Raspberry liqueur, plus Absolut Mandarin, lime juice and Angostura, make up How Passion Falls, Wolfgang Bogner’s signature cocktail in the Onyx Bar, designed by HBA/Ramseier & Partner, Zurich. The evening here will be, apparently, open-ended. We love the ceiling-high bottle displays, including Murano grappas, and, throughout the hotel, 91 artworks that include Lynn Chadwick’s Sitting Lady.

From the first heavy snows of November on, Ice Bar is set up immediately outside the hotel, at the corner of Nevsky Prospect and Mikhailovskaya Ulitsa (wear your best furs, to keep warm!). There are ten seats, but plenty of standing room, and the party will go on all night – you can also retreat, inside, to the stylish Caviar Bar, for the hotel’s own Beluga, Oscietra and Sevruga, with chilled vodka from an imperial recipe dating to 1894.

The Tiki Bar, run by manager Julien Jacquin, will be serving Absolut specials in coconut hells and whole pineapples. After the sun sets behind the peaks of Moorea, the party will commence, attracting, as always, local residents as well as guests of the 263-room hotel (when WOW.travel last stayed there, we particularly appreciated the overwater bungalows, the gardens and three pools, and breakfast fruit), www.tahiti.interconti.com.