San Juan nightlife comes in all varieties. From the vibrant performing arts scene to street-level salsa or the casinos, discos, and bars, there's plenty of entertainment available almost any evening.

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The Performing Arts

Centro de Bellas Artes. In the heart of Santurce, the Performing Arts Center is a 6-minute taxi ride from most of the Condado hotels. It contains the Festival Hall, Drama Hall, and the Experimental Theater. Some of the events here will be of interest only to Spanish speakers; others attract an international audience. Av. Ponce de Leon 22. [tel] 787/724-4747, or 787/725-7334 for the ticket agent. Tickets $13-$65; 50% discounts for seniors.

Teatro Tapia. Standing across from Plaza de Colon and built about 1832, this is one of the oldest theaters in the western hemisphere. Productions, some musical, are staged throughout the year and include drama, dances, and cultural events. You'll have to call the box office (open Monday through Friday from 9am to 6pm) for specific information. Av. Ponce de Leon. [tel] 787/721-0169. Tickets $15-$38, depending on the show.

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The Club & Music Scene

Babylon. Modeled after an artist's rendition of the once-notorious city of Mesopotamia, this nightclub is designed in the form of a circle, with a central dance floor and a wraparound balcony where onlookers and voyeurs -- a 25-to-45 age group -- can observe the activities on the floor below. Equipped with one of the best sound systems in the Caribbean, its location within the most exciting hotel in San Juan allows guests the chance to visit the hotel's bars, its intricately decorated lobby, and its casino en route. In El San Juan Hotel & Casino, 6063 Isla Verde Ave., Isla Verde. [tel] 787/791-1000. Cover $10, free for residents of El San Juan Hotel. Wed-Sat 9:30pm-3am.

Cafe Matisse. Although it serves platters of food and defines part of its venue as a restaurant, this establishment is best known as a bar where live music -- often salsa -- is usually part of the ambience. Overall, the site is best known for its conviviality, sense of Big Apple cool, and hot music that makes every red-blooded Latino want to dance, dance, dance. It's open Tuesday through Saturday from 5pm to 2am or later, depending on the crowd. Ashford Ave. [tel] 787/723-7910. Cover (Fri-Sat only) $3.

Laser. Set in the heart of the old town near the corner of Calle Fortaleza, this disco is especially crowded when cruise ships pull into town. Once inside, you can wander over the three floors of its historic premises, listening to whatever music happens to be hot in New York at the time, with lots of additional Latino merengue and salsa thrown in as well. Depending on the night, the age of the crowd varies, but in general it's the 20s, 30s, and even 40s set. Usually, it's open daily from 8pm to 4am. Women enter free after midnight on Saturday. Calle del Cruz 251. [tel] 787/725-7581. Cover $6-$10.

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The Bar Scene

Unless otherwise stated, there is no cover charge at the following bars.

Bar ``El Columbus.'' This appealing local spot is a battered bastion of another era, where countertops are crafted from Formica and a blaring TV fills in any conversational gaps. You'll get the feeling that this neighborhood bar has survived gentrification in much the style as it did 25 years ago. Plaza Colon (204 Calle O'Donnell). No phone.

Cigar Bar. The Palm Court Lobby at this elegant hotel boasts an impressive cigar bar, with a magnificent repository of the finest stogies in the world. Although the bar is generally filled with visitors, some of San Juan's most fashionable men -- and women too -- can be seen puffing away in this chic rendezvous while sipping a cognac. El San Juan Hotel & Casino, 6063 Isla Verde Ave., Carolina. [tel] 787/791-1000.

Fiesta Bar. This bar lures in a healthy mixture of local residents and hotel guests, usually the post-35 set. The margaritas are appropriately salty, the rhythms are hot and Latin, and the free admission usually helps you forget any losses you might have suffered in the nearby casinos. In the Condado Plaza Hotel & Casino, 999 Ashford Ave. [tel] 787/721-1000.

