Round Town: Local News Benidorm, Alfaz, Altea.

Spain’s cities and resort areas contain a wealth of cafés, bars and pubs. Malaga, on the Costa del Sol, is known as having more bars per square metre than any other city in Europe!  The bars you can find throughout the cities and resorts of Spain include cocktail bars, piano bars, disco bars, live music bars, bar-cafeterias, bar-restaurants, cabaret bars, casino bars, beach bars, bodegas, tavern, mesónes (bars specialising in serving wine and tapas), tascas, cervecerías (bars specialising in beer), gay bars, roof top bars and a huge variety of foreign bars and pubs.

For homesick Britons there are numerous pseudo British bars in the all the resorts, almost always equipped with huge satellite television systems showing British football, cricket and other sports events. Television can be even noisier in Spanish bars, where customers are fed a constant diet of soccer, bullfights, game shows and dubbed foreign films. Note that it’s cheaper to drink while standing at the bar; sitting at a table may be 50% more expensive and a table on a pavement terrace can double the bar price. You may not be allowed to buy a drink at the bar and take it to a seat outside. Eating at a bar is also cheaper than at a table.

There are no official licensing laws in Spain and closing time is usually when the owner decides to shut up shop or when the last customer goes home, which is generally in the early hours of the morning. As an example one night after work a friend and I went along to our local Taperia for a drink at around 1a.m. and they were closing up much to our dismay.  As we were regulars the owner told us not to worry he would let us have a drink if we didn’t mind him closing up around us.  As we had not finished our drinks by the time he wanted to lock up he simply asked that when we had finished would we put our glasses behind the plant pot at the door, so they would not get broken, and he would clear them away the next morning, then went inside and brought us out a drink on the house!!  He then left wishing us both a goodnight, leaving my friend and I to sit peacefully having a drink on the terrace of a closed bar!

Cheers!