Entertainment in Andalucía
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El Gato Lounge
If it's a louder ambience you're looking for, you'll find the pink party at the mega clubs and gay bars in Torremolinos. That's right, the 'in crowd' goes to Torremolinos for fun!! What had turned into a decayed symbol of a better past is now making a comeback. New bars, restaurants and clubs are opening and the area is becoming one of the major gay holiday destinations in Spain.
La Nogalera (close to Torremolinos train station) is the centre of BLGT - bi, lesbian, gay and transgendered - tourism in the province. Here, the variety of bars, pubs, clubs and discos guarantees a good time. Check out the new and trendy El Gato Lounge, where cool cats chill over a beer and a bi…
reviewed
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Casa de la Memoria de al-Andalus
This flamenco tablao in Santa Cruz is probably the most intimate and authentic nightly flamenco show, offering a wide variety of flamenco styles in a room of shifting shadows. Space is limited to 100, so reserve tickets in advance.
reviewed
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Granada 10
A glittery converted cinema is now Granada’s top club for the glam crowd, who recline on the gold sofas and go crazy to cheesy Spanish pop tunes.
reviewed
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Tetería El Harén
A large teahouse that rambles over several floors with lots of private nooks. Live music Thursday to Saturday evenings.
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Onda Pasadena
With jazz on Tuesday and flamenco on Thursday, has regular live music, mostly rock, but not always.
reviewed
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Lechuguita
A modest nightlife zone centres on Calle Los Remedios with the ever-popular tapas bar Lechuguita .
reviewed
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Casa Anselma
If you can squeeze in past the foreboding form of Anselma (a celebrated Triana flamenco dancer) at the door you’ll quickly realise that anything can happen in here. Casa Anselma (beware: there’s no sign, just a doorway embellished with azulejos tiles) is the antithesis of a tourist flamenco tablao, with cheek-to-jowl crowds, thick cigarette smoke, zero amplification and spontaneous outbreaks of dexterous dancing. Pure magic. Anselma is in Triana on the corner of Calle Alfarería about 200m from the western side of the Puente de Isabel.
reviewed
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Empresa Pagés
From the start of the season until late June/early July, nearly all the fights are by fully fledged matadors. Seats cost €32.50 to €110 but only cheap sol seats (those in the sun at the start of proceedings) may be available to those who don't hold season tickets. Most of the rest of the season, novilleras (novice bullfights) are held, with tickets costing €4 to €26. Tickets are sold in advance at Empresa Pagés and from 4.30pm on fight days at the bullring itself.
reviewed
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Bar Ego
In terms of hipness and trendy places to go out, La Alameda is where it's at. The slightly run-down feeling of the area adds to the exclusivity and repels the more posh sevillanos, so the boho lot get to keep the place more or less to themselves. Bar Ego is a strange hybrid of a DJ bar, restaurant, clothes shop and art gallery, and strives for something completely different in predominantly traditional Seville. It's newly opened, Barcelona-hip, and original, and we are hoping it'll survive.
reviewed
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El Jardín
A beautiful Viennese-style cafe next to palm-filled gardens behind the cathedral, full of ancient malagueños plus the odd inebriated Picasso lookalike. Art-nouveau flourishes and old photographs evoke a pleasant ambience, but not great food. Instead, come for wine or coffee and listen to some young-at-heart septuagenarian pound away on the upright piano.
reviewed
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Teatro Alameda
Alameda de Hércules was once a no-go area reserved only for the city’s ‘painted ladies’, pimps and a wide range of shady characters, but the parklike strip has undergone the ‘Soho makeover’ and is now crammed with trendy bars, chic shops and the popular Teatro Alameda, which is one of the city’s best experimental theatres.
reviewed
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Magister
This place caters to the more mature drinker, playing soporific background music and brewing beer on the spot to assure patrons the alcohol won't run out. The beer comes in five tasty varieties: blond rubia and tostada, the dark caramelizada and morenita, and the especial, which varies from season to season.
