Barcelona Nightlife

There are lively bars and cafés throughout the center - in the Barri Gòtic as well as the Eixample and Gràcia - catering for all types and styles. One of the city's great pleasures is to pull up a pavement seat outside a bar, sip a coffee or a beer, and watch the world go by (except in the Barri Gòtic's Plaça Reial, where the world watches you). Alongside the regular bars and cafés, Barcelona also has a range of music and theme bars geared towards late-night drinking, and there's a disco and club nightlife that is currently one of Europe's most enjoyable.

For full listings of bars and clubs, get hold of a copy of the weekly Guia del Ocio (€1, comes out on Thurs), or SexTienda's map of gay Barcelona with a list of bars, clubs and contacts. If you're very keen on bar-hunting, there's a user's guide called Barsalona , available from newsstands, which has an English-language section at the back, and in designer bars and clothing shops you'll also find other lifestyle magazines, such as the bimonthly Barcelona Divina (€3) as well as free, glossy magazines (including Venus, Micro and B-guide ) which, amidst the ads, contain bar and club news and reviews.