These Are the Best Cities in the World for a Drink on the Street
There is so much to love about traveling, but street drinking quickly became one of my favorite things to do abroad. If you live in a place where it is legal (and normal) to walk down the street with a beer, you may not be able to imagine what is the matter. For the rest of us, this is pretty cool.
First, street drinks are cheaper. You can use BYOB anywhere – you are not limited to overpriced choices in bars and restaurants. You can buy cheap at 7-11 and walk freely, which gives me another advantage: busy attractions.
There is nothing better than splitting a tall boy with your travel companion as you stroll and explore the city at a relaxed pace . You, of course, want to be safe and watch your surroundings, but this is a matter of course. And picnics! Picnics are a great tourist activity. You can relax and immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the city, and like many other activities, picnics with alcohol are even more enjoyable.
Plus, it’s just fun doing things that you won’t be doing at home! After all, isn’t novelty half the fun of travel? There are many places in the world, from Vegas to Germany, where you can safely drink on the street. Here are a few of my personal favorites.
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans doesn’t have strict open container laws, so you can drink freely on the streets and sidewalks whenever you please (and there are plenty of bars and restaurants where you can buy cups to go). Opened glass containers are not permitted, however, so make sure to drink from plastic cups.
New Orleans is one of my favorite places, period, and is often referred to as South Vegas. Sure, Vegas has a Strip, and you can have a drink while you squeeze and shuffle among the tourists, but for the most part Vegas is all about hanging out in your hotel: the hotel nightclub, the hotel pool, and of course the hotel- casino. There is no reason to ever leave your hotel, which makes street drinking in Vegas less exciting.
In New Orleans, however, there is so much going on outside, from tours to music, and it’s a lot of fun to walk with a hurricane in hand while you take it all in.
Tokyo, Japan
Japan doesn’t have any open container laws, but drinking alcohol in public is not always socially acceptable ( here’s a great thread on what people think about it). You won’t see a lot of booze outside, but you can see people sitting in the park with a cold drink.
However, Tokyo is a public entertainment in Japan simply because there are so many tourists and so much going on that it is unlikely to be frowned upon. And the rumors are true: there are alcohol vending machines all over Japan, but they are actually quite rare – I haven’t seen one in Tokyo (although I did find one in Kyoto).
Copenhagen, Denmark
As with many Scandinavian countries, Denmark does not have super-rigid or strictly enforced open container laws. Denmark, however, seems even more relaxed than the rest of Scandinavia.
Drinking on the street in Copenhagen is not only legal but socially acceptable and encouraged. For example, if you visit Nyhavn, you can spend between $ 15 and $ 20 on a drink at any of the trendy restaurants along the canal. But you’ll probably just want to buy a beer from the grocery store for a few dollars and join the rest of us drinking on the waterfront – the view is just as beautiful. Again, Copenhagen is great because the laws are so lax. In Sweden, if you want a drink that is over 3.5% ABV, you cannot just go to the grocery store and buy it. You will need to find Systembolaget, a government-owned liquor store chain that is not always open. Drinking on the streets of Copenhagen is easy and fun.
These are my favorites, but there are many other travel destinations in the world with relaxed open container laws: France, Germany, England, Wales, New Zealand, Hong Kong and China and many more. The United States also has a few unlikely cities. For example, in Fredericksburg, Texas, you can drink beer or wine in public. And in Butte, Montana, this is allowed, except from 2 to 8 hours.