Cocktail Hour Has Never Been Better Than at These Bars, Saloons, and Lounges

The Sunset Travel Awards celebrate the best in travel in the West. These bars, cocktail lounges, saloons, and more are the 2025 winners of the Where to Eat & Drink: Better Bars category. Check out the complete list of winners here. For our definitive and searchable travel directory to help you plan your next trip in the West, click here.

Tell Your Friends

Opulence and decadence abound at this new speakeasy in Scottsdale that fulfills all your nostalgic dreams of what nightlife should be. With live music, craft cocktails, food from local legend Beau MacMillan, a maximalist and moody room that’s all velvet and brass and floral supergraphics, plus live music keeping the energy up and sophisticated, it’s the after hours place to be in Scottsdale.

The Rooftop Bar

Oceanside’s open-minded attitude toward good times is on full display at this sunny, inviting bar, expanding the idea of what al fresco fun can be. Great cocktails, light Cali bites, and DJ sets, plus a new digital nomad-friendly “work from roof” policy, The Rooftop Bar is the California third-space dream realized.

Call Me Pearl

This cocktail lounge near Denver’s LoDo neighborhood combines narrative-driven craft cocktails, impeccable hospitality, and rotating menus (think peak season produce and caviar service in a room that channels the gilded era). A sultry space in which to toast the good life.

Superfrico Las Vegas

Spiegelworld’s first integrated cocktail-dining-entertainment concept at the always decadent and sophisticated Cosmopolitan pushes the limit of what Las Vegas fun can be: psychedelic, immersive, with excellent maximalist Italian food and craft cocktails. Drinks, dinner, and a show, all in one dizzyingly delightful evening.

The Manor Bar

With a menu of exquisitely crafted cocktails, each meticulously conceived and recorded in a hefty tome, this bar channels the mixological traditions of the globe in a luxurious, low-lit space at Rosewood Miramar Beach in Montecito. One of the best cocktail lounges in the West.

The 23rd Floor of Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas

Staying at a non-gaming, non-smoking resort when in Sin City can feel like a real retreat. At this newly revamped dining floor of the Waldorf Astoria, you’ll feel a sense of refinement—think elegant high tea and a world-class craft cocktail bar, all with sweeping views of Sin City’s skyline.

The Muse Whiskey & Coffee

Housed in a beautiful 1923-era gothic former office in Everett, Washington, this bakery and third-wave coffee shop by day, speakeasy by night (the kind that serves rare pre-prohibition whiskeys) is the kind of spot every town needs.

The Last Kind Words Saloon

If you’re looking for an unrivaled taste of the Old West, travel back in time to Last Kind Words Saloon, where the walls are adorned with authentic memorabilia and tack. The old-school watering hole is situated inside The Oasis at Death Valley, with an era-appropriate menu that includes barbecued ribs, excellent housemade chili, and an extensive selection of American whiskey.

The Alchemists’ Garden + The Remedy

Expertly balanced culinary cocktails are the star at this whimsically themed downtown Paso Robles bar and restaurant, where mixologists tap into their bag of tricks to shake up everything from mind-bending cocktails to more simplistic spritzes to go alongside nosh-friendly food like turmeric-pickled deviled eggs and harissa tiger prawns.