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Large bar popular with the after work crowd. Free in most of the time but do charge after ten on some nights.
Cocktail lounge upstairs looks like a brothel. Fun and rowdy in a kind of office party way. Expensive.
By harcourt luas stop
Student-type bar near the premier art college in Ireland. Good drinks promotions and music nights with djs in the bar and in the basement. Small, atmospheric, cheap and friendly.
Thomas Street
Katharos Beach - one of the best beaches in Santorini. Follow signs out of Oia village and it is a 15 minute walk.
It is hidden away between rocksides and cliffs of the island, with some amazing layers of stones acting as your backdrop. Never crowded and no annoying umbrellas/deckchairs to rent. Black sand and amazing waves.
On the way down to the beach there is the Katharos bar, a great relaxed and unpretentious place. Not tacky, not commercial or overstyled (unlike the rest of the island) - open bar, canvas roof, lots of cushions and chilled music. Again, I've never seen it crowded. Great place to have a drink after the beach.
The whole area makes a great change from the rest of Santorini - busy, busy, busy. Those famed sunsets of Santorini refer in fact to those at Katharos beach.
Auri, the owner, has stylishly pulled off the Berlin idea of going for a drink in someone's house.
Getting in is the closest you're going to come to a speakeasy but they make a decent mango mojito.
52 Upper Belgrave Road, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 2XP
A bar and restaurant, food's fair and the beer's the beer. Sells horrible apple wine. Claims Pierce Brosnan eats there. Has a roof top deck as well.
By the bus stand
The restaurant's fine and the accommodation is clean and comfortable but the best bit is the bar.
The cocktails are nice enough and the beer is the same as anywhere. Good fun.
Bar, where students with less style than they think go to dance themselves silly upstairs to a, frankly, very good indie disco, or just drink and talk downstairs in the basement or in one of the two ground floor bars.
It's a great spot but there are too many wannabe hipsters running around. Still a laugh though.
Near Pearse Street Garda station.
A great bar, friendly staff, good fresh seafood and fantastic atmosphere at night. There's often live music. Work by local artists cover the walls, and the wine list is surprisingly good and cheap.
Main Street, near the zebra crossing.
Very friendly and reasonably priced place to get a good feed in a relaxed atmosphere. Mixture of Belgian food, pastas and salads. It gets pretty busy in the evening but is also a great spot for an afternoon drink.
9 Kartuizerstraat / rue des Chartreux 9
T - 32-2-
Irish Pub on Rokin popular with Expats and boorish tourists on lager and Guinness fuelled tours through the town and the Red Light District. Food is average and overpriced. The room with a fire is quite nice in the winter. There are much better places in Amsterdam, if you want to go to an Irish bar go to Tig Barra on Overtoom.
Nominally an Irish bar, The Lounge gets it more right than the countless, interchangeable franchised versions. The key to a true Irish pub lies not in the old Guinness signs on the walls, nor in the over-loud diddly-idle music on the stereo, but in the atmosphere. And this place, all modern and comfy though it may be, has it in spades. Not to mention a good pint of the black stuff.
Address: Calle Estamineria Vieja 2, Barrio del Carme.
Telephone: (34-96) 3918094.
Website: www.theloungecafebar.com
Small but lively, this teeny-tiny bar feels crowded with just a couple of people in it. But by some kind of loaves-and-fishes, there seems to be room for more and more. Tapas, cold beer, and good company make it worth the squeeze.
Address: Calle Sant Tomeu 21, Barrio del Carme.
Telephone: (34-606) 721842.
The home of tapas, Spain is hardly unaccustomed to the concept of small and fast when it comes to food. But at times the idea of tapas far exceeds the reality of salty fish swimming in brine, or meat that has been sitting out on a counter all day long. But at Sagardi you get the benefit of small portions and loads of variety, but all freshly prepared and full of flavour. It’s a bite-sized treat.
Address: San Vicente Martir 6, Valencia 46002.
Location: Just off Plaza de la Reina.
Telephone: (34-96) 3910668
Website: www.sagardi.com
Santo Spirito, as i think a few have pointed out, gives you a welcome breather from the tourists yet it can only be a hundred yards from the Ponte Vechhio.
It is popular with students and with the locals (nearby are some delis and whatnot so you actually see Florentines) and comes to life after nine or so in the evening.
At the top of the square is Brunelleschi’s spectacular church - as well as having a crucifix by a very young Michelangelo, it was studied and admired by many including Da Vinci and it is easy to see why. It is especially pretty when the facade is lit at night.
