For many of us, having the odd drinkie/big night out is part and parcel of the holiday experience. But some places are better than others for getting on the sauce — and some are downright terrible.
Whether it's a case of alcohol bans, dreadful beer, extortionate prices or logistical nightmares, the following places are probably better avoided.
Saudi Arabia
The Middle Eastern giant is hardly a model of rip-roaring hedonism. If there's anything fun that's not banned, it's probably something of a legislative oversight.
Unsurprisingly, therefore, alcohol is strictly prohibited in this zealously Muslim country. There are no pubs or even hotel bars. Generally, the only alcohol that can be found is smuggled into the country in diplomatic bags and supped surreptitiously in ex-pat compounds.
Getting all brave and venturing into the streets, slugging back a longneck from a brown paper bag, is a spectacularly stupid idea. The penalty for consuming alcohol in Saudi is a public flogging, which is frankly the last thing you need on a hangover.
United Arab Emirates
The UAE is also Islamic, but a little more pragmatic about things. In all of the Emirates — except Sharjah, which is dry — it is possible to buy alcohol. The only problem is that licences to sell it are restricted to hotels. We all know how dismally soulless drinking in a hotel bar can be — now imagine a whole country of them.
This ensures that all nightlife in the likes of Dubai and Abu Dhabi centres on the hotels and is a bit, well, sanitised.
It also ensures that drink prices are eye-bulgingly expensive. Worldwide drink price comparison site PintPrice.com has the UAE at the top of its Most Expensive Countries list, with an average beer costing £6.36 ($12.90).
In reality, prices are a little cheaper than that. But not much.
Norway
Second on PintPrice.com's list is Norway, with a beer costing £6 ($12.10). Again, it can be found cheaper, but a night out in Norway is a serious wallet-burner. The Norwegians are great fun to drink with, but they've long since stuck to a policy of drinking at home before heading out.
There are a few problems with this approach for visitors. The first is that drinking a six pack in your hotel room, alone, officially makes you a total loser.
The second is that alcohol sales are strictly controlled. Supermarkets can only sell alcohol that is below 4.5 percent, and the rest is sold in state-run shops, which have a monopoly and keep prices high.
Thirdly, you can't buy any in the shops after 8pm on weekdays or 6pm on a Saturday. And if that wasn't bad enough, then wait until you taste the beer. Sorry Norwegians, but your beer makes cat pee seem palatable.
America's dry counties
At one stage, Utah was the most notoriously awful place for drinkers in the US. There were no bars — just private members' clubs that you had to be signed into. These rules were recently overturned, so that leaves us with the dry counties.
These hotbeds of deeply conservative party-busting exist across 33 states, and no alcohol is allowed to be sold in them.
The worst state is Mississippi, where almost half of the counties are dry. It's almost as if prohibition is still in place, and in some counties it's even illegal to drive across with booze in your car. Fun, fun, fun.
Mission Beach, Queensland
There are actually a few good bars in Mission Beach and, on initial inspection, it would appear manifestly unfair to include it in this list. The problem, alas, is geography.
The town known as Mission Beach is really four villages, spread along 14km of coastline. Most of the bars are in Mission Beach itself, while most of the accommodation is at Wongaling Beach.
No real problem in itself, until you realise that there's just one taxi to share between all four villages. On Friday or Saturday night at kicking out time, you've got next to no chance.
The options for getting back to Wongaling, therefore, are a roundabout 5km-6km trek along the roads or the 4km adventurer's option along the beach. The latter option requires a large amount of Dutch courage, as there is no lighting and a big creek in the middle. At low tide, it comes up to the shins; at high tide, it comes up to the neck. Oh yes, and every few weeks, a big croc is spotted sauntering along the sand.
There are actually some great bars in Soho, but it's the not-so-great ones that you need to be alert for. Otherwise known as "clip joints" these establishments of ill-repute generally involve extortionate bills for watered-down drinks (if, indeed, there's any alcohol in them in the first place).
The plan generally works like this: attractive woman recommends bar to impressionable male, she takes him downstairs into strip club, he orders drinks. Then, when he goes to leave, he's presented with an enormous bill and surrounded by threatening-looking bouncers until he pays up.
Amazingly, people still fall for this.
Which are the worst places you've been out on the sauce?
