorated with Depeche Mode memorabilia. As for the music playlist, well that’s an obvious one.
7. Boabab Tree Bar, South Africa
Image by Nick Hines
At first glance all you’ll see is a tree, but if you take a closer look you’ll spot a small door in the tree trunk. The Baobab Tree Bar in Modjadjiskloof, Limpopo is a bar within a living plant. The tree is over 6,000 years old. Inside the tree trunk is a bar that accommodates up to 40 people, with benches and even a dartboard.
8. Floyd’s Pelican Bar, Jamaica
Image from Jamaicans.com
Ask a local fisherman to give you a lift out over the water from Parottee Beach to get to Floyd’s Pelican Bar. The strangest-looking yet coolest bar in the Caribbean, Floyd’s is made out of wood and palm leaves. There’s nothing quite like a cold beer on a hot day in the middle of the ocean.
9. The Clinic, Singapore
The Clinic Bar. Image by Orange Smile Tours
If you don’t enjoy hospitals, you may change your mind after reading about this bar. The Clinic Bar is hospital-themed, with an interior is designed like an operating room and meals served on steel trays. You can drink from test tubes, sit in wheelchairs instead of your usual bar stool and lie on hospital beds surrounded with white curtains.
