How to Find a Proper Local Pub When You Travel Abroad with Mates

Why the proper local is worth the hunt

Every city has a pub strip built for visitors. The menus come in six languages, the music is loud, and the beer is whatever the biggest brewery paid to put on the taps. It's fine for a quick one. But it's rarely the pint you'll still be talking about on the flight home.

The proper local is different. It's where the regulars have their own stools, the barman knows what they drink before they sit down, and the beer is usually something brewed nearby. Find one and you get a sense of the place that no guidebook can give you. You also tend to get better beer for less faff.

The catch is that locals' pubs don't advertise to tourists, so a group of mates has to work a bit to find them. Here's how.

Use the two-street rule

The simplest trick is also the most reliable. Walk away from the main square, the cathedral or the station, and go at least two streets back from anything with a tour group outside it.

Rents fall the further you go from the landmarks, and so do the tourist traps. Residential neighbourhoods, side streets near markets and areas around universities or old industrial districts are often where the real drinking happens.

A few pointers:

• Follow the locals home from work. Early evening, see where people in office clothes or work gear are heading.
• Look near the football ground. On non-match days, the pubs around a stadium are often plain, cheap and full of people who live nearby. On match days, read the section on etiquette below first.
• Check the edges of the old town. The bit just outside the historic centre often has the best mix of character and sensible prices.

Read the signs from the outside

You can learn a lot before you push the door open. Stand back and look for clues.

Good signs:

• A menu or price board written only in the local language.
• Brewery signage for a small or regional brewery rather than a global brand.
• People of mixed ages inside, especially older regulars.
• Worn furniture, a bar that's clearly been there for decades, a dog asleep under a table.
• Opening hours that suit locals rather than the cruise ship schedule.

Warning signs:

• Someone outside trying to wave you in.
• Photos of every dish on the menu.
• Flags from half the countries in Europe.
• Happy-hour shots promoted harder than the beer.

None of these is a hard rule. Some brilliant places have laminated menus. But if a bar ticks every warning box, keep walking.

Ask the right people

The best recommendations come from people who drink locally and have nothing to sell you.

• Bar staff at a brewery taproom. Ask where they go after their shift. Brewers and bar staff almost always know the best places in town.
• Bottle shop owners. If you find a decent beer shop, the person behind the counter will usually have opinions, and lots of them.
• Your taxi driver or host. Ask where they'd take their own mates, not where tourists should go. The wording matters.
• Local fans. If you're on an away trip, home supporters can be surprisingly helpful when approached politely, away from match-day tension.

Online, try searching in the local language rather than English. Reviews written by locals point to very different places than reviews written by visitors. Beer-focused apps and local beer enthusiast forums are also worth a look, but treat ratings as a starting point, not gospel.

Know the local style before you go

One of the joys of drinking abroad is that a 'pub' means something slightly different everywhere. Doing five minutes of homework means you'll know what you're looking for and won't look lost when you walk in.

A few well-known examples:

• Cologne: Kölsch is served in small, straight glasses, and waiters tend to keep bringing fresh ones until you put your beer mat on top of the glass.
• Czech Republic: In many traditional pubs your drinks are tallied on a slip of paper at your table, and you settle up at the end.
• Belgium: Many beers have their own branded glass, and a good café will take that seriously.
• Bavaria: Beer halls and beer gardens are often built for sharing long tables with strangers.
• Spain: Small beers are common, and drinking often goes hand in hand with food.

Customs vary by city and even by pub, so take these as a flavour of what to expect rather than fixed rules. When in doubt, watch what the regulars do for a minute before ordering.

Etiquette for groups

A group of six or eight friends walking into a small local can change the whole room. Done right, you'll be welcomed. Done wrong, you'll be tolerated until you leave.

Split up if the place is small

If it's a tiny bar with a handful of regulars, don't pile in all at once. Send two people in first to check there's room, or split across two nearby pubs and swap later.

Keep the volume down

You're on holiday; they're on a Tuesday. Singing, shouting across the room and taking over the telly are fast ways to lose goodwill.

Learn three phrases

'Hello', 'please' and 'thank you' in the local language go a long way. Add 'cheers' and the name of the beer you want and you're well ahead of most visitors.

Sort out paying in advance

Rounds work differently abroad. Some places run a tab, some want payment with every order, some bring the bill to the table. Agree as a group how you'll split costs before you arrive so nobody's fumbling with a phone calculator at the bar. Check tipping customs for the country too, as they vary a lot.

Be careful with colours

If you're travelling for football, think about where you wear your shirts. A neighbourhood local near the home end on match day is not the place for away colours. Always check official advice from the clubs and local police about designated pubs and areas for away fans.

Order like you mean it

The quickest way to earn respect in a local is to drink what the place does best.

• Ask what's local, or what's from the house brewery if there is one.
• Try the beer the regulars are drinking, even if it's not your usual.
• Don't ask for a big international lager brand if there's a regional beer on tap.
• If they serve simple bar snacks, order some. It keeps you going and the staff will appreciate it.

If you're unsure, point at someone's glass and smile. It works almost everywhere.

Know when to move on

The best nights often involve two or three locals rather than one long session. Have one or two, soak up the atmosphere, then ask the bar staff where you should go next. You'll often be passed along a chain of recommendations that takes you somewhere you'd never have found on your own.

And when you leave, say thank you. If the place was good, it will remember you next time.

Make it part of the trip

Hunting for proper locals becomes even more fun when you turn it into a shared challenge. Who finds the oldest bar? The cheapest round? The most regional beer? Keep a note of the places you discover so you can recommend them to friends heading the same way.

If you want a simple way to do that, awaystands lets your crew log discoveries with photos, build collections of pubs and beers, and set group quests for the trip, even offline when signal in that basement bar is non-existent.