The 12 best happy hours in Colombo, ranked
Ranked by how much the offer is worth and how many nights it runs — daily two-for-ones first, one-night-a-week deals last.
Colombo has more happy hours than it has evenings to use them, and most of them are the same offer: buy one get one free on a shortlist of cocktails, between five and seven, in a hotel bar. What separates them is how many days the offer runs, how long the window is, and whether anything other than the drink is included.
So that is what this is ordered by — daily offers with a wide window and a broad drinks list at the top, weekday-only and one-night-a-week deals at the bottom. It is not a ranking of the bars themselves. A bar you like with a narrow offer is still a bar you like.
Every venue here is one we hold a listing for, so the name links through to its address, hours and contact details. Happy hours change without notice and the drinks list a venue counts as “selected” changes more often than the hours do; check before you travel across the city for one.
Gregory's Road · daily, 5–8pm
stockThree hours every day of the week, buy one get one free on selected cocktails — the longest daily window of anywhere on this list. The garden setting is the reason to arrive at five rather than at seven, and it fills up on Fridays.
Shangri-La, Galle Face · daily, 5.30–7.30pm
stockBuy one get one free across both cocktails and beers, which is unusual — most hotel bars pick one or the other. Two hours, seven days, in a room where the list price makes the two-for-one worth considerably more than it does elsewhere.
The Kingsbury · daily, 5–7pm
stockBuy one get one free on selected beers and cocktails, with the sea in front of you and a DJ from early evening. Being on the water is the whole point; the offer is the reason it is not an expensive way to see it.
ITC Ratnadipa · daily, 5.30–7.30pm
stockBuy one get one free on selected beverages, daily. One of the newer hotel bars in the city, and the two hours land squarely in the gap between leaving the office and deciding where to eat.
Galle Face Court · Monday to Friday, 5–7pm
stockBuy one get one free on selected drinks, weekdays only. Weekday-only is the trade: what you lose in Saturdays you get back in a room that is not full of people who came for the offer.
Srimath Ramanathan Mawatha · daily, 5–7pm
stockBuy one get one free on local shots, and free bites with a beer pitcher or tower. The food is what distinguishes it — most happy hours in Colombo discount the drink and charge full price for anything you eat alongside it.
Havelock Mall · daily, 5–7pm
stockBuy one get one free on selected cocktails, every day. A straightforward two hours in a room built for sitting in rather than being seen in, which is the correct choice on a Tuesday.
Colombo Court Hotel & Spa · Tuesday to Saturday, 6–7pm and 9–10pm
stockFifty per cent off selected cocktails and spirits, in two separate hours — one before dinner and one after. The late slot is rare in Colombo and is the reason this is worth knowing about.
Gregory's Road · Monday to Saturday, 5–7pm
stockDiscounted beer pitchers and towers rather than a two-for-one, which suits a group better than it suits two people. Six days a week.
Dutch Hospital · daily, 5.30–7.30pm
stockReduced pricing on local and international drinks, daily, in the Dutch Hospital courtyard. Central enough to be the first stop of an evening rather than the whole of one.
Park Street Mews · daily, 5–7pm
stockReduced drink pricing every day in Park Street Mews, where several bars run happy hours within a two-minute walk of each other — useful if the first one is full.
Galle Face Hotel · Wednesdays, from 8pm
stockBuy two get one free on selected beers, Wednesdays only and starting late. The narrowest offer here, and the only one aimed at the second half of an evening rather than the first.
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