Maria's. Forget the tacky decorations. This is the town's most enduring bar, a favorite local hangout and a prime target for Old Town visitors seeking Mexican food and sangria. The atmosphere is fun, and the tropical drinks include pina coladas and frosts made of banana, orange, and strawberry, as well as the Puerto Rican beer, Medalla. Open daily from 10:30am to 3am. Calle del Cristo 204. [tel] 787/721-1678.

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Casinos

Many visitors come to Puerto Rico on package deals and stay at one of the posh hotels at the Condado or Isla Verde just to gamble.

The casino generating all the excitement today is the 18,500-square-foot Casino at the Ritz-Carlton, 6961 State Rd., Isla Verde ([tel] 787/253-1700), the largest in Puerto Rico. It combines the elegant decor of the 1940s with tropical fabrics and patterns. This is one of the plushest and most exclusive entertainment complexes in the Caribbean. You almost expect to see Joan Crawford -- beautifully frocked, of course -- arrive on the arm of Clark Gable. It features traditional games such as blackjack, roulette, baccarat, craps, and slot machines.

One of the splashiest of San Juan's casinos is at the Wyndham Old San Juan Hotel & Casino, Calle Brumbaugh 100 ([tel] 787/721-5100), where five-card stud competes with some 240 slot machines and roulette tables. You can also try your luck at the Caribe Hilton (one of the better ones), Calle Los Rosales ([tel] 787/721-0303), El San Juan Hotel & Casino (one of the most grand), 6063 Isla Verde Ave. ([tel] 787/791-1000), or the Condado Plaza Hotel & Casino, 999 Ashford Ave. ([tel] 787/721-1000). As in European casinos, there are no passports to flash or admissions to pay.

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Bar Hopping

More than any other place in the Caribbean, San Juan has a nightlife that successfully combines New York hip with Latino zest and the music of the Spanish tropics. For a no-holds-barred insight into what this means, head for a pair of holes in the wall on a street immediately adjacent to the El Convento Hotel, a few steps from San Juan's Cathedral.

El Batey, 101 Calle del Cristo (no phone), and Don Pablo, 103 Calle del Cristo (no phone), which both charge between $2 and $2.75 per beer, are battered side-by-side hangouts with a clientele that might remind you of the characters in East of Eden. (In the 1980s, a Hollywood director selected these spots as the set for a Central American drug den, much to the amusement of the regular clientele.) Whereas El Batey's music remains firmly grounded in the rock-and-roll classics of the 1970s, with a scattering of Elvis Presley hits, Don Pablo prides itself on cutting-edge music that's continually analyzed by the counterculture aficionados who hang out here. El Batey is open daily from 2pm to 6am; Don Pablo, daily from 8pm to 4am.

Along with the dark and smoky Bohemia, just across the street in the cellar of El Convento Hotel, 100 Calle del Cristo ([tel] 787/722-9020), these bars are hip hangouts for late-night dialogues.

In another part of the old city, near the lower end of Calle Fortaleza, are two radically different hangouts. The Latin-style Douglas' Pub, Calle Tanca 301 ([tel] 787/721-9658), serves an array of vaguely hallucinogenic cocktails, which fuel the high-testosterone level of the mostly male, mostly straight, clientele. Open daily from 1pm to 4am, and run by nightlife entrepreneur Douglas Marin, it charges from $2.50 to $2.75 for a beer, and around $6.50 for any of about 40 mind-altering cocktails. If you want to play pool, climb to the loft-style second floor, where seven pool tables draw an animated crowd at 50 cents a game.

Virtually across the street from Douglas' Pub is the much more stylish and sedate Cafe Tabac, Calle Fortaleza 262 ([tel] 787/725-6785). Inspired by a cafe in 1930s Havana, and cooked by ceiling fans that slowly spin air down onto potted palms and leather sofas, it specializes in fine cigars, Puerto Rican coffee, and a sophisticated array of drinks. These include around 40 kinds of martinis, each priced at $8, as well as aged cognacs, ports, and rums. It's open Monday through Saturday from noon to midnight (to 2am on Friday and Saturday). Appetizers, priced from $9.50 to $14, include pates, smoked fish, cheeses, and shrimp; desserts, priced from $6 to $10, are also available. A well-chosen roster of cigars costs from $4 to $20 each.

