The fifth-floor restaurant and bar on top of the Apex Grassmarket hotel runs a modern Scottish cocktail menu with a floor-to-ceiling view straight across to Edinburgh Castle.
Tip: Book a window table 90 minutes before sunset for the castle floodlights coming on, the bar drinks are also served at the dining tables.
Address: 31-35 Grassmarket, Edinburgh EH1 2HS
The converted Victorian pump house down Advocate's Close off the Royal Mile holds over 300 whiskies under stone walls and warm amber lighting, an award-winning cocktail list.
Tip: The bar staff are happy to lead a whisky flight on the spot, ask for a smoke-led tasting if you want the peaty Islay end of the back bar.
Iain McPherson's basement on Queen Street, entered through a faux barber shop with 25p haircut signs, has been on the World's 50 Best Bars discovery list since 2014.
Tip: Push the bookcase at the back of the barber shop to find the bar, ask for the bartender's seasonal freezing-technique cocktail off menu.
The Queen Street basement is the Edinburgh cocktail benchmark, a stone-vaulted room with no booking line that has been a fixture on the World's 50 Best Bars list for years.
Tip: Arrive before 19:00 on a Friday or queue, ask the bar for off-menu sours and the team will build to the spirit you prefer.
The converted Victorian pump house down Advocate's Close off the Royal Mile holds over 300 whiskies under stone walls and warm amber lighting, an award-winning cocktail list.
Tip: The bar staff are happy to lead a whisky flight on the spot, ask for a smoke-led tasting if you want the peaty Islay end of the back bar.
The Stockbridge basement bar from the team behind Bramble runs a tighter cocktail list around the namesake Last Word, with armchairs, a working fireplace and weekend gigs.
Tip: Saturday acoustic sets start around 21:30, the back room is the warmest seat and the only one where you can hear the players over the bar chat.
The Bread Street aperitivo bar inspired by Fellini's La Dolce Vita holds the UK's largest Amari collection at nearly 75 bottles, regular fixture on the Top 50 Cocktail Bars list.
Tip: Order an off-menu Negroni built around an unfamiliar Amaro, the staff are pleased to walk you through the collection rather than rush you out.
Open since 1994 next to the Edinburgh Playhouse, CC Blooms is Scotland's longest-running gay bar and club, drag cabaret and dance floor under one roof in the Pink Triangle.
Tip: Pre-theatre cocktails upstairs are quiet, the downstairs dance floor only really fills up after midnight on a Friday or Saturday.