As night falls, the city on the Bay of Angels becomes a mecca for party people of every kind, each with their hunting ground.

Classy venues loosen up
Nice's luxury hotels and similar renowned places have surprises in store for night birds! At dusk the Negresco opens its Champagne Bar overlooking the sea, where you raise your flute to sounds mixed by resident DJ Mr Jaz (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays) or live concerts (Thursdays). The Méridien has reinvented aperitif time as pétanque evenings, or if you prefer you can just chill on its sea-view terrace and enjoy DJ sets through to 11pm on Thursdays and Fridays. If you're looking for a high, try the Plaza's Lounge Bar with music and seasonal Summer Nights; on Tuesdays and Thursdays the sets are mixed by DJ Miss Cécyls but the other nights are just as harmonious. Along similar lines, the AC Marriott Nice returns to the limelight with AfterWork Chic & Glamour 6.30-10pm on Thursdays: cocktails, champagne, wines and tapas to sounds by DJ Denis. At the Radisson Blu Nice, the Pool Bar & Lounge on the eighth-floor terrace promises loads of fun during its 7-10pm Summer Nights with DJ, concerts and singers. Well-known nightlife figure Grégory Di Carlo (owner of La Clef d’Or) has launched Thursday night Roof Top Parties on the Aston's roof terrace looking out over Nice, with a legion of famous DJs scheduled on the decks: La Luna, Fabrice Giordano, Gabin Nogueira, Gui Marcioni, Medhi Vilalobos... (Reservations only.) And if you venture over to Beaulieu-sur-Mer, the entire staff of the Consulat (Jérémy Trussardi's chic salon) has taken summer quarters on the Casino's garden terrace and launched Sky Beach nights, a pop-up festive concept well worth testing.

Beaches by night
Dancing on pebbles isn't easy but never mind! The Hi Hôtel beach is running its fifth series of Hi Beach Parties on 21 August and 5 September, starting off with Happy Hour drinks and moving onto mixes by Nina Kraviz, Osmoz, Guti or Rodriguez. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings the Beau Rivage beach has a programme of lounge and world, live and festive music for enjoying the waterside from dusk onwards – excellent idea! There's partying too on the Régence Beach by Radisson Blu on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, organised on themes by Les Caves du Bubbles. And on Wednesdays from 7pm to midnight there's a hot evening on the Voilier's pebbles, with DJ Saad on sounds.

Downtown City of Angels
Les Caves du Bubbles offers a champagne bar, an extensive wine cellar, a design décor and music by Envy Soul, making it the shopping district's favourite chic after-work hangout. Similarly, Yolo x Flume, which has just been extended, serves a fine wine list until late in the night. And this is the time when madness comes to Nice's Golden Triangle as Le Folie’s opens its doors: elegance and glamour in three different communicating rooms, with DJ sounds setting the tone for nights that last until 2.30am. Start by winding down on the terrace to DJ Harvey Milk before moving onto the dance floor.

Petit Marais, where night birds flock
The area between Garibaldi and the harbour, all around Place du Pin, has recently attracted a colourful night crowd eager for fun. Starting from Place Garibaldi (itself pretty lively), make a halt at Café des Chineurs, a Parisian-style bar where you can pick up the mood of the evening. A bit further on, Comptoir Central Électrique treats its clientele to inventive cocktails and a strategic view of Place du Pin – a real plus! – so settle yourself comfortably in a vintage chair and make a mental note to drop into Gossip Bar (opposite) later on for a dance. Rosalina Bar and Bar’Oc a few streets away are already pretty crowded. Approaching the harbour, Boston Bar channels the Prohibition era for its decoration and gives a new lease of life to Nice's typical arcades. Meanwhile Fred’s cocktail bar functions as a fully-fledged mixology lab until the early hours, with a wild ambience into the bargain.

Old Nice turns up the heat
The narrow streets of the old town are not to be outdone, with many a hip cosmopolitan hangout keeping the city's historic heart beating: gay Bar Butch with its shows, L’Apoteka with its cocktails, El Merkado with its tapas, Ghost Pub with its electro mixes... the list goes on! Down on the seafront, L’Ark serves succulent aperitif-and-tapas pairings as you inhale a few last lungfuls of briny breeze before plunging into the night. Panda Bar makes its contribution to torrid summer nights by delivering a variety of music courtesy of DJs or played live. If you're into timeless and iconic pop and rock plus hoppy ales, Ma Nolan’s Irish Pub and the Snug & Cellar are warm, friendly places with an incomparable British ambience. There's a whole new kind of beer bar too at Au Fût et à Mesure, where you listen to electro-pop music and pull your own pints at a high-design bar. Later on, hang out at Kult to enjoy the electric ambience of its theme nights or a DJ's sets until 5am.

