The Basics Drinking Out

5 Hotel Rooms and Villas with Baller Private Bars

Check in, then check out these spots for DIY cocktailing done right.

By
Kelly Magyarics
Kelly Magyarics
Kelly Magyarics
Kelly Magyarics, DWS, is a wine, spirits, travel, food and lifestyle writer and wine educator.
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Updated 09/12/20
Bar at Ovolo Woolloomooloo Rockstar Suite in Sydney

 Ovolo

In-room bars stocked with mini bottles are often big on disappointment. Even if you manage to cobble together something that resembles a decent cocktail—no easy feat considering that those tiny fridges are rarely stocked with fresh citrus, simple syrup or even artisanal tonic—you usually need to sit on the bed or at the desk to enjoy it. Instead, shake up your hotel drinking experience with one of these private bars overlooking a busy runway, adjacent to an infinity pool, or meant to make you feel like rock royalty.

  • Alila Villas Uluwatu (Bali, Indonesia)

    Alila Villas Uluwatu private bar

    Alila Villas Uluwatu

    Each of the 65 villas perched high on limestone cliffs above the Indian Ocean at this luxury resort in Bali’s southernmost coast has a private bar. But the Three Bedroom Cliffside Pool Villas is fully stocked with glassware and accessories. Before guests even arrive, they are invited to complete a personal preference menu to select their preferred spirits, mixers, garnishes and other accoutrements (not to mention music, books and pillows). The bar also comes with the service of a dedicated butler to shake and stir drinks and replenish ingredients. Text your friends and spread the word: The pool party is at your place.

  • Four Seasons Resort Hualalai (Big Island, Hawaii)

    Four Seasons room

    Four Seasons

    This resort on Hawaii’s Kona Coast is the first one in the U.S. to offer a suite themed around Champagne Dom Pérignon. Part of the resort’s Speciality Suite collection, the Wai’olu Suite melds Hawaiian architecture with unique elements of the renowned Champagne house, including a Dom Pérignon Champagne cellar, photography art exhibit, Riedel Champagne glasses and accoutrements like ice buckets and bottle stoppers. A personal suite concierge attends to guests’ every whim, from another chilled magnum to a platter of chocolate-covered strawberries. The private bar is stocked with a welcome bottle of Vintage 2008, and the Vintage 2009 will be brought to the room along with a selection of hors d’oeuvres. And if guests make it to the Champagne region of France, they will be treated to a private tour of the invitation-only Champagne house.

  • Ovolo Woolloomooloo (Sydney)

    Bar at Ovolo Woolloomooloo Rockstar Suite in Sydney

    Ovolo

    Two Rockstar Suites at this quirky, irreverent hotel on the Harbour are an homage to Australian bands INXS and AC/DC. (There’s a blue neon sign in the latter accommodation declaring “You Shook Me All Night Long.”) Each suite has a “reading nook play area” with hammocks, mirrored walls and ceiling, oversize couches, a Crosley record player, a selection of vinyl and vintage issues of Playboy. Plus, the views of Sydney’s skyline are pretty spectacular. The focal point is a round cocktail bar stocked with spirits, wines and beers, including local options, and all are included in the room rate. If your travels take you to Ovolo The Valley in Brisbane or Ovolo Southside in Hong Kong, those locations have their own Rockstar Suites with in-room bars, too.

  • Six Senses Yao Noi (Phang Nga, Thailand)

    Six Senses Yao Noi hotel in Thailand

    Six Senses Yao Noi 

    A 45-minute speedboat ride from Phuket, this resort on Phang Nga Bay feels a world away. Every villa and suite comes with a pool, one to four bedrooms and views of either the rock formations jutting out from the bay or the lush forest, but the real party is at the vast two-level villa aptly dubbed The View. Inside you’ll find a sunken entertaining area, a private theater room, a Bose stereo system, double-vaulted ceilings and two waterfalls—one running underneath the glass floor in the bedroom. Outside are 360-degree vistas, an infinity-edge pool with hammock netting extensions for sunbathing and a large terrace with loungers and umbrellas. The coup de grace is a pool shack with a stocked private bar, a wine refrigerator and cocktail-of-the-day kits. Send for your things—you live here now.

    Continue to 5 of 5 below.

  • TWA Hotel (New York)

    TWA Hotel room

    TWA Hotel

    Situated in architect Eero Saarinen’s landmark 1962 TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport is this hotel, the only one at JFK. Retro elements include a cocktail lounge located inside Connie, a modified Lockheed Constellation aircraft, a Twister room where fans of the game can get tied up in knots, and a glamorous 1960s-inspired sunken lounge. But the best part of this ode to the golden age of aviation is the Howard Hughes Presidential Suite, which has a custom-built, fully stocked walnut and brushed-brass cocktail bar. Perch on one of the low-backed stools, sip a properly chilled Martini, watch the jets take off and try not to think of those poor saps in coach.