- nightlife
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Luxor has a good selection of places to eat, particularly in some of the large hotels.
For example, the recently-opened Indian restaurant at the Sheraton has received excellent reports and is well worth a visit. Other hotels such as the Hilton and Emilio also house very good restaurants and are open to non-residents. At the budget end, there are several good-value ‘tourist’ restaurants.
The Ramses restaurant adjacent to the Emilio on Sharia Yusef Hassan, is a very reasonable, basic place somewhat undiscovered by the bulk of tourists.
The restaurant at the St Marks Hotel on Sharia El-Karnak is cheap with pleasant service but in need of a facelift. The Amoun and El-Hussein which are next door to each other further down Sharia El-Karnak and attract large numbers of tourists, both are good value serving mainly western dishes.
Although the town isn’t renowned for its nightlife, some of the larger hotels such as the Etap and Sheraton have discos until the early hours where you can also see bellydancing shows.
In spring and summer, various buildings throughout the city due for either demolition or renovation are turned into makeshift outside bars. You generally don’t know where they will be, but keep a look out in the local press and you should find one or two. Szimpla mozi kert on Kazinczy utca 14 is open all year, or check out the web site of this kert bar for its opening date: www.tuzraktar.hu/eng.html
The biggest and most glamorous casino in Australia. It also has theatre and concerts and free live entertainment dotted around the complex. Great fun to wander around and admire the kitsch decorative style.
Tram Nos 12, 96 and 109 run past Crown; Flinders Street and Spencer Street Stations are within walking distance. Details at www.crowncasino.com.au/
There's plenty of reasons for eating something as greasy as a souvlaki, but for the life of me I couldn't think of one that didn't include alcohol. For that end of the night food-binge, there's few that can hold a candle to the souvlakis from the King - fresh ingredients, great flavour and just the right amount of garlic sauce. And great service too! Local newspaper The Age rated it as one of the best in Melbourne.
Brunswick St, Fitzroy (not far from the corner of Johnston St)
Raday utca, close to the Kalvin Tér metro, is a popular spot for both tourists and young locals, it has a lot of restaurants and bars. At the far end is a personal favourite of mine. It’s a lively bar/restaurant called Castro (recently closed, but rumoured to be reopening on on Madach Ter, VII district) serving Serbian specialties and is almost always busy, which can make it difficult for groups exceeding six. Castro has internet access, which is great for when you're having discussion about something over a pint and no-one knows the answer.
Casa del Papa, located on the outskirts of the city, is loosely themed on Ernest Hemingway’s life. And so you have an American Bar upstairs, a Cuban Club in the cellar, and in between a canopy-covered restaurant serving a mix of Spanish and African cuisine. Quite where the tiramisu fits is anyone’s guess, but one taste and you won’t be inclined to complain. Dance off those calories in the salsa club, enjoy the cocktails, and party until the bell tolls for you.
54 Celovska Cesta; tel: 386 1 4343158
A decidedly different club down a dirty laneway, this is one of Melbourne's best kept nightlife secrets. Ascend the rickety old stairs and you enter a long space with all the charm you could want - organic design, forward thinking DJs and some great cocktails. It can be a bit exclusive on the door Fridays and Saturdays, so get there before 11 and you should be right.
Duckboard Place (off Flinders Lane, near Exhibition St), Melbourne; www.honkytonks.com.au
It may seem rather strange to be drinking Belgian beers in Holland but this little bar is just fantastic.
The bar area is tiny and with wooden tables, stone floor and tan walls covered in old-fashioned advertisements for many of the beers they sell. It has eight Belgian beers on tap and 30 in bottles. The beer menu is very well written, informative but also very amusing, giving you background on where the beer was brewed and also the percentage alcohol content, very important if you intend to stay for more that one or two.
The girl behind the bar was extremely friendly and also knowledgeable about the beers on sale. You can also order bar snacks such as toasties, cheese and mustard (perfect with beer) and extremely spicy sausages.
Gravenstraat 2, just behind the Nieuwe Kerk and Dam Square
In de Wildeman certainly justifies its label as a bierproeflokal (beer tasting house) with its choice of 200 bottled beers and another 18 or so on tap.
Kolksteeg 3 (an alleyway not far away from the Centraal Station/Dam Square); www.indewildeman.nl
Stay away from the clubs downtown.
3300 Monroe Avenue; tel: 585 381 3000
A great all-rounder to finish off a day at the beach or Luna Park, the 'Espy' is bit of a Melbourne institution with a reputation for giving up and coming bands their chance - AC/DC played here when they first started and just about every other famous Aussie band has followed suit. Sit outside on the terrace overlooking the bay or find one of the many shady corners inside to watch the colour acts on the small stage until the big shows start in the main hall. Like most Aussie bars this one also has a slew of pool tables at the back, and serves top-notch food at in-house restaurant The Espy Kitchen.
Lower Esplanade, St Kilda
All-white decor but not as poncey as it sounds - the service is down to earth. Great place for tapas, washed down with a mojito. It’s a tiny place with tables crammed in, so get there early if you want to secure a seat.
Honduras 5656, Tel: 4774 4224.
Google map: tinyurl.com/lr8a9c
This is a fun, cozy bar, filled with locals, with great live music (usually rock with a jazzy twist) in a funky neighborhood called Kitai Gorod. There are three 'mini' bars within the small cellar space, one of the bars is actually an airplane wing, hence the name. Dancing takes place in one of the small bar rooms, the other is for sitting and chatting, and the larger space has the band.
Proyezd Lubyansky 25, the Russian name of the bar is Kitaysky Lyotchik Dzhao-Da; nearesy metro: Kitai Gorod
An open air DJ bar with an underground flavour. Held every Friday and Saturday night in summertime (weather permitting) the DJs spin a plethora of discs ranging from electropunk to drum 'n' bass via goa trance, acid house and the occasionally rather commercial dance set. The party is held in what is known as the Royal Park opposite the Royal Palace and starts around 11 in the evening, steaming on until the early hours (6-7am, although the party ended earlier last summer).
It's best to have a meeting place in case you get lost as the crowds are thick and it's easy to misplace friends in the happy chaos. Drink prices are average for Brussels (ie cheaper than most expat bars).
Le Parc de Bruxelles, opposite the Royal Palace; nearest metro: Kunst-Wet/Arts-Loi;
www.legazon.be
The only big techno club in Brussels. Past guests include Jeff Mills, Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May, Carl Cox, Laurent Garnier, Dave Clarke, Stacey Pullen and Sven Väth to name just a few. The resident DJs spin classy vinyl, and while the crowd can be rather impersonal, there's a friendly vibe especially around 4 in the morning.
Best to check out the website to stay in touch with events, but events are regularly advertised. Seeing Bukem play there last year was seriously wicked and the club itself is well known as one of the places to be for ravers in Brussels.
Rue Blaes; nearest metro: Porte de Halle; www.fuse.be
Either heaven or hell, depending on your preference. Affectionately known as "The Whorehouse", all expats and many tourists arrive here eventually unaware of the horrors that lie within. Any sports event worth its salt is shown here, from American football to League Two play-off semi finals.
There are surly bartenders who will only answer shouts of 'Dyevushka!' (“girl!”), a happy hour before 6pm and decent American food. The real draw card for the expat community is on Sunday, when the place is packed with prostitutes and prospective expat clients.
If it's culture you're looking for, you've come to the wrong place, but it's open all night and you're guaranteed some sort of a spectacle at some point. In spite of everything, it's difficult not to have a good time here.
Zemlyonoi Val; nearest metro: Kurskaya (brown ring / dark blue line)
Cracking good night life in this country city of 50,000 includes airy restaurants and a string of small bars with exuberant young revelers, and a larger outdoor disco in summer.
downtown Strumica
A sprawling two-storey bar that looks like a junk shop, Goupil le Fol is a favourite place for first dates, thanks to its battered, but comfortable sofas, and its many nooks and crannies. Also known for its range of delicious flavoured wines (blackcurrant, raspberry, nut, etc). A bulwark against the increasing homogenisation of city centre nightlife.
22 Violetstraat/Rue de la Violette 22; Tel: 2 511 13 96
Simply one of the finest bars in Europe. Ring the bell to get in, stay until dawn. Listen to live jazz around the grand piano in the middle of this art-deco palace (once upon a time, it was a brothel but there's no hint of seediness now).
Amazing cocktails, friendly staff and clientele, the bar is open until dawn every day. A slice of glamour in the city centre and away from the scrum of tourists and locals in the nearby bars of Saint-Gery.
Rue Antoine Dansaert, 6; Metro Bourse; www.archiduc.net
A club on Sukhumvit Soi 4. The area is often perceived, wrongly, as a mecca for sex tourists and drunken Brits abroad, but this is a gross generalisation.
Hidden away off the main soi, Angels Disco in the Nana Hotel is a wonderful escape from all the Bangkok cliches and a chance to meet young, cool Thais.
Music is mostly acid jazz and the cooler chilled-out sounds reminiscent of an early dawn in Ibiza in the late 1980s. The disco moniker is ironic as this is essentially a bar-cum-club- cum-restaurant.
If you want to see a different side to Bangkok and a chance to meet friendly young Thais and a better class of foreigner, go to Angels at Nana. But go there soon as the cool crowd in Bangkok tend to get bored of places quickly and move on.
Sukhumvit Soi 4; Skytrain staion: Nana
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