Gimme five .... destination bars

Off the coast of Eilat, Israel's trouble-free southern resort town, lies a mini-Atlantis - the Red Sea Star, designed by Ayala Serfaty and her Tel Aviv-based company, Aqua Creations. It rests six metres below sea level, with an interior - barnacled surfaces, Technicolor jellyfish stools and orange silk lampshades clinging to the ceiling like anemones - that mirrors the coral and fauna of the liquid life outside. Castaway drinkers are spirited down via lifts in an offshore jetty. Deepsea drinking anyone?

? Red Sea Star, Eilat North Beach (00 972 8 634 7777.

Tao, New York

The Buddha Bar in Paris may have ignited the trend for the sacred one appearing in a bar near you, but New York's Tao restaurant and bar outshines them all for pure spectacle. This cavernous temple to all things Asian was originally the Vanderbilt family's stable, but prior to its reincarnation as the hotspot for the Big Apple's singletons (as spied in Sex and the City) it was a movie theatre. Designer Tomas Schoos says of his towering 16ft Buddha, made in Thailand: "I wanted it to embody the larger-than-life aesthetics of Manhattan, while serving as a touchstone for the Asian philosophies inherent in Tao." Apparently, the Saketinis give good karma, too.

? Tao, 42 East 58th Street (001 212 888 2288).

Page, Tokyo

Page is a bibliophile's heaven in the Daikanyama district of Tokyo, created by young superstar designer Yasumichi Morita, in collaboration with fellow interior designer Yasuo Kondo. This low-lit, glamorous lounge is where the Japanese capital's media and fashionistas choose to schmooze, no doubt highly appreciative of the snug-cumgallery devoted to Visionaire magazine. Coffee table books and design tomes appear to float in mid-air, housed in slots cut in the two adjoining polished steel walls.

Master of illusion Morita has combined the mirror image with the black ceiling and dark-stained oak floor to created depth and a sense of space in this subterranean bar.

? Page, 8-5 Daikan'yamacho, Shibuya-ku (00 813 5458 1772).

Seagram Brasserie, New York

Making an entrance at the Seagram is easily done. Architects Diller + Scofidio renovated the interior, set in the basement of Mies Van der Rohe's classic golden tower, following a fire in 1995. LCD monitors suspended above the Champagne Bar beam a sneak preview of guests, as they enter the reception, to waiting barflies. The visual drama continues as arrivals descend the catwalk-stairway into the centre of the room. The glowing back bar is the most striking feature - the wine bottles on display appear to float before your eyes and, with bar stool seats moulded from a medical gel that possesses a thermal property, you don't have to worry about someone keeping your seat warm.

? Seagram Brasserie, the Seagram Building, 100 E 53rd Street (001 212 751 4840).

Orbit, Sydney

Every city should have a skyhigh bar with a 360-degree view. The Orbit bar and the Summit restaurant are the revolving crown of Harry Seidler's 48-storey Australia Tower, built in 1969. Thirty years on, Burton Katon Halliday (who introduced boutique hotels to Sydney with the Kirketon) reinvented and refined this dining icon, with a distinctive nod to Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's Bondish, beautiful and minimal, the perfect foreground to a city skyline backdrop, which guests can observe while spinning slowly around. The revolution takes 105 minutes, or a couple of cocktails, depending on your thirst.

? Orbit, Level 47, Centrepoint Tower, Australia Square, 264 George Street (0061 2 9247 9777).