A glamorous cocktail bar in Eixample, Boca Chica is one of the only bars in Barcelona where you’ll see stilettos. Sip artisan cocktails in an elegant, old-world setting with vintage photographs, Persian rugs and stag heads hanging on the walls.

Located in northern Barcelona, on a corner of the young, laid back neighbourhood of Grácia, you’ll find an even more laid back Cuban bar. Raïm has stood its ground for over a century and is still packed every night of the year (yes, they’re open all 365 days). Every inch of Raïm’s peeling walls are covered with paraphernalia from Cuba; black and white photographs of musicians, film posters from Havana, flags and even some token dust. Come for a start-of-night drink with friends or on a date set to a salsa soundtrack.

Just off La Rambla, this bar is by no means a secret spot. But if you want to grab a drink in one of Barcelona’s most famous and beautiful squares, Plaça Reial, make sure it’s at Ocaña. This spacious bar and club serves up some of the best cocktails in the city in a beautiful setting. Inside it’s moody and romantic with red and pink-washed walls and dim lighting, but it’s all about the terrace here where large wooden tables spill out onto the plaza.

A small dive bar in Raval where trendy locals congregate on small wooden tables and chairs to drink €1.50 beers and cocktails named after Manchester greats. On the weekends you’ll find the place packed with people dancing wildly to music from North West England. We’re not kidding.

A small bar down a side street in El Born serving up specialty cocktails. A favourite amongst tourists and locals alike, the bar is split onto two levels with a large, well-lit bar on the bottom and a hidden mezzanine on top with around four tables with leather armchairs and stools. Lighting is low as is the music, so you can hear yourselves think. The place is pretty small with space for a table of four or five max, so best to keep this one intimate.

We have found the perfect terrace in Barcelona. A hidden jungle at the Cotton House Hotel (a colonial-style hotel where Kendall Jenner stayed) with huge palms shading wooden tables and rattan rocking chairs. Open from 7AM to 12AM, come here for a juice in the morning, an afternoon beer or a sundowner cocktail. Expect prices that keep out the masses.

Located in a maze-like ex-warehouse in Poblenou and spread over five floors, it’s essentially five clubs in one. Catch indie rock at the Razz Club, techno at The Loft and Lolia and electro, pop and the occasional hip hop track at the Rex Room and The Pop Room. They host international performers and DJs (think Fatboy Slim and Breakbot) so check the line-up to see who is playing that week. Be prepared to fight your way through huge amounts of people and to sweat, like a lot.

The reason Apolo is on every tourist guide to Barcelona is because it has one of the best music programmes in the city, playing everything from hip-hop to dubstep and techno. It’s made up of two venues, Apolo 1 and Apolo. The former is a more dramatic theatre-like setting with high ceilings and red velvet and the latter a smaller, darker and edgier room with a great sound-system. It’s important you check the programme as Apolo club nights vary drastically – one night you’ll have a renowned international DJ, the next a burlesque night and the following a dancehall star from Jamaica.

Named after the Catalan word for the homemade sparkling wine that it serves, El Xampanyet is the place to come for a glass of fizz in Barcelona. And despite being located beside the touristy Picasso Museum, the bar pulls in locals from lunchtime onwards everyday. It’s a quirky space lined with colourful Modernist tiles, wooden barrels and antique curios. Come here with a friend or two (it’s a small place and gets crowded so is not suitable for big groups) and order a litre of the good stuff.

By day, Libertine in hotel Casa Bonay is the ideal spot for a breakfast meeting or a casual lunch, but by night the music is cranked up a few notches as people swap Japanese tea for cocktails. With pine-green walls, overhead brass lighting and rattan tables and chairs, the space exudes old-school Barcelona glamour without a hint of pretension – hotel owner Inés Miró-Sans wants patrons to feel like they’re in their own living room. And judging by some of the dance moves, they really do. Guest DJs set the soundtrack at the weekend. Settle into a sofa for a quality nightcap or dance until