The Best Bars in Vegas - Rooftops, Cocktails, and the Locals' Shortlist

Vegas has more rooftops than most people realise. The ones actually worth planning a night around:

• Legacy Club (Circa, downtown) - 60th floor, the tallest downtown rooftop and one of the newest in the city. Views over Fremont Street south to the Strip. Full cocktail programme - proper Manhattans and Old Fashioneds, actual pours rather than tourist syrups. Get here 30-40 minutes before sunset in summer for the best window: light drops over the Spring Mountains, the Fremont canopy lights fire beneath you, and the Strip skyline emerges to the south. Reservation strongly recommended weekends - the outdoor terrace fills within an hour of doors opening. Order the Old Fashioned; it's the drink the bar programme is built around. Fits a milestone group or a couple's night equally well.
• 66 (Resorts World, north Strip) - the 66th-floor rooftop lounge at Resorts World, the highest bar on the Strip proper with full 360-degree Strip and mountain views. Cocktail-forward menu, calmer crowd than a party rooftop, better suited to a quieter start-the-night drink than a full session. Weekend reservations recommended after 8pm; walk-in early evening is usually fine. Best window: 30 minutes before sunset, ideally with the smoked negroni in hand. If you're in a group of four or fewer this is the easier north-Strip choice.
• Skyfall Lounge (Delano) - 64th floor of Mandalay Bay's Delano tower. Best sunset view of the whole Strip north-to-south - the geometry is unmatched. Cocktails are good rather than exceptional, so treat this as a view-first stop. Book a terrace table at least a week ahead for weekends. Works best for a milestone-birthday couple or a small group who want the view without paying club prices.
• Vinyl (Mandalay Bay) - the hidden Strip-view lounge inside Mandalay Bay. Live music some nights, cocktail-led menu, smaller intimate room than the tower rooftops. Better as a quieter round after dinner than a start-the-night rooftop. Walk-in usually works midweek; Fri/Sat call ahead. Underrated - the guests who find it usually come back.
• Ghostbar (Palms, off-Strip) - reopened in 2023 after a long closure and back on the shortlist. 55th-floor rooftop with the famous glass floor panel (yes, walk on it - Instagram will thank you) and a wraparound Strip view. Cocktails materially better than in its 2000s heyday. Fits a hen or milestone group well; door has moderate expectations, so dress the part. Uber over from the Strip is $10-15 each way.
• Hard Shake (Waldorf Astoria) - not strictly a rooftop, but the 23rd-floor cocktail lounge inside the Waldorf on the Strip has floor-to-ceiling windows over the Bellagio fountains. Proper craft cocktail menu (small, precise, seasonal), quiet adult crowd, and one of the best-executed programmes on the Strip. Book if you want to time drinks with a fountain show (every 30 minutes through the evening). Where UK visitors on a milestone-birthday trip repeatedly end up on their "actual best of the trip" list.

• Hard Shake at Waldorf Astoria - the Strip's best-executed craft cocktail bar. Small menu, precise pours, seasonal ingredients, bartenders who take off-menu orders and mostly get them right. Tell them the spirit and the mood; they'll build it. Best paired with the Waldorf's afternoon-tea situation earlier in the day (same building, same standard). Reservations recommended weekends. If you're a UK visitor who takes cocktails seriously, this is the single most rewarding stop on the Strip.
• The Chandelier at Cosmopolitan - deserves its reputation. Three levels of chandelier. The middle level (2nd floor) has the best bartenders. Order off-menu - ask for whatever spirit you like "with a twist." The cocktail programme is legitimately world-class. Best window: 8-10pm; after 11pm it becomes a crush. First-timer safe recommendation.
• Herbs & Rye - off-Strip on Sahara Ave (near Golden Steer, actually). Vegas's cocktail bartenders drink here on their nights off. That's the whole endorsement. Best classic cocktails in the city. This is the locals' pick. Walk-in almost always works - even weekends - and the vibe is Vegas restaurant/bar 1990, not curated-speakeasy 2024. Order a Sazerac or a Vieux Carré; that's what the bar leans into.
• The Golden Tiki (west of Strip, on Spring Mountain) - tiki bar with dark wood, animatronic pirate skulls, and a properly-serious rum programme underneath the theatre. Weird and wonderful. Locals mostly. Order the flaming rum cocktail served in a skull - not subtle, but it works. Uber over ($8-12 from the Strip), stay an hour, come back a convert.
• Vesper Bar at Cosmopolitan - Cosmopolitan's best-hidden cocktail bar, tucked off the main casino floor. Smaller and less crowded than Chandelier, with the same drinks quality and a room quiet enough that you can actually hear each other talk. Best for a two-couple or four-friend cocktail hour before dinner. Named for the martini - order it.

Fremont East's Corner Bar Management empire is the whole downtown drinking scene. Full breakdown in our Downtown Vegas guide; short version:

• Downtown Cocktail Room - the flagship. Speakeasy, unmarked door on 6th St. Best downtown cocktails.
• Commonwealth - three-storey, rooftop, plus Laundry Room speakeasy inside (reservation-only via Instagram DM).
• Park on Fremont - dive bar with backyard, dive-bar prices.
• Frankie's Tiki Room - 24-hour tiki bar. Cheap strong rum drinks. Ends every downtown crawl.

Beyond CBM downtown: - Atomic Liquors - oldest freestanding bar in Vegas (1952). Rat Pack era. Historic. Now a hipster spot but still worth a drink. - Beauty Bar - burlesque + old-school hairdresser aesthetic + solid Sazeracs. Fremont East. Late-night crowd.

• Juliet Cocktail Room at The Venetian - the intimate, romantic cocktail room off the Venetian casino floor. Purple-velvet booths, expert bartenders, a menu that leans dry and classic. Reservations recommended weekends. Best for a couple's cocktail hour or a small group who want a quieter start to the night before dinner at one of the Venetian restaurants. This is the hotel bar that consistently ranks best-in-Vegas on the drinks-programme axis and it's under-visited by first-timers.
• Ghost Donkey at Cosmopolitan - tequila and mezcal bar behind an unmarked door (theme, apparently). Great mezcal programme, small room, cash tabs move fast. Not somewhere to camp; somewhere to detour for one drink between two other stops.
• The Barbershop Cuts & Cocktails at Cosmopolitan - literally themed as a barbershop; live music most nights, straight-forward cocktails. Fun room, easy walk-in, works well as a group-of-eight rest stop between more serious cocktail bars.
• Rosina at Palazzo - Italian-influenced, classic cocktails, quieter than most Strip hotel bars. Old-school Vegas-hotel-bar aesthetic with a modern drinks programme underneath. Underrated for a pre-dinner drink at any of the Venetian/Palazzo restaurants.

Skip: any bar where the drink comes with a light-up cube. That's a tell.

Structural, not optional (see our Tipping in Vegas guide):

• $2 per drink at a normal pace
• $5 for the first drink to build rapport with the bartender
• 20% on the tab if you close it at the end
• For a group ordering rounds, one person can put $20 down for the whole order

Bartenders who look after you well get looked after. Vegas is a small industry; the bartender at Chandelier probably drinks at Herbs & Rye on his night off. Being known by name at one good bar means you're known at 5-6 others.