Budget Travelers Guide to Drinking Cocktails

cheers to Casa del Mar!

Budget Travelers Guide to Drinking Cocktails on the Road

I’m a cocktails girl. Always have been. Somehow, I’ve just never acquired a taste for beer, nor wine for that matter. All those fermented and yeasty beverages just don’t sit well with my palate.

Over the years, from the strong prodding of friends, acquaintances, colleagues and family members, I must have tasted just about every kind of beer and wine available to man: micro brews, dark malts, lagers, light beers, and many countries’ most famous beer brands.

After traveling through 30 countries over 16 years and being ‘forced’ to sample everyone’s best brews, I can confidently say that beer does not float my boat.

guide to drinking cocktails by Lash here with blue margarita

Lash with green margarita cocktail

But cocktails? Yes, please! All those delicious sweet, bitter-sweet, and sour-sweet concoctions delight my taste buds then slap me with a wonderful, unexpectedly strong kick. Wee!

I’ll happily sip cocktails just about anytime. All those beautiful colors, from vibrant pink, red, orange, blue, and purple, to creamy white and even crystal clear, already leave me feeling happy before I even start drinking. Served up in delightfully-shaped glasses with charming fruit or leaf garnishes, cocktails are just as much visual delights as taste sensations.

Sadly for cocktail-loving travelers like me, traveling often presents a few snags. First, a majority of bars, pubs, guest houses, and restaurants throughout the world don’t even serve cocktails. In fact, many places serve nothing beyond beer. That leaves us cocktail fans without a drink in many travel destinations.

Secondly, disliking beer hinders a lot of potential social life out on the road. The vast majority of the world’s population, quite inexplicably to me, love drinking beer. In fact, I recently read that statistically beer is the third most-popular beverage in the world!

That excludes me from most evening socializing gatherings since fellow travelers invariably vote for friendly pub meet-ups, beer fests or bar crawls. No thanks, I always pass.

cool colorful tasty cocktail

Finally, when I do discover clubs that serve cocktails, they’re invariably expensive. Beer is not only infinitely easier to find, it’s also considerably cheaper. Without a bottomless budget, I often have trouble squeezing cocktails into my expenses.

Luckily, road life is still far from grim for me and other traveling cocktail fans. Fortunately, many places around the world, including the countries of SE Asia and all western countries, do serve up delicious cocktails. They can be found!

From Vietnam all the way down through Thailand and Singapore to Indonesia, I’ve found expertly mixed cocktails at beach-bars, dance clubs, restaurants, hotels, resorts, and bars. But more likely than not, they are rather expensive.

So I’ve come up with a whole slew of tricks and tactics to help me imbibe in my favorite tasty cocktails during my on-going travels, even when I’m on a tight budget.

Here are 7 ways to help squeeze cocktails into your travel life if you’re on a tight budget too:

cocktails – photo care of my friend Johan Lassesson

1. Buy spirits at airport duty free shops

Airport duty free shops always sell alcohol at much lower prices than you can get in the country you’re about to enter. Buying your own liter of vodka, run, gin or other spirits can be a great idea, particularly if you’re going to stay in one place for a while and you know how to mix up a few cocktails.

I often pick up a liter of vodka or white rum when I’m going to house-sit, visit friends for at least a week, or have a special event to celebrate. I especially like buying duty free when I’m about to enter countries where I know cocktails are super expensive, like Malaysia and Singapore.

However, if I’m going to be traveling on a daily basis, I’ve found that carrying a large glass bottle of rum is usually too much hassle.

Potato Head Beachside Cocktail Bar- Bali - photo by Johan Lassesson

enjoying Happy Hour at a Beachside Cocktail Bar in Bali – photo by Johan Lassesson

2. Take advantage of Happy Hours

Almost every bar & club in the world has daily Happy Hours offering drinks at much lower prices than later in the evening. Times usually are about 6-9 pm, though it could start earlier and/or finish later.

