Entertainment in Balearic Islands
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Es Paradis
This club boasts an amazing sound system, fountains and an outdoor feel (there's no roof, but then it doesn't rain in summer anyway). It's one of the prettiest of the macro-clubs, with loads of marble, a glass pyramid and plenty of greenery. Queues can be enormous, so get there early. Es Paradis is known for its water parties, when the dance floor is flooded.
reviewed
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A
Corto Maltés
Owner and comics fanatic Pol will serve you a tasty tapa with one of his range of bottled beers. Sit back on this broad square beneath the censorious eye of King Alfonso III, whose statue rears before you.
reviewed
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Bora Bora Beach Club
At Platja d'en Bossa, about 2km from the old town, this is the place – a long beachside bar where sun and fun worshippers work off hangovers and prepare new ones. Entry's free and the ambience is chilled, with low-key club sounds wafting over the sand. From midnight, everyone crowds inside. It's off Carrer del Fumarell.
reviewed
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Blu
A one-time strip joint, Blu works with some of the island's top promoters to bring good DJ sets to the dance floor. It is also at the lower price end – you can frequently get in for €15 (including first drink). It's in Figueretes one block south of Avinguda d'Espanya, down Carrer del País Basc.
reviewed
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Blu
A one-time strip joint, Blu works with some of the island’s top promoters to bring good DJ sets to the dance floor. It is also at the lower price end – you can frequently get in for €15 (including first drink). It’s in Figueretes one block south of Avinguda d’Espanya, down Carrer del País Basc.
reviewed
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Bar La Muralla
A gay sex club with dark room, labyrinth and sling cage.
reviewed
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Ars Café
Arty and Boho at the edges (despite the suave, ultramodern toilets, with their vast, full length mirrors), this is a friendly, relaxing place to drink or eat. For maximum atmosphere, choose the front, main bar – except after midnight on Friday and Saturday, when you need to head down to the cellar bar, with its DJ and live music.
reviewed
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D
Angelo
In the shadow of the old city walls, Angelo is a busy gay bar with several levels. The atmosphere is relaxed and heteros wind up here too. Nearby are a handful of other gay-leaning bars, such as the slicker Soap.
reviewed
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Amnesia
Four kilometres out on the road to Sant Rafel, it has a sound system that seems to give your body a massage. A huge glasshouse-like internal terrace, filled with palms and bars, surrounds the central dance area with a seething mass of mostly tireless 20-something dancers. It gets heated in here, so every now and then icy air is pumped through.
reviewed
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E
Akelarre
Akelarre is the best of a short strip of music and cocktail bars opposite the Estación Marítimo. Ambient and jazz dance music trill during the wee hours in this place, made welcoming by the warm, stone interior. There’s sometimes live music.
reviewed
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Ca'n Joan de S'Aigo
Dating from 1700, this is the place for a hot chocolate (€1.40) in what can only be described as an antique-filled milk bar. The house speciality is quart, a feather-soft sponge cake that children love, with almond-flavoured ice cream.
reviewed
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Yuppii Club
Another regular on the Palma gay circuit, Yuppii Club is a drinking bar with a good mix of music and plenty of dark corners.
reviewed
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L'Ambigú
Tucked in behind the Església de Santa Eulalia, this irresistible little bar rocks on Tuesday and Wednesday nights when you can scarcely see the tapas perched atop the bar, but we like it any night for its sense of a tiny hub of modern, casual sophistication beneath the high stone walls of medieval Palma.
reviewed
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Jamón Jamón
It may lack the obvious personality of some of the other bars in the area, but this place packs them in most nights, not least because the €2 offer from La Ruta Martiana for a drink and a tapa is not restricted here to Tuesday and Wednesday.
reviewed
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Es Jaç
This designer cocktail bar is slick in all the right places, with stunning decor and bar staff who know their cocktails and are adept at helping those who aren't really sure what they want.
reviewed
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Ca La Seu
Set in an artfully converted 500-year-old barn of a place, this is one of our favourite bars in Palma with marble-top tables, creative tapas to accompany your drinks and an agreeable buzz most nights. If other places come and go in the neighbourhood, we reckon this place is destined to last the distance.
reviewed
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Blue Jazz Club
Located on the 7th floor of the Hotel Saratoga, this sophisticated club with high-altitude views over Palma offers after-dinner jazz and blues concerts from Thursday to Saturday, and a Monday evening jam session. Admission may be free but you're expected to buy a drink.
reviewed
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Teatre Principal
Built in 1854 and restored in 2007, this is the city's prestige theatre for drama, opera and big-name concerts. The renovation works re-created the theatre's heyday majesty of 1860 and combined it with the latest technolog, resulting in great acoustics.
reviewed
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Soho
This self-proclaimed 'urban vintage bar' has a green-lit beer fridge, red walls (with some 1960s decor), low white ceilings, fabulous velour sofas and an otherwise wonderfully retro look. The music's mostly indie and the laid-back crowd mostly seems oblivious to the traffic pounding past the footpath tables.
reviewed
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Mar Salada
Famed as the favourite club of Spain's Prince Felipe – at least before he became a father of two – this laid-back venue in the Club de Mar draws a sophisticated crowd. The standard entry is around €15 but, to keep the pedigree, erm, royal, some punters might be charged more.
reviewed
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P
Hostal Cuba Colonial
Inhabiting an early-20th-century Santa Catalina landmark for sailors passing through Palma, this place has been reborn as a watering hole of a more sophisticated kind. You'll find everything from coffee to full meals, and a chill-out zone on the 1st floor.
reviewed
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Guiness House
It's all about location here between the Catedral and the sea. The views of the former are unrivalled, especially whe floodlit at night. It's at its best for an early-morning coffee before the crowds arrive, or after dark.
reviewed
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Cappuccino
You’ll pay more for your coffee fix here, but the coffee's good, the atmosphere sophisticated and the setting the perfect place to pause on your exploration of downtown. This is one of nearly a dozen hyperhip coffee houses belonging to Cappuccino, a Mallorcan chain, which also produces its own lounge-music CDs.
reviewed
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Café Lisboa
The curved timber bar gives this place a homey appeal. When some Latin and bossa-nova sounds get thrown on, it gets even better; check out Brazil night on Wednesdays from midnight. It fills up quickly on evenings that live music is staged.
reviewed
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Café L'Antiquari
This old antique shop has been transformed into one of the most original places in Palma to nurse a drink or two. Antiques adorn every corner and inch of wall space, and even the tables and chairs belong to another age. It also has occasional live music and the coffee is unbeatable.
reviewed