San Andrés · Nightlife

One of the island's main discotecas, on the tourist strip near Avenida Newball, opening from around 9pm and running into the early hours on reggaetón, salsa and electronic sets. It is where the package-holiday crowd ends up on a Friday or Saturday.

Nearly all of San Andrés's organised nightlife sits in the few blocks behind Sprat Bight beach: hotel bars, the peatonal shopping street, duty-free shops open late and a couple of clubs. It is walkable and well lit, and it is the only part of the island where anything is reliably open after midnight.

The island's own culture is Raizal and English-Creole speaking, and its music is reggae, calypso and soca rather than reggaetón. The bars that play it are away from the hotel strip, mostly on the southern and western sides around San Luis — smaller, slower to fill, and worth the taxi fare.

The bars along the western coast road face the sunset and stay open for it, and a cold beer on the rocks as the light goes is the most dependable good evening on the island. Sort out how you are getting back first: the ring road is unlit and taxis thin out quickly after dark.

This is a small island of a few tens of thousands of people, not a resort city. There is no club district, venues open and close between seasons, and outside high season a midweek night can be genuinely dead — so ask what is actually running when you arrive rather than planning around a name you read online.