Nightlife

Barcelona is a great nighttime city, and the array of after-dark diversions is staggering. There is something to interest almost everyone and to fit most pocketbooks. Fashionable bars and clubs operate in nearly every major district of the city, and where one closes, another will open within weeks.

Locals sometimes opt for an evening in the tascas (taverns), or they settle in for a bottle of wine at a cafe, an easy and inexpensive way to spend an evening people-watching. The legal drinking age drinking is 18, though it's rarely enforced with much vigor.

With the passing of a new law on January 1, 2006, all bars of over 100 sq. m (1,076 sq. ft.) must have a nonsmoking area. The reality, however, is that though these zones do now exist there's not much you can do about the smoke wafting into the nonsmoking section from the far larger smokers' zone. So, as before, you usually have to air out your clothes when you get back from a night out.

If the weather is good (which is most of the time) the city's outdoor squares are at least half-filled with as many tables and chairs as they can reasonably fit. Beware where two tables are squeezed next to each other: The occupants of each will be fiercely protective of its chairs and won't like it if you drag a chair from one place to make an extra seat at the table of another. Alfresco drinking has become so popular that the local government has been forced by complaining neighbors to restrict its hours in some areas -- around midnight, it's usual to be asked to finish your drinks or to go inside. Particularly good places to sit and see the world go by are Plaça del Sol in Gràcia and Passeig del Born, Plaça del Pi, and Plaça Reial in the Old Town. The squares are also popular drinking haunts for groups of teenagers, but their tipple tends to be more of the supermarket-bought variety. The old Spanish tradition of the botellón, whereby groups of young people sit around on the cement swilling beer or wine, is treated as a nuisance by the local government and noise-sensitive neighbors. Despite cracking down on the practice, it persists, especially in the summer.

People-watching of a more flesh-exposed nature can be done down at the beach in the summer. Between May and October, a line of chiringuitos (beach bars) opens for nighttime frivolity in the sands along Barcelona's urban beaches (Barceloneta to Poble Nou). Each one has its own flavor -- some play chill-out music, others have live DJs/bands. Owners, names, and styles change from year to year, but generally they open at lunchtime (or late breakfast) and stay open until 2 or 3am.

Also down near the sands are plenty of bars and restaurants around the Olympic marina and port. This, as well as Maremagnum, the entertainment and leisure complex, and the port end of La Rambla offer more foreigner-focused spots for those looking for strong drinks and fellow English speakers.

Other areas filled with bars include the Carrer Avinyó in the Barri Gòtic, the Rambla del Raval in El Raval, and the streets of El Born in La Ribera -- just walk around and see where the noise is coming from. There are plenty of streets to discover; you just follow the crowd for a while.

Joining in Barcelona Nightlife

Nightlife will begin for many Barcelonese with a promenade (paseo) from about 8 to 9pm. Then things quiet down a bit until a second surge of energy brings out the post-dinner crowds from 11pm to midnight. Serious drinking in the city's pubs and bars usually begins by midnight. For the most fashionable places, Barcelonese will delay their entrances until at least 1am -- meeting friends for the first drink of the evening after midnight certainly takes some getting used to. If you want to go on to a club, you should be prepared to delay things even longer -- most clubs don't open until around 2am, and then they're mostly empty for the first half-hour or so, until the bars close at 3am. Many clubs stay open to as late as 6am. Most of them offer free entrance or discount flyers available in bars or on the streets; these will save you between 5€ and 10€ ($6.25-$13), which is the normal club entrance price, if there is one. Cover charges largely depend on the night of the week, the DJ, and what the doorman thinks you look like. The price of a mixed drink (such as a cuba libre -- a rum and coke) hovers between 5€ and 10€ ($6.25-$13). This may seem pricey but drinks here are strong. If you are charged an admission, ask if its amb consumició (drink included). If so, take your ticket to the bar to get the first drink free.

Barcelona is a trendy town and the clubbing scene is notoriously fickle. New things come up and others disappear. Although I've recommended places that have been around for a while, don't be too surprised if names and styles of the places have changed from what is printed here when you roll up.

A lot of famous international names, from the Rolling Stones to Anastasia, include Barcelona in their tours. The biggest concerts take place at the Palau Sant Jordi on Montjuïc, a flexible and cavernous space that's also used to house the city's basketball games. In a city where the cult of the DJ reigns, Barcelona is short of small and midsize exclusively live music venues (although some clubs do both, with a concert taking place before the club kids roll in).

One of the best places to see people playing instruments (as opposed to spinning records) is on the street. In the summer you'll see plenty of free entertainment -- everything from opera to Romanian Gypsy music -- by walking around the Barri Gòtic. Festivals such as El Grec (July-Aug) and La Mercè (late Sept) are when the biggest musical offering tends to take place.

