The rooftop bar ranking by what the view actually gives you: the Bangkok rooftop at 220 metres where the Chao Phraya River is visible below and the city extends in every direction to the horizon and the night sky is orange from the city light, the Singapore Sky Bar at the Marina Bay Sands where the infinity pool edge dissolves into the Singapore skyline and the cocktail is at the price that the view requires, and the Hanoi rooftop on the Old Quarter where the tile rooftops and the lake and the French-colonial building visible below gives the city that the street level doesn’t entirely show. The honest ranking — including the ones where the cocktail is not worth the view price and the ones where it is.
Reading time: 7 minutes | Last updated: 2026
1. Vertigo and Moon Bar, Bangkok — Banyan Tree Hotel
Height: 61 floors, 230 metres above street level.
What the view gives: The Bangkok panorama — the Chao Phraya visible to the west, the city extending in every direction to the visible horizon (on clear days, the Gulf of Thailand visible to the south), the BTS Skytrain visible as a line of lights across the Silom district below. The most vertically dramatic rooftop in Bangkok.
What the cocktail costs: THB 500-900 / £11.06-19.91 per cocktail. The minimum spend varies by the time of evening — arrive before sunset (5pm-6pm) for the minimum spend period before the sunset charge begins.
The honest assessment: The Vertigo gives the Bangkok skyline at the scale that the city deserves. No other Bangkok rooftop gives the full 360° panorama at this height without an enclosed viewing deck. The cocktail is expensive by Bangkok standards and justified by the view.
Dress code: Smart casual (no flip-flops, no shorts). Enforced.
2. 1-Altitude, Singapore — One Raffles Place
Height: 63 floors, 282 metres above sea level — the highest al fresco bar in the world.
What the view gives: The Singapore Central Business District from above (the UOB Plaza, the OUB Centre, the Clifford Pier), the Marina Bay visible to the south, and the specific Singapore quality of the city at night — the city of 5.9 million in 728 square kilometres, the density visible from above as the light-grid that extends to every visible horizon.
What the cocktail costs: SGD 25-45 / £14.29-25.71 per cocktail. Minimum spend applies on weekends (SGD 35 / £20.00 per person).
The honest assessment: The 1-Altitude view is superior to the Marina Bay Sands SkyBar view for the specific reason that the height is greater and the viewing direction is toward the bay rather than looking back at the buildings from which the cocktail is served. The 1-Altitude is the correct Singapore rooftop for the city view. The Marina Bay Sands SkyBar is the correct Singapore rooftop for the infinity pool photograph.
3. Chill Sky Bar, Ho Chi Minh City — AB Central Square Hotel
Height: 26 floors, approximately 100 metres.
What the view gives: The Ho Chi Minh City skyline (the Bitexco Financial Tower visible to the east, the Saigon River visible to the south, the urban sprawl of HCMC’s 9+ million residents visible in the city-wide haze below): the specific HCMC rooftop quality — the city at the scale that makes the specific Vietnam urban density comprehensible.
What the cocktail costs: VND 200,000-400,000 / £6.28-12.56 per cocktail — significantly more affordable than the Bangkok and Singapore equivalents.
The honest assessment: The Chill Sky Bar is the correct introduction to the Asian rooftop bar — the view is excellent, the cocktail price is a third of the Bangkok equivalent, and the specific HCMC quality of the bar (the relaxed dress code, the local and tourist mix) gives the rooftop without the performance.
4. The Nest, Hanoi — Pan Pacific Hotel
Height: 24 floors, approximately 95 metres.
What the view gives: The Hoan Kiem Lake (the lake at the centre of the Old Quarter visible to the north from the hotel’s position), the Old Quarter tile rooftop landscape (the French-colonial buildings and the post-colonial buildings and the temple rooftops visible simultaneously as the specific Hanoi urban palimpsest), and the Red River visible on clear days to the east.
What the cocktail costs: VND 220,000-450,000 / £6.91-14.14 per cocktail. Similar to the HCMC rooftop pricing.
The honest assessment: The Hanoi rooftop is the least dramatically vertical on this list and the most specifically atmospheric — the Hoan Kiem Lake visible from the rooftop with the willow trees and the temple at night gives the specific Hanoi image that the street level partially conceals.
5. CÉ LA VI, Singapore — Marina Bay Sands
Height: 57 floors, the infinity pool level.
What the view gives: The Marina Bay skyline from the pool edge (the Gardens by the Bay Supertrees visible to the east, the Central Business District visible to the north, the city visible in every direction from the pool’s edge): the specific Singapore rooftop photograph that 8 million Instagram posts have established as the city’s visual identity.
The honest assessment: The CÉ LA VI/SkyBar is the most photographed rooftop bar in Asia and the one where the view has been most thoroughly pre-digested by the visitor’s phone before the cocktail arrives. The photograph of the infinity pool edge against the Singapore skyline exists in every Singapore travel photo set. The physical experience of sitting at the pool edge and seeing the city below is still worth the cocktail price. The photograph is no longer necessary.
Cocktail: SGD 28-55 / £16.00-31.43. Non-guest admission: SGD 26 / £14.86 (redeemable against one drink).
