Nightlife in Spain

The Costa del Sol has a well renown name for nightlife, many groups of people come to the coast when celebrating birthdays, hen and stag nights etc, the coast caters to tourists and locals alike. But the fact is that Iberians are a nocturnal lot (they sleep less than any other European nationality) and their nightlife is such an important facet of the Spanish way of life (Spanish typically spend more on socialising than their English counterparts spend on their mortgage) that the real nightlife hotspots also include the coastas(Ibiza apart), but the large cities - Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao and, above all, Madrid, for which a case could be made that it is the nightlife capital of Europe, if not the world.

• After Hours Bars
  After-hours, the kind of place that opens at six or seven in the morning when the discos are shutting.
• Club
  Brothel. Literally, in spite of the gregarious name. You may enter one or not as you wish (some do not allow women to enter - Estark 92), but don't say I didn't warn you. You will find them everywhere, most noticeably strung out along highways, where they are surprisingly well illuminated!!
• Copa
  The word means 'glass' as in the recipient, but here refers to almost anything you drink in a pub, especially in a tall glass. Hence, bar de copas is a synonym for pub.
• Costa Pubs
  These establishments cater to 'early' nightlifers - until about 3 am, that is, depending on bye-laws. It is likely to be your staple type of nightlife locale as a visitor and on the Coast one of the most famous is the London Pub in Fuengirola.
• Disco Pub
  Late-night bar where care is taken over the quality of the music and sound, likely to have a DJ or at least a waiter who acts as such and very possibly even a dance floor: in smaller towns and cities, particularly, disco-pubs have the same function as discotheques.
• Marcha
  Very roughly, 'action.' It's a slightly old-fashioned word, but still valid, and the first expression you as a party-hungry visitor should learn in Spanish (after "una caña o una jarra, por favor," of course) is "¿dónde está la marcha?" ("where's it at?"). Most towns in Spain, however small, have at least one street where the pubs are concentrated and it isn't always easy to find, so ask someone.
• Whiskería
  OK, you could possibly enter one of these for a glass of Johnny Walker, but most people go for the young and not-so-young ladies attending to the customers. Not quite a brothel, more one of those places where the girls try to keep you drinking as long and as expensively as possible, though they are also likely to be 'available' themselves.

Ibiza Nightlife
The nightlife of the island of hedonism is so magnetic, not a few tourists never see the light of day. The mother and father of all discotheques began in Ibiza. Even so, it is in Spain where it still has the greatest deployment - Madrid, Majorca, Torrevieja.

Madrid Nightlife
Nightowls will find Madrid a drinkers paradise every night of the week, residents often come back from a holiday in, for example, New York, complaining that they found it boring. For Madrid's nightlife is justly famous and has to be seen to be believed. Where else do you get traffic jams at five o'clock in the morning? Staghen Specialises in Stag and Hen nights around Madrid in Spain or even weekends in Madrid.