Adelaide City Guide - Nightlife

For such a relatively small city, with a reputation for being quiet and sleepy too, Adelaide has a surprisingly vibrant nightlife. If you want a choice but don't want to stagger too far then cruise along Rundle Street in the city centre. If you drink beer, ask for a 'schooner'. It's the same size as a 'midi' in New South Wales, which makes it about half the size of a New South Wales schooner.

Bars: A stroll down Rundle Street will lead you through many pub doorways. One of the best is The Austral, at 205 Rundle Street, a popular watering hole which features an outdoor seating area and bands and DJs on weekends. Another Adelaide favourite is the Belgium Beer Café, 27-29 Ebenezer Place (website: www.oostende.com.au), one of a chain of Belgium-style drinking holes that relishes dark wood, mussels, chips with mayonnaise, and great beer - including a recipe developed by Trapiste monks. Also highly recommended is The Port Dock Brewery Hotel, 10 Todd Street (website: www.portdockbreweryhotel.com.au), Port Adelaide, known for its classy wood-and-bare-brick interior, as well as its tasty seafood pub grub and the five beers brewed on site.

Clubs: The city's largest venue after the Adelaide Entertainment Centre is a multi-level Heaven Nightclub, at 7 West Terrace (website: www.heaven.com.au), an event complex clogged with bodies, bars, and several dance and chill out rooms. Meanwhile, Adelaide's leading underground music venue, The Cargo Club, at 213 Hindley Street (website: www.cargoclub.com.au), attracts dance-club DJs and music acts from all over the country and overseas too. More seasoned is Waves, in the Hyatt Hotel, an establishment nightclub that attracts well-at-heel guests and townies to its mix of dance and retro sounds.

Live Music: Unlike Sydney where 'the Pokies' (or one-armed bandits), have led to a dash for cash and the subsequent closing of music venues, Adelaide is still a big supporter of local bands. The icon in the music scene is The Exeter, at 246 Rundle Street, an old-style classic with a beer garden out back and bands playing throughout the week. Another of the city's leading live music venues is the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, at 59 Port Road Hindmarsh (website: www.thegov.com.au), which hosts bands and singers almost nightly, and provides gourmet pizzas and pub grub too. The there's the Crown & Sceptre Hotel, at 308 King William Street (website: www.sceptre.com.au), a landmark with a stage that looks out into a beer garden, and a hip, up-market crowd with a liking for funky music and DJs. Enigma Bar, 173 Hindley Street (website: www.enigmabar.com.au) and Fowlers Live, 68 North Terrace (website: www.fowlerslive.com.au) are where the majority of interstate and overseas bands play (although they also do give a platform to local talent).