Dance floors ready and waiting
In the city's clubs the night is just getting into its swing... Drop into the newly opened Le Choko between 6pm and 2am to check out its futuristic decoration: hanging chairs and a central bar lit up by a magnificent LED-drop chandelier, plus an upstairs VIP lounge overlooking the whole place. Les Coulisses, a very friendly human-sized club, and High Club, a huge space split into three clubs, one gay and lesbian, are both long-standing musts with excellent DJ music all summer long. For a more recherché selection of sounds, choose to groove at La Suite Opéra, while in another register Le Glam is the straight-and-gay club for all-together partying to electro and disco mixes, with drag shows and off-the-cuff fashion parades as the mood takes. Le Velvet promises smooth sounds from guest DJs all summer from 11pm to 5.30am – we just love its offbeat urban ambience. And after being renovated in July, L’Etoile Club is sparkling once again in the hands of a new artistic director.

BARS D’HÔTEL

Le Negresco
37 Promenade des Anglais - Tél. 04 93 16 64 00

Le Méridien
1 Promenade des Anglais. Tél. 04 97 03 44 44

Le Plaza
12 avenue de Verdun -Tél. 04 93 16 75 92

Radisson Blu et Régence Plage by Radisson Blu
223 Promenade des Anglais. Tél. 04 97 17 71 77

Hôtel Aston La Scala
12 avenue Félix Faure -Tél. 06 50 02 13

20 (Gregory Di Carlo)
Casino de Beaulieu,

4 avenue Fernand Dunan - Tél. 04 92 00 60 05

PLAGES

Beau Rivage
107 Quai des Etats-Unis. Tél. 04 92 00 46 80

Le Voilier
58 Promenade des Anglais. Tél. 04 93 44 08 56

CENTRE
Les Caves du Bubbles
7 avenue de Suède - Tél. 04 93 27 97 76

Yolo x Flume
10 rue Maréchal Joffre - Tél. 04 93 88 53 07

Le Folie’s
18 rue du Congrès - Tél. 06 26 84 21 02

LE PETIT MARAIS & PORT

Café des Chineurs
1 rue Cassini - Tél. 04 93 89 09 62

Comptoir Central Electrique
10 rue Bonaparte - Tél. 04 93 14 09 62

Gossip Bar
7 rue Bonaparte - Tél. 04 83 45 72 15

Rosalina Bar
16 rue Lascaris - Tél. 04 93 89 34 96

Bar Oc
10 bis rue Bavastro - Tél. 06 43 64 68 05

Boston Bar
11 place Ile de Beauté. - Tél. 06 11 75 14 52

Fred’s
9 rue Antoine Gautier. - Tél. 04 83 55 07 97

VIEUX NICE

Bar Butch
1 et 2 rue Rossetti - Tél. 06 18 01 72 63

L’Apoteka
2 rue de la Préfecture - Tél. 06 85 47 13 96.

El Merkado
12 rue Saint François de Paule. Tél. 04 93 62 30 88

Le Kult
14 rue Benoît Bunico - Tél. 04 93 88 65 22

Le Panda Bar
1 rue du Moulin - Tél. 04 93 80 77 61

Ma Nolan’s Irish Pub
2 rue Saint-François de Paule. Tél. 04 93 80 23 87

The Snug & Cellar
22 rue Droite - Tél. 04 93 80 43 22

Au Fût et à Mesure
2 rue Jules Gilly - Tél. 04 93 55 29 75

Ark
41/43 Quai des Etats-Unis - Tél. 04 93 80 48 04

Ghost Pub
3 rue Barillerie - Tél. 04 93 92 93 37

Clubs
Les Coulisses 12 rue Chauvain - Tél. 06 21 04 21 09

Le Glam
6 rue Eugène Emmanuel -Tél. 04 93 87 29 67

High Club
Studio 47 & Sk’High, 45 Promenade des Anglais. Tél. 06 16 95 75 87

Le Choko
6 rue Halévy -Tél. 06 28 74 33 50

L’Étoile Club
8 Passage Emile Négrin. Tél. 06 24 48 61 11

Le Velvet
11 rue Alexandre Mari - Tél. 07 62 86 89 57

La Suite Opéra
2 rue Bréa -Tél. 07 60 27 14 28.