World's Best Places for Cocktail Hour

Raise your glass to the globe's best heat-beating, thirst-slaking places to meet for drinks as the sun sets.



Leopard Bar and Lounge, Cape Town. The west-facing Cape Town suburb of Camps Bay is one of the world's top spots for sunsets over the sea. Bars on the main boulevard are uber-trendy and often crowded but at the Twelve Apostles Hotel's Leopard Bar a white balcony, white awnings and blue-and-white striped cushions make for a calm, classy setting.




Kastro, Greece. The jewel of the southern Cyclades, Santorini is the postcard vision of a Greek island. Kastro restaurant is loved for its location: with open-air tables at the top of a flight of about 300 stairs down through Oia to Ammoudi port.




Thundi Bar, Maldives. Veligandu Island Resort is the island's one and only and its guests may enjoy sunset from the comfort of their Jacuzzi Water Villas - doubles from $US440 ($677) a night - or at the Thundi Bar, on a deck overlooking the lagoon.




Mallory Square, Florida. In Key West, Americans have bypassed Africa's small-time sundowner concept in favour of a full-on festival. For four hours each evening, Mallory Square Dock becomes party central, with pretzels and popcorn, bagpipers, buskers, craft stalls and psychics.




Dhow Safari, Zanzibar. Sail off into the sunset with the Original Dhow Safaris, which has a fleet of three dhows, each taking up to 16 passengers. Cruises from 4.30-6.30pm drift along the coast, with guests encouraged to sink back into the cushions and relax.




El Tovar Hotel, Grand Canyon. The Griswold family came to El Tovar in 1983's National Lampoon's Vacation, starring the imitable Chevy Chase. Today, folks stop by for a sundowner on the hotel's deck to watch the canyon's layers of rock glow red in the sun's last rays.




FCC Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The bar at the FCC Phnom Penh Hotel, a classic example of French colonial architecture, is a capital haunt in the South-East Asian kingdom.

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