Lausanne

Bar Tabac

This friendly café has a huge selection of Belgian beers and French wines. The décor is understated hip, the climate is calm, and the clientèle is a very pleasant mix.

Black Luna

A cool, dark cave of a place inhabiting the former location of N²O and Luna before it, Black Luna offers a floral environment, an excellent bar-food menu and good drinks, as well as a little bit of a respite two steps from the Flon nightlife district, and practically inside the Flon Metro station.

Tue-Sat until 02:00·Fr. 3.50-7.00 for a beer or a glass of wine

Bleu Lézard

The Bleu Lézard is a popular student hangout with a restaurant-café-bar upstairs and a dance floor in the basement. There's usually live music on Wednesdays and DJs on the weekends. Perfect place for a late Sunday brunch.

Fr. 4 for a beer

Café Couronne d'Or

Another fine place for a drink over your master's thesis, or a conversation with friends, the Couronne packs them in on a Saturday afternoon or Sunday evening. Cosy old bar in a small alley between Riponne and Tunnel.

Sun Tue 16:00-23:59, Wed 08:00-23:59, Thu-Sat 08:00-01:00

Café du Château

Brasserie Artisanale

The Brasserie offers a number of beers made on the spot including a speciality, 100% natural ginger beer. They also have a kitchen offering a range of tasty pizzas at reasonable prices. Service au bar means you have to order at the bar or you'll wait some time to be noticed and served.

Daily from 17:00·A pint of ginger (or other) beer will set you back Fr. 5, a pizza Fr. 15. Pizza and homemade beer until 04:00 on weekends

D!

Dance club with international DJ appearances, occasionally concerts. Doesn't get started until after midnight. Check local listings for details.

El Cavalo Blanco

A faux-English pub no longer, the former White Horse is now a tapas bar, and a darn good one. Attention: the sangria blanco (white-wine sangria punch) is dangerously good.

La Bossette

La Bo7

Restaurant and bar, relaxed atmosphere, reasonable prices and good beer.

La Mise En Bière

Craft beer bar with a rotation of ~30 beers on tap foreign & domestic. Also has a well stocked store next door. Staff mostly speak English. Closes very early, so plan ahead.

Mon-Fri 15:00-22:00, Sat 11:00-22:00, Sun closed

La Ruche Club

The Hive

A very popular place to dance on minimal music, there's sometimes psychedelic trance. A strange place, attended by a lot of very weird kinds of insects. "On s'retrouve à la ruche!" they say. Upstairs is the associated Café Hydromel (hydromel is a kind of mead).

Le Bourg

A great place to see up-and-coming jazz and performance oriented acts from all over the continent. The place is a real theater with a tiny bar in front, and the booking is simply amazing for a room which can hold maybe 30 people tops, with acts ranging from French accordion jazz or gypsy jazz to Coco-Rosie-like "new folk" to famed Chicago and NYC DJs. You would not be alone in asking how they can pull that off.

Wed 18:00-01:00, Thu 18:00-03:00, Fri Sat 18:00-04:00·Fr. 4

Le Lounge

Chateau d'Ouchy

The Lounge of the Chateau d'Ouchy hotel has comfy white sofas, and a pretty impressive collection of Scotch whiskeys, but the real draw is that feeling that you've wandered into a James Bond film.

Mon-Fri 10:00-01:00, Sat Sun 10:00-02:00

Le Romandie - Rock club Lôzane

As a members-run cooperative the Romandie can offer just about the cheapest drinks imaginable in Switzerland, but the main point is the bands. The calendar leans pretty heavily toward hard rock and heavy metal they also book folk or other acts on a weekly basis as well as hosting friendly, late-night parties with DJs. Another draw is the room itself: the club stretches between 2 arches of the bridge of Place de l'Europe.

Les Docks

Located in an industrial zone, this room offers concerts once or twice a week, from French "chanson à texte" to metal (mostly world music, though).

MAD

One of the largest Swiss dance club with international DJ appearances. Thursday RnB & student nights, Friday trance & techno, Saturday house clubbing, Sunday TRIXX & Jungle gay nights. Difficult to enter after midnight. Check local listings for details.

MGM

A red storefront facing the lake and the Alps, the MGM has two terraces: the usual sort on the sidewalk, and better yet a deck on the second floor which makes for a great place to relax and enjoy a drink while taking in the view of the Massif du Chablais in the lingering sunlight of a summer evening.

The Great Escape

It has several screens showing sporting events, and though seating inside is limited, it has a very nice outdoor terrace particularly in warmer months. On weekdays it tends to have a rather calm and relaxed atmosphere; however, on weekends it can get rather crowded and rowdy.

XIIIème Siècle

Claiming to be a bar for students this "13th century" basement bar really gets going after midnight, when the other bars start to close. The dancing (and massive pulling) goes on until 05:00. A big plus: the very clean bathrooms are 21st century. Drinks are a bit pricier here than elsewhere though.

Daily 22:00-05:00·Fr. 5 beer

Amnesia Club

Av. Jaques-Dalcroze 9

Le Lapin Vert

Rock Bar. Beer, sweat and loud music.

Fri Sat until 03:00

Taco's Bar

Pool and live music, of reasonably large size.