Barcelona

The El Born neighbourhood feels electric on weekend nights but gets genuinely packed with stag and hen parties from about 10pm onwards — if you want a more local experience, slip into the smaller side streets away from the main drag where the cocktail bars get quieter and more interesting.

After a big night out, the tradition is to end with a churros and hot chocolate at a place that opens specifically for this crowd in the early morning hours — you'll see people in full club attire sitting next to elderly locals having their breakfast, which is one of my favourite things about this city.

Many clubs here operate a guest list system that you can usually get on by messaging their social media pages in advance — going on a guest list isn't pretentious here, it's just how the system works and locals do it routinely.

The terrace bars in Gràcia during summer fill up with locals from around 9pm and have this incredible slow-burn energy where people just sit for hours talking — this is a perfectly valid and genuinely enjoyable way to spend a night here without ever going to a club.

A lot of the best nights I've had here started completely unplanned, just following music coming from an open doorway or joining a group of strangers at a terrace — locals are generally warm and sociable if you approach without arrogance and make even a small attempt at Spanish.

Dress better than you think you need to — the door culture at Barcelona clubs is real, and turning up in shorts and trainers on a Saturday will get you turned away without a word of explanation. Smart casual at minimum, and the more effort you make, the easier the night gets.

The neighbourhood of Poble Sec, especially around the Avinguda del Paral·lel side, has become where a lot of younger locals go to avoid the chaos of the Rambla area — it feels grittier and more real, and the people watching is genuinely fantastic.

If you're in a bar and the music is too loud to have a conversation, that's intentional — Spanish bar culture separates the places meant for talking from the places meant for dancing, and locals instinctively know which is which. Follow the energy of the room rather than forcing a vibe that isn't there.

The L5 metro line is your best friend after a night out — it runs through the heart of the city and there's a night bus network called Nitbus that keeps going when the metro closes around midnight on weekdays. Download the TMB app before you go out, not when you're already lost at 4am.

Barceloneta beach at night draws a very touristy crowd and you can smell the tourist trap from the queue — head instead toward the neighbourhoods of Gràcia or Sant Antoni where locals actually go to drink and talk without being aggressively sold shots.

The real pre-party happens at someone's apartment or in a corner of a neighbourhood square with cans from the supermarket — locals call this the botellón and it's genuinely how most nights begin. Don't be in a rush to get to the bar; the warmup is half the experience.

Nobody actually goes out before midnight here — if you show up to a club at 11pm you'll be standing alone in an empty room with the staff staring at you. Eat late, take your time, and aim to arrive at any club closer to 1 or 2am when it actually starts breathing.