That’s a great time of the day to sip cocktails at sunset, especially on a beach, a mountaintop or other spot with stunning views of nature. Another advantage of drinking early in the evening is that it’s less likely to adversely affect your sleep, if you have that issue with alcohol consumption.

enjoying ladies night with a friend

3. Female travelers – Enjoy Ladies Nights

Many bars and clubs around the world also have a weekly Ladies Night, with drinks for women either free or greatly discounted. Surprisingly, even many very chic, upper class bars & clubs offer free cocktails for women on Ladies Nights. That makes a fantastic opportunity to dress up and enjoy the ambiance of an upscale club.

Free drinks are usually restricted to one particular cocktail for the evening, so you don’t have a choice what you get to drink. But, hey, beggars can’t be choosers!

Some places let women drink for free all night. Others offer their free drinks during certain hours. Other bars don’t hand out free drinks, but operate more like Happy Hour, with special offers like 50% off, 2 for 1 or other discounts.

For some peculiar reason, Ladies Night always seems to be on Wednesday! So bare that in mind when planning your drinking sessions.

4. Switch to mixers at bars, pubs & expensive clubs

Mixers (vodka & lime, gin & tonic, whiskey & coke, etc) are not my first choice, not by a long shot. But they do come in handy as a back-up to cocktails in many situations. And in such cases, they’re infinitely better than stooping to beer.

One major situation arises in basic bars & pubs. They simply don’t serve cocktails. But most of them can manage basic mixers. Gin & tonic or vodka & soda with lime are actually pretty tasty on occasion anyhow.

Another great time to choose mixers is when you wind up at clubs where cocktails are excessively expensive. Mixers are usually considerably cheaper.

Finally, mixers are sometimes the freebie offered to women on Ladies Nights. I even know of one fabulous, trendy bar in Malaysia that serves mixers free to women every day of the week until 10 pm! At that bar, I’m quite happy to partake of a few mixers to get my buzz on.

arak cocktail – Bali

5. Drink local spirits

Many countries produce their own local alcoholic concoctions, which are usually quite tasty. And strong. For instance, Bali, Lombok and Java in Indonesia produce arak and tuak. Java also has a dark red wine-like liquor. Fiji produces kava. Many other countries have similar brews.

Local spirits are infinitely cheaper than imported alcohol or cocktails at bars & clubs. Such local brews can often be made into tasty mixers by adding coke, sprite, soda or fruit juice.

6. Keep a look-out for special bars & deals

I’m talking about bars like the one in Malaysia that I just mentioned. They serve up mixers free to women every night until 10 pm! They also offer decent discounts on all their cocktails to everyone until 10 pm – rather a long & late daily happy hour. I love that place!

7. Choose which countries you drink in!

Some countries are much more expensive to drink in than others. When traveling in those nations, it might be wise to pick up a bottle of spirits at Duty Free or else just take a break from drinking while there. Save your drinking sessions for less expensive countries.

Islamic countries, in particular, are very expensive places to drink. Since alcohol is actually forbidden in Islam, it’s somewhat amazing that alcohol is even available.

In some Islamic countries alcohol is rather rare, perhaps only available at international luxury hotel bars and/or on the black market. In less rigid Islamic countries that practice tolerance of religion and have a diverse population, bars are sometimes very common. But prices are high.

In SE Asia, Malaysia and Indonesia are both predominantly Islamic countries. But their populations are very diverse and both nations rely heavily on tourism. Bars & clubs are very common, but prices very high.

A toast to the new year 2014!

Singapore is not Islamic, but prices for alcohol are exceedingly high due to high government taxes. Most alcohol is also watered down. As a result, drinking in Singapore is so extremely expensive that I’ve personally given it up. I don’t drink in Singapore unless I have my own bottle from Duty Free… or a friend is treating me.

So in SE Asia, avoid drinking cocktails in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Or be prepared to spend a lot of money. Instead, enjoy cocktails in the neighboring countries of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

In most western countries cocktails are very expensive. Traveling around Europe, N America, Australia or New Zealand are goods times to pick up duty free, head to Happy Hours and Ladies Nights or switch to mixers. Learn how to mix up a few of your favorite cocktails and enjoy drinking with friends at your guest house, out on the beach or other spot instead of at the clubs & bars.

Happy travels cocktail lovers!

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You might also enjoy:

Best Rooftop Cocktail Bars in SE Asia

Best Rooftop Cocktail Bars in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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