There are a few restaurants and a couple of bars in the square, the type of spots where, if you drink too many amerettos, they give you a tequilla on the house - the atmosphere is friendly at all of them.
Istayed at Antica Dimora with a friend but it would be especially nice to go there romantically - ask for a room with a little balcony. You can watch (and listen!) to the market being set up in the morning. The rooms are huge with lovely wooden beams and, maybe vaguely kitsch decor but it feels like you’ve been to Firenze! It’s a short back street walk to the wonderful, wonderful Bobili gardens too.
piazza santo spirito no.9
t. +39 055 2658376
50125 Firenze
www.residenzasspirito.com
This funky little bar used to be a pharmacy, and has maintained all the little nooks and crannies of a traditional dispensary. Located right at the heart of the buzzing Calle Caballeros in the heart of Barrio del Carmen, it has a big terrace so you can take in all the action going on around. Just what the doctor ordered.
Address: Plaza del Tossal, Calle Caballeros 51, Barrio del Carmen.
Telephone: (34-96) 3912401.
Organic bar and restaurant. Excellent vegetarian and non vege food. Good if you are a vege and non vege couple. Very reasonable for centre of Paris too. Also organic grocer next door.
47 bd St Germain, 75005, Paris. M. Maubert-Mutualite.
Tel: 01 44 07 36 99
Damn the naysayers, The Crown is a classic. Wood and brass everywhere, huge snugs less conducive to intimacy than getting to know some gregarious locals, the sound of conversation and smoke in the air – everything a pub should be (even though the smoke will soon be a thing of the past). As for the toilets, well, you’ll hardly be lingering when there’s so much going on outside. Some reputations are well earned.
Address: 46 Great Victoria Street.
Telephone: (44-28) 90279901
Website: www.crownbar.com
Email: info@crownbar.com
Sawadee cap, must visit place is the 360 bar on the top floor of the Millennium Hilton. Great view and see the sunset. Make sure you be there around 17.30 hr, have a cocktail and enjoy the view of Bangkok and Chaopraya river.
After this have dinner at Spasso in the Grand Hyatt in Erawan. At 10 pm the live band starts, so if you are already in, you do not have to pay the cover charge of Baht 650.
Also try the lunch buffet at the Four Seasons Hotel and dinner Buffet at Novotel at Siam Square. The food and desserts are out of this world. Buffet at the Four Seasons is about 600 baht and at Novotel 650. But it's worth it. If you are looking for good DJ music than QBAR is your place.
Anyway Bangkok is a very polluted city but you can enjoy yourself very much. Watch out for the Tuk tuk seafood and jewelry scam and beware that if everybody is trying to making a living and tourists are part of it.
Four Seasons: Poenchit Road
Grand Hyatt: Poenchit Road
Novotel: Siam Square
Qbar: Sukhumvit
Enoteca Fontana, in Parma, has to be one of the most atmospheric wine bars in Italy. You enter by a small doorway under the arches in Via Farini, and bottles of wine surround you on every side. For around £4 you can buy a glass of wine and a toasted panini (I recommend goats cheese and sun dried tomatoes) and find yourself a place on the wooden benches in the back room to eat and drink, whilst chatting to the locals.
Enoteca Fontana, Via Farini 24, Parma. Tel. 0521 286037
Lively gay club based in the Salitien (think that's how you spell it) shopping centre to the East of Veronica's strip in Playa De Las Americas (approx 10-15 minutes walk east).
Within the complex there are other gay bars and clubs. Gemini's (open from 10pm to 4am), Cellar Bar (open from 8pm to 2am), Chaplin's (open from 11pm to 8am and gets busy from 4am), Gay-Sha (weekends from midnight to 6am) and of course Punto Zero (open from 10pm to 6am).
Punto is a lively club which is tastefully decorated and plays great music. They also have a drag show from time to time. The staff are friendly and whilst the crowd on the gay scene is mainly Spanish there are a lot of other nationalities there too.
Earlier in the evening (9pm-ish) there is Playafloor, the entrance is directly opposite Veronica's strip (on the same side of the road as Burger King).
The scene in Tenerife is growing and well worth a visit. Be warned though it does not get busy till after 11pm.
10-15 minutes walk east of Veronica's Strip (toward Adeje). Come to a shopping centre (Salitien) with a path down to the promenade (the path is just before the shopping centre). The gay bars are not that easy to find so you will have to walk into the shopping centre (for Cellar Bar, Chaplin's, Punto Zero and Gay Sha) and to the end of the shopping centre and turn right (up the hill slightly for Gemini's).
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