Granada 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, granada 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.

If you want to go on drinking through the early hours, head out to the student areas round the university. Calle San Juan de Dios (and its continuations c/Gran Capitán and Plaza Gran Capitán), Carril del Picón and c/Pedro Antonio de Alarcón are all extremely lively. The streets to the east of the latter - c/Casillas de Prats, c/Trajano and Plaza Menorca - have most of the pubs and disco-bars; current vogue places include Biblioteca, Gente Guapa, Black is Beautiful, Pub M, Babel and Chueka (a popular gay bar in nearby c/Goya), though new places open almost weekly in summer. Other places to try are Granada 10 , near the cathedral at c/Carcel Baja 10, a beautifully restored retro cinema that reopens as a disco when the films finish; Dar Ziryab , nearby at c/Calderería Nueva 11, an Arabic cultural center that often stages live traditional music; and, just south of Plaza de la Trinidad, Salsero Mayor , c/La Paz 20, which specializes in salsa, merengue and Latin jazz. The Campo del Príncipe, a square on the eastern slopes of the Alhambra, is another popular drinking haunt, as are the areas around Plaza Nueva, where on weekend evenings throngs of drinkers jam the streets solid, and the Carrera del Darro (running alongside the Rio Darro below the Alhambra) - La Sal , c/Marqués de Falces, Pie de la Vela , a gay and lesbian (but not exclusively so) bar just off Plaza Nueva on Paseo de los Tristes, and Rincon de San Pedro, Carrera del Darro, a mixed-music gay bar, are all worth seeking out.

For flamenco, one of the most touristy and heavily promoted of shows is Los Jardines Neptuno, c/Arabial (near the Parque García Lorca in the south of the city; tel 958 522 533; tickets about ?24), best avoided in summer when they bus in the tour groups but better in winter, with an intimate atmosphere and a log fire in the bar. Alternatively Eshavira , c/Postigo Cuna (off Gran Vía), is a jazz/flamenco bar with a great atmosphere and live performances.