If you want to find out what's going on in the city, the best source of local information is a little magazine called Guía del Ocio, which previews "La Semana de Barcelona" (This Week in Barcelona). It's in Spanish, but most of its listings will be comprehensible. Every news kiosk along La Rambla carries it. If you have Internet access, Le Cool magazine (www.lecool.com) also carries an English summary of some of the more alternative options each week.

If you've been scared off by press reports about La Rambla between the Plaça de Catalunya and the Columbus Monument, know that the area's been cleaned up in the past decade. Still, you will feel safer along the Rambla de Catalunya, in the Eixample, north of the Plaça de Catalunya. This street and its offshoots are lively at night, with many cafes and bars.

The main area where things feel a little uneasy is in El Raval, or the Barrio Chino (that is, the lower half of the right-hand side of La Rambla as you go toward the port), an area still known for occasional nighttime muggings. But despite (or because of?) this, a lot of the new trendy bars have opened there (such as Bar Pastis). Indeed, there are some great bars and in El Raval, but do use caution if you go there, especially when withdrawing money from a cash machine (although more and more of these are locked at night anyway).

Neighborhoods

Barrio Alto -- Barrio Alto is sometimes seen as a world of its own. Here is where all the rich families live, in houses no less (something unheard of down in the city), and many of them never leave the Alto enclave. The same applies to going out -- rich kids aplenty, alongside some more normal types, throughout the area. The main bars and clubs are concentrated around a street called Marie Cubí, near the FGC Gràcia stop. They're all very quiet during the week, though. Note: The Metro system doesn't serve this part of town.

Gràcia -- Though the area is filled with small squares and hidden corners, the center of the Gràcia world is Plaça del Sol. In the summer, it's the best place to head to meet young Catalans and to watch people on their way to party. Just as many bring their own cans of beer as buy from the bars around the square -- the atmosphere is noisy and fun and drives the neighbors mad.

L'Eixample -- The bars and clubs of the L'Eixample tend to attract a slightly more mixed-age group than those of the Old City. They are also more spread out, so you may find yourself hopping in and out of cabs if you plan to bar hop.

The Village People -- During the day it's dedicated to small artisan shops, market stalls, and street theater, but at night Poble Espanyol, Av. Marquès de Comillas s/n (tel. 93-508-63-30; Metro: Espanya), turns into a party town. Built as a "typical Spanish village" for the World's Fair in 1929, it may look old but the whole place -- right down to the huge fortified towers that dominate the entrance -- is fake. At night, that makes it the perfect location to party, as no one actually lives inside and the gates can be strictly guarded. You have a couple of options: One is to buy a 3€ ($3.75) ticket and enter the village to pass the night in three or four small bars that offer drinks, Spanish pop music, and outside tables. The other, more expensive option is to pay for a ticket (20€-24€/$25-$30) outside to one of the clubs that lie inside the walls (entrance to the village is included in your ticket price). There are two main venues: Discotheque, a self-consciously trendy location for dance music fans, and the venue of choice for many of the big-name visiting DJs and, during the summer, La Terrazza, an outdoor-only club that's open from May to October -- again, trendy dance music and a great place to dance the night away until the sun comes up (but not so much when it's raining). Due to a falling-out between the owners of the two, the ticket lines and entrances to the two clubs are separate, so check which is which before you start to line up. If you stay for the duration (until 6am on a weekend), look for flyers about, and sometimes even buses to, "after parties," situated a little out of town and open until noon.

Twisting by the Port -- At the bottom end of La Rambla, and over the wooden swing bridge known as the Rambla del Mar, lies the entertainment/shopping mall Maremagnum. Touted as a one-stop drink-and-dance venue when it opened in 1988, the Barcelona City Council hoped that it would attract millions (especially tourists) for its privileged surrounded-by-water position and swinging selection of restaurants, bars, and clubs. It did, and was perhaps a little unprepared (and under-trained) for its popularity. Over the next couple of years Maremagnum hit the headlines for the wrong reasons, namely the aggressiveness of its security staff toward ethnic minorities. This left a sour taste in the mouth of many, and clients started to stay away in droves. Since new management took over a few years back there has been more emphasis on shops than nightlife, and chic outlets like Calvin Klein, Mango, and Lollipops (specializing in Parisian gear) are now prime spots for shoppers. Xocoa is an "in" spot for buying chocolate. Maremagnum's bars and nightspots are still handy for a post-dinner bop if you're near La Rambla. A couple of the better venues here include Irish Winds (Local 202), which often has live music of the rock/pop variety, and Mojito (Local 58), which serves up some mean Brazilian cocktails to a bossa nova beat.