16 Best Bars in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and the Baltic Coast

For a smooth cocktail, cool lounge music, and jaw-droppingly good views over the city and harbor, try this bar, which is one of the most popular nightspots in town. It's best to book ahead, particularly on weekends.

Beer fans will be hard-pressed to find a better spot in town to sample that amber nectar. With a number of local beers on tap and more than 60 craft beers to order from, plus a decent selection of German pub food, it's unsurprising that this gastropub has maintained a glowing reputation since opening in early 2013. On weekends, breakfast is served from 10 to 2.

This bar has a black-on-black design, good looks all over, great service, and endless drink options. It's also within one of the hottest hotels in town.

Discreetly positioned on a quiet corner an easy meander down from the Reeperbahn is one of St Pauli's coziest cocktail bars. Inside, red leather stools flank an enormously well-stocked bar staffed by knowledgeable and friendly bartenders.

A visit to the Cotton Club, Hamburg's oldest jazz club, is worth it for the house beer alone. Throw in the club's relaxed vibe and nights devoted to jazz, blues, soul, and Dixieland, and it's not difficult to find a reason to drop in.

The nondescript exterior of this extraordinary bar in St. Pauli leaves much to the imagination, but its perpetually closed curtains hide a bar with a unique concept. Drip is famous for its speakeasy vibe and unique spirits, which are infused using cold brew drippers (hence the name). Easily one of Hamburg's best cocktail bars, it is popular with both locals and tourists. As a bonus, its location offers a great view of the harbor.

Housed in an imposing barracks complex built in the nineteenth century, Frappant is a meeting point for all Hamburg creatives. This enormous building is not only an independent art gallery with rotating exhibitions but also a bar and club. In summer, vernissages give way to parties that inevitably end up in its massive garden. Even just the architecture of the building, with its perfectly preserved redbrick facade, is reason enough to swing by.

Northern Germans are not best known for mingling, but at this small pub in the middle of Grosse Freiheit, you can strike up a conversation with the person sitting next to you. Perhaps that's why it was a firm favorite with the Beatles, who could often be found here when not performing at a number of clubs on the street.

One of the best-known nightspots in town, Grosse Freiheit 36 has made its name as both a popular venue for big names from around the world and as the location of the Kaiserkeller, a nightclub where the Beatles once played that's still going strong.

The Beatles' first stop on the road to fame was the Indra Club. The club's owner, Bruno Koschmider, asked for one thing, and that was a wild show. These days, the Indra is still a nightclub, with live music acts nearly every night.

On the first floor of the Theater Neue Flora, the Kent Club is a popular spot with a mostly older crowd, who turn up to see acts as diverse as Adele, Nigel Kennedy, and Right Said Fred, and dance to Latin and 1980s sounds.

After changing locations, the storied Mojo Club has been reborn and is now located beneath a spaceship-like hatch, which rises out of the sidewalk to allow in revelers who come to see live local and international acts, as well as DJs spinning jazz, funk, soul, and electronic beats.

A true Reeperbahn institution, this bar and venue hosts local and international bands and DJs. Featuring a large outdoor area for summer gigs, Molotow is one of the best locations for live music in St. Pauli. Due to its size, it attracts smaller acts than the venues on Grosse Freiheit but that just makes the atmosphere all the more intimate and memorable.

Facing stiff competition from a number of newly opened and similarly loftily perched cocktail joints, the Tower Bar may have aged a tad since its opening in 1987, but its service, reasonably priced drinks, and views over the harbor and city all remain good reasons to reserve a window table for a sundowner or two.

With its combination of exposed brickwork, soft lighting, and soothing, curvy shapes—not to mention a drinks menu that runs to more than 250 different drinks, shots, and cocktails—it's little wonder that this popular cocktail bar draws fashionable people of all ages.