Hitting the town with Barcelona’s Nightclubs

If I had a euro for the amount of times I’ve been asked where the best place/area to go out in Barcelona is, then I’d have enjoyed a good few nights out on that myself. My answer is always the same – that Barcelona is not a resort and has one “hill” ala Magaluf or the like. Barcelona is a city like any other large European city and has various areas or zones you can hit depending on your music tastes, budget, appetite for locals or tourist traps and ability to last the night long. Catalan nights start - and finish – very late. Don’t expect to be in a club before around 1am, as you’ll be the only ones there enjoying the air-con and a cocktail. So I’m going to give it a go at sorting out the best places to go out in Barcelona, although with such a constantly changing scene, this might need updating frequently!

A quick lowdown on hitting the town in the Catalan Capital first: Bars tend to open early, but don’t start to fill up until around 10pm. They generally close at around 3am. Clubs open at 1am and close at 6am, where another set of “afters” open till around 12midday, and so on. If you want to keep partying in Barcelona, there are plenty of places to go, fear not. Entrance to a club may be free, or if you pay, you’ll usually get a free drink with that “una consumision” so don’t screw up the ticket and put it in your back pocket – head to the bar.

Port Olympic. This purpose built area was where the athletes were housed during the 1992 Olympic Games, and is home top the Casino and a couple of great spots. There’s a strip of bars on one side of Frank Gehry’s bronze fish sculpture but I don’t usually recommend them, as they never really quite get going (there’s a strip of restaurants directly in front who don’t want the noise) and they have different prices for drinks for men (more expensive) and women. No, head behind the Casino for 3 great places. The advantage of these clubs is that they have been purpose built, and can show off MTV studio style furniture and much better sound systems that the old town haunts which have been converted from basement factories and the like. “Opium Mar” has moved from downtown to occupy the old Baja Beach joint, and is right next to the very Feng shui “Shôko” – also a fusion restaurant, mixing Mediterranean cuisine with Oriental influences. And adjacent to Shôko is Club Catwalk which offers R&B and HipHop upstairs and mainstream house downstairs. Perhaps the best club along this strip however, is Patrick Kluivert’s Carpe Diem Lounge Club – CDLC. This is the place that hosts the after parties for the Formula 1 in Barcelona and is definitely the place to be seen.

If you fancy something a little less touristy, then head up to the zone around Mariano Cubi. This is actually just a street with a fair few bars, but is an almost exclusively Catalan crowd, so if you fancy the locals night, head on down to this area. Pick of the bunch are Bubblic, Universal and Bar Breston. After these close, most head round to Otto Zutz which is again more of a Spanish crowd.

Head downtown into the old town, and you’re spoiled for choice. A hub for those on a bar crawl is the Plaça Reial, half way down Las Ramblas, housing the great Pipas bar, Jamboree, Glaciar, Sidecar and Café Reial. One street above on Ferran is the place to go for Big screens and Irish draughts. The quiet man on the opposite side of Las Ramblas in the Raval is a great place to shoot some pool over a pint, and tucked away on Carrer Sitges just of Tallers is the Black Sheep, serving pitchers of ale or Sangria with big trestle tables and a meeting point for travellers and locals alike. Many of my best nights out in Barcelona started here.