If you'd like to continue your bar hopping, we have some other offbeat selections. These include Hijos de Borinquen, Calle San Jose at Calle San Sebastian (no phone), a nostalgic bar that evokes Puerto Rico in the 1950s with its checkered floor and posters of palm trees. The Puerto Rican beer Medalla is the drink of choice.

You might also stumble into Carli Cafe Concierto, 206 Calle Tetuan ([tel] 787/725-4927), off Plazoleta Rafael Carrion. This is one of the Old Town's best spots for drinking margaritas and watching the world go by. You'll see everything from old widows dressed in black to bikini-clad tourists fresh off the cruise ships.

You can also stop in at Aqui Se Puede, 50 Calle San Justo ([tel] 787/724-4448), which has excellent tapas and tropical fruit drinks.

One of the best places for people-watching is Quatro Estaciones, Plaza de Armas (no phone), a snack bar in the heart of one of Old Town's most bustling squares. It remains open 24 hours.

If you're still walking in the early hours of the morning, stop in at El Farolito, 277 Calle Sol (no phone). This small bar, decorated with old paintings of drunks, opens at noon and doesn't seem to close until dawn has long split the sky. The drink of choice here is coco frio with rum.

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Cockfights

A brutal sport not to everyone's taste, cockfights are legal in Puerto Rico. The most authentic are in Salinas, a town on the southern coast with a southwestern ethos, which has galleras, or rings, for cockfighting. But you don't have to go all the way there to see a match. About three fights per week take place at the Coliseo Gallistico, Route 37, kilometer 1.5, Isla Verde. Call [tel] 787/791-6005 for the schedule and to order tickets, which cost $8, $10, $15, or $25, depending on your seat.

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Gay San Juan

Straight folks are generally welcome in each of these gay venues, and many local couples show up for the hot music and dancing. Local straight boys who show up to cause trouble are generally ushered out quickly. Unless otherwise stated, there is no cover.

Beach Bar. This is more crowded and animated than its competitor, the Hurricane Bar (see below) across the street. It's the site of a hugely popular Sunday afternoon gathering, which gets really crowded beginning around 4pm and stretches into the wee hours. There's an open-air bar protected from rain by a sloping rooftop and a space atop the seawall with a panoramic view of the Condado beachfront. Drag shows occasionally take place on the terrace. The bar is open daily from 11am to at least 1am. On the ground floor of the Atlantic Beach Hotel, 1 Calle Vendig. [tel] 787/721-6900.

Cups. Set in a Latino tavern, the premises are valued as the only place in San Juan that caters almost exclusively to lesbians. Men of any sexual persuasion aren't particularly welcome. The scene reminds many lesbians of a tropical version of one of the bars they left behind at home. Although the club is open Wednesday through Sunday from 7pm to 4am, entertainment such as live music or cabaret is presented only on Wednesday at 9pm, Friday at 10pm, and Sunday at 8pm. 1708 Calle San Mateo, Santurce. [tel] 787/268-3570.

Eros. This is a two-level nightclub catering exclusively to the city's growing gay population. Patterned after the dance emporiums of New York, but on a smaller scale, the club has cutting-edge music and bathrooms that are among the most creative in the world. Here, wall murals present fantasy-charged, eroticized versions of ancient Greek and Roman gods. Regrettably, only one night a week (Wednesday) is devoted to Latino music; on other nights, the music is equivalent to what you'd find in the gay discos of either Los Angeles or New York City. Open Wednesday through Sunday from 10pm to 3 or 4am. 1257 Ponce de Leon, Santurce. [tel] 787/725-9494. Cover $3-$5.

Hurricane Bar. The bar is named in honor of the tropical storm that swept away its predecessor. This gay male hangout functions in tandem with the above-mentioned Beach Bar, which lies just across the dead-end street. Under new management by a team of entrepreneurs from Georgia and San Juan, it attracts a crowd that's a bit more sedate than the one that converges at the Beach Bar. It's open daily from 11am to 1am. 2 Calle Vendig. [tel] 787/725-2025.

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