You'll
find most of the gay
bars and restaurants all located together in one large commercial
center in the resort called the "Yumbo Center" (pronounced Jumbo).
There's a few more on the basement level of a nearby center "The Cita
Center". Each of the two has an official web site, run by the
management of each center which list quite a few though far from all
establishments.
If
you want to print out a
guide to each center showing the location of each bar, restaurant, shop
etc... then your best place to go is Gay City Map (www.gaycitymap.com)
Yumbo
Center - you have 3
night clubs
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Heaven
Nightclub 01:00am - 06:30am
- Generally free entry other than
Saturdays - €10 euros b4 3am (free with flyer) and
€15 after (includes drink)
Pretty
spectacular club
though currently very quiet or closed Sunday to Thursday (other than
national holidays when they open extra days). Friday is quite a mixed
night but only around half full. Saturday is very, very popular with
around 25% gay and 75% straight crowd (very gay friendly) and often
packed to capacity so don't be too late. House music - guest DJs and
PAs. There's a dark room though not that much of a cruisy club.
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MANTRIX
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Mantrix - Open
daily 01:00 - 05:00 - Free during
the week. €5 Saturdays with free drink. This is on level 4 -
an area including 4 bars where most people go to drink, socialize,
listen to pumping music from each and party each night.
More mainstream
house music at Mantrix &
what this club does the others don't (thanks to its location) is stay
busy from around 2am to close every night of the week (packed to
capacity Saturdays.) Good music, friendly atmosphere, good light and
sound system and a small but very busy dark room. Go to have fun, go to
cruise - suitable for all!
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Babylon 22:00 -
06:00 - Free entry other than
Saturday
As Mantrix gets
ready to close, people head
across the other side of the center to get the last of the night out of
XL. Fairly quiet before 3am. Quite a disco kind of atmosphere, more
mainstream music. They have a terrace area with bar which is trying to
pull in the crowds a little earlier and is open from around 10pm each
evening.
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Yumbo
Center - The "Show" Bars
Lower
level - 21:00 - not sure,
around 1 or 2am. For the non-regulars to Gran Canaria - La Belle's
started off many, many years ago as a small bar on one of the upper
floors and packed out the premises and surrounding balconies every
night. Now the "typical" music and comedy drag seen in most places they
were unique in their day. All this moved downstairs to the lower level
and the biggest venue in the center but lost some of its talent and
pull along the way and slowly became quieter as new competition opened
up around that became busier. In 2004 a fire during the night saw the
doors close and management do a runner to Mallorca.
2005
and the very successfully
and talented people from "Showgirls of Manchester" arrive and spend
hundreds of thousands of euros on a spectacular refurb, costumes, staff
and all sorts of stuff to open the place as "Cafe La Belle Showgirls".
Moving away from your typical drag acts that you'll find elsewhere,
they have "female impersonators" & a much more eye-catching
show with extravagant sets and costumes, dance routines, lighting ...
Attracts a mixed and often mainly straight crowd, often packed out most
nights.
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If
you're looking for a
fun, enjoyable night of more traditional drag and comedy then
definitely head to Ricky's cabaret bar, bottom level opposite KFC. Open
daily from around 10pm until 1 or 2am, this place packs out pretty much
every night with the terrace opposite also full of onlookers. Very fun
and mixed crowd and atmosphere. Starts off with karaoke until the show
starts at around midnight.
The
owner Ricky recently
left (April 2006) then early 2008 their 3 best performers left (see
Sparkles SHowbar below) but the place still manages to pack out many
nights of the week and it's worth checking out.
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Sparkles
Showbar - The three most
popular performers from another
venue decided to set-up shop for themselves, proving they were the most
popular by packing out a 400-seater venue every night of the week, the
origional venue of Cafe La Belle for 15 years before it went mainstream
downstairs. The costumes and shows are OTT fantastic, plenty of videos
on youtube (search for sparkles showbar) and they have their own
website at
www.sparkles-showbar.com
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Yumbo
Center - The other Bars
The
corner tower of the Yumbo
(nearest the Hotel Neptuno) is known as "level
4" and is home to 3 bars and the
Mantrix night club (and
rumour has it a new sauna being built at the end?) From around midnight
onwards, people head up here and start off at the first bar, then move
to the next and eventually Mantrix. Turbos
and Mykonos
are the busiest, each pumping
out loud music, packed both inside and on the terrace outside with a
very friendly atmosphere. Interesting fact is the first bar up there (I
forget the name, never go in) has a girl as their "tout" - the only
girl working up there and the only tout. As soon as you get to the top
of the stairs she's in your face offering you a free shot so we go up
the other end of the terrace to avoid her. Interesting again is she has
the only empty bar up there so stop doing that sweetheart, you're
annoying and you bother the nice people going to Turbos.
If
at the end of the night you
still have energy to carry on, there are a couple of after hours bars
in the nearby Cita Center. Factory is the more established
gay-exclusive bar but next door is the more popular, hetero-friendly
(mainly gay) lounge bar. Both open around 05:30am until late morning,
early afternoon, depending on how busy they are.
More
Info & Links to the rest of the bars?