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Peña Flamenca La Perla
The paint-peeled Peña La Perla set romantically next to the crashing Atlantic surf hosts flamenco nights at 10pm most Fridays, more so in spring and summer. Right beside the ocean just off Calle Concepción Arenal in the Barrio de Santa María, entry is free and the audience is stuffed with aficionados. It’s an unforgettable experience.
reviewed
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Kelipe
Málaga’s substantial flamenco heritage has its nexus to the northwest of Plaza de la Merced. Kelipe, a flamenco centre which puts on muy puro performances Thursday to Saturday at 9.30pm; entry of €15 includes one drink and tapa – reserve ahead. Kelipe also runs intensive weekend courses in guitar and dance.
reviewed
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El Perro Andalúz
A bar dedicated to the eponymous surrealist film by Buñuel and Dalí, with suitably odd decor, such as stand-up hair dryers as lamps, chairs with a large eye printed across them (but, thankfully, without being sliced by a razor, like in the movie). Live music is on most nights, just ask in advance what they are staging.
reviewed
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Sala Tantra Buddha Bar
This place is worth taking a peep at even if you don't hang about. It's decorated with all the little details associated with Buddha - statues, silk screens etc. This type of décor replicates the Parisian prototype and is a fad in Spain at present - an odd theme for a drinking den! There's a small dance floor too.
reviewed
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El Rincón de Michael Landon
In the midst of Granada's student life, this funny bar is dedicated to retro kitsch and the bizarrely cult star of The Little House on the Prairie. The hip bunch that hangs out here comes for the simple tapas (with names such as JR - Jamón & Roquefort), beer, and music blasting from the small stereo.
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Antique Teatro
Notorious for turning foreigners away, get your hair slicked back Sevilla-style, if you're a man, and look drop-dead gorgeous if you're a woman, and try getting into this top club, located at the Expo '92 Olympic Pavillion. In the summer, there's a torch-lit garden and cocktail sipping under the stars.
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Bodegas El Pimpi
A Málaga institution with a warren of charming rooms and mini-patios, El Pimpi attracts a boiterous crowd of all nationalities and generations with its sweet wine and traditional music. Look out for the flamenco (last Monday of the month) and the signed photo of a young-looking Tony Blair.
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La Otra Orilla
If you're lucky enough to be spending some of your summer in Seville, relaxed drinking in a terrace bar by the banks of the Guadalquivir is one of the best ways to see the sun go down. La Otra Orilla is blessed with a great outdoor terrace and music that buzzes hypnotically into the night.
reviewed
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Puerto Oscura
An elegant and intimate cocktail lounge with plush velvet seats and secret alcoves - a great way to start the evening. It stays open until the early hours on busy summer nights and sometimes puts on live music acts. Relatively smart clothes are the order of the day. Nonsmokers beware!
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Casa Morales
Founded in 1850, not much has changed in this defiantly old-world bar, with charming anachronisms wherever you look. Towering clay tinajas (wine storage jars) carry the chalked-up tapas choices of the day. Locals sweat it out on summer nights like true sevillanos.
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La Carbonería
During the day there is no indication that this happening place is anything but a large garage. But, come after 8pm and this converted coal yard in the Barrio de Santa Cruz reveals two large bars, and nightly live flamenco (11pm and midnight) for no extra charge.
reviewed
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Café de la Prensa
Dedicated and decorated in honour of all things in print (prensa is 'press' in Spanish), the walls are stuck with yellowed, printed paper and create a warm (and highly flammable) effect. The bar is relaxed and people come to have a beer and a game of cards here.
reviewed
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Planta Baja
Planta Baja’s popularity never seems to wane, and it’s no wonder since it caters to a diverse crowd and has top DJs like Vadim. There’s old school, hip hop, funk and electroglam downstairs, and lazy lounge sessions on the top floor.
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