Travel time is party time. You’re on vacation, goddammit, have yourself some jolly good fun.
Usually, when you’re traveling through various cities and countries you won’t know what the good places are to go to. This is the one time when checking your guide book probably is not of much help, especially if your taste in bars or clubs doesn’t correspond to a mass audience. Here you only have one real option: ask the locals. This is not the time to be shy or embarrassed because your flipflops cannot keep up with the ysl vintage heels of that girl who looks like she can probably send you to all the right places.
From my personal experience, I’ve made a quick list pointing out a few ways of getting your party started abroad:
before arrival:
– make shoutouts to your friends on facebook, myspace or any other networking site to see if anyone knows someone in the city you’re going to or could protentially provide you with tips
– browse people on myspace and facebook depending on their (=your) taste in music and email the ones who seem like they might like what you like about their recommendations. when my friend bea and i traveled through south america we’d browse local bands in the respective cities and ask them
– check if the city you’re visiting has blogs that tell all about the nightlife happening. berlin has iheartberlin.de or paris has masoiree.blogspot.com who both advise the best parties in town. also check out unlike.net for various listings in 11 of the best cities worldwide.
upon arrival:
– Hunt down people who look like they would know. In london or Paris this isn’t too hard really but in Santiago de Chile or Bangkok you have to do some looking around. Key is: ASK QUESTIONS. Asking questions will get you very far.
– Gallery openings. Even if you could care less about all things artsy fartsy, gallery openings are still a pretty good place to chat to people who may well be in the know of things. Ideally you get your night started here with some free beers, too.
– Any ol bar (is better than none). If you really don’t know where to go, just have a drink and fate will go its way.
grab dat boy – London, at the last days of decadence
at the beach of Ko Phan Gan, Thailand
party in style at Regine in Paris, France
dress up for Berlin’s best monthly night out -the broken hearts club
check out indie concerts in indie bars with indie people in Santiago de Chile (and spot me in this photo 😉
show off what you got in New York, like here at misshapes (not around anymore, but the vibe remains)
Feel like shaking it abroad?
Go get it girl
happy travels
Katja