Utrecht · Nightlife

Five halls stacked inside one building by the station, running classical, pop, jazz, metal and club nights on the same evening. Look for the free and cheap programme.

The two squares the city drinks on, five minutes apart, with terraces across both from the first warm afternoon of the year.

Vaulted brick cellars at water level opening onto a quay a metre above the canal. Cool in August and genuinely subterranean the rest of the year.

A small independent music venue in the old town, run for and largely by students, with the cheapest good line-up in the city.

Where the Oudegracht meets the old moat: brown cafes, a specialist beer bar and the calmest corner of a loud student town.