Tacheles, Berlin

Though the frontline for local artists and clubbers has long-since moved on, this venue remains one of the best places for visitors to easily get a handle on the gritty and faintly anarchistic Berlin nightlife. It was back in 1990, after the wall came down, that this one-time department store became an artists’ squat. It’s been in communal use ever since. Here you’ll find a heaving summer beer garden, the Café Zapata Club (www.cafe-zapata.de) which has regular live music, and a dingy and heavily graffitied stairwell leading up to several busy and chaotic bars, late-night art galleries and even a cinema. The crowd tends to be very international and generally twenty- or thirty-something. The atmosphere is always upbeat. With the exception of special events, there’s no cover. Don’t expect things to die down until 1AM at the earliest.

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