MEXICAN NIGHTS: Your Guide to the HOTTEST Club Scenes in Mexico!
Nov 30 '08 (Updated Dec 02 '08)
The Bottom Line Mexico's BEST club scenes, parties, music venues and all night good times. This is your guide to the best of the best in Mexican clubbing.
There's people who work themselves to exhaustion all day long, and then there's people who live it up all night long. If you count yourself among the second class of people, there are plenty of hot spots in Mexico where the music won't stop until the night itself surrenders to tomorrow.
This review covers the top five Mexican destinations where the nightlife is just as hot as the noon sun. Before I delve into the nitty gritty, there's a few things to be aware of when it comes to the Mexican club scene.
Tips about Clubbing in Mexico
Mexican nightclubs open late and they don't close until the sun comes up. None of the real hotspot cities have curfews at all, and that means that the scene itself dictates the closing hours: bars close when the customers leave.
Don't bother getting out early. If you arrive at a nightclub at 10pm, the doors might well still be locked (the parking lot will definitely be empty). If the club is even open, nobody will be there. Get there after midnight and its another story. The house, she will be a rockin'! If you're a serious night person who loves being out on the town, here are the five towns that will party as hard as you do.
It's not just the bars that liven up later than Americans would expect. Even restaurants can appear dead if you get there at a "civilized" U.S. dining hour, like 7pm. In Mexico City, most restaurants won't have any customers at all much before 8, and the "first seating" happens more like at 9 or 9:30 and kitchens are often open well past midnight.
It's also worth noting that the legal drinking age in Mexico is 18 (and underage drinking is casually winked at, being regarded as about as serious as having an overdue library book). Instead of questioning why Mexican clubs serve teenagers, its more productive (and intelligent) to ask yourself why YOUR country supports draconian laws in general and the HIGHEST legal drinking age in the world in particular.
So anyways, let's get down to brass tacks and talk about places where the music makes the mood, the drinks chill out the place, and the attitude totally moves....
1. Mexico City:
The nightlife in Mexico City is so hot, it sizzles. It centers on the toney downtown neighborhood of Polanco and in the more Bohemian neighborhood of Condesa, although Roma has lately been the trendy neighborhood for the younger set in search of the most avante garde music (and visual arts too, for that matter). In Polanco, you find big glitzy dance clubs and the expensive posh clubs. Condesa has a strong reputation as the arts hub of Mexico City, and its clubs tend towards the avante gard with more cutting edge alternative rock, latin fusions, and pretty much any kind of live music you might want. Rexo is the classic Condesa club, though there's always newcomers on the vibrant scene. Zona Rosa is usually regarded as a bit past its prime, but there are still some wonderful nightspots there, and Black Out is one of the liveliest spots in town.
Plaza Garibaldi can be a fun evening out, if you have a taste for the traditional Mexican experience and don't mind a bit of gritty urban grunge. This is where the mariachis gather and it's pretty cool that the Mexican culture still identifies strongly with the mariachi mood. (If you do one of the Mexico City nightlife tours, it will almost certainly include Plaza Garibaldi).
If you're looking for big-name concerts, the best place to look is at the Auditorio Nacional --- it's a big amphitheatre right on the edge of Chapultepec Park on Paseo de la Reforma. They tend toward a bill of fairly mainstream entertainment: New Kids on the Block are there this week, crooner Luis Miguel dominates the January schedule. There's some Disney on Ice events coming up, though Gloria Trevi was there a couple days ago...so its' not all milk and cookies. (Schedule is on the web at www.auditorio.com.mx --- click Cartalera, then Eventos).
2. Acapulco:
Mexico's most beautiful clubs and most exotic dancing happens in the beachside clubs of Acapulco --- especially the big ones along the strip, with the windows opening out onto the bay and the music that only starts to sleep when the rest of the town is waking up to a new day. Although you hear a lot of techno being played these days, the town is known for its high-energy banda, with its strident brass sound and its blistering fast pace. Think your feet could keep up with the locals? Palladium is the most popular club in Acapulco. Mandara is a bit classier, I think, and has those classic big windows looking out on the bay.
3. Monterrey:
Many of Mexico's most innovative young rockers hail from the northern city of Monterrey, and while the city has a reputation for the cowboy sounds of its norteno music, you wouldn't know it from the exciting clubs that fill the historic Barrio Antiguo. On any given Saturday night, the streets become packed with young people by midnight, and of course, they're there til daybreak. Clubs like El Reloj and La Orden get a lot of young rockeros, while Bacchus has a jazzier mood to it, and La Tumba is mostly the tropical Cuban flavor of salsa. Lots of live music, lots of techno dance clubs, lots of atmosphere.
One of the venues for very popular international latin music is Bar-Rio Antiguo --- located on the edge of the Barrio Antiguo right on Constitucion. (Upcoming events are announced on their web site: www.bar-rio.com).
Big-name pop acts often play the mammoth new Arena Monterrey. This is where the Police played a few months back. It's where Rihanna, Celine Dion, and Luis Miguel are all currently slated to play in upcoming weeks. Schedules and tickets are online at: www.arenamonterrey.com
4. Cancun:
What Cancun lacks in quality it makes up for in quantity. The clubs cluster around malls and strip shopping centers and most play a predictable set of U.S.-heavy "international" dance tracks. The clubs open earlier in Cancun than other Mexican cities. Big clubs, many are chains with their particular brands of pre-packaged "excitement". The clubs may be unspectacular with little Mexican class or character, but they sure are BIG, they sure are LOUD, and there sure are a LOT of 'em!! If huge dance clubs are what you're after, check out Dady Os, Coco Bongo, or any of at least a dozen similar mega clubs along the strip.
5. Guadalajara:
Diversity is the name of the nightlife game in Guadalajara --- Mexico's home of mariachis and tequila. Although you still find traditional bars downtown where mariachi is heard, the big clubs do a very different sound. La Santa does a sophisticated urban blend that caters to a more mature crowd, while the teenagers head to places like the Capitol Club, which is your basic techno dance track place. I prefer Der Krug Bauhaus downtown --- and not just because they brew their own beers and have the very best drinks of any club in Guadalajara. There's a couple of predictable chain clubs that I'll not mention, though true latin music lovers will enjoy Tropigala, where salsa and merengue dominate the very Cuban and Puerto Rican sounding mix.
Bottom Line...
There you have it! My top 5 recommendations for destinations in Mexico with great nightlife. Enjoy 'em, and remember to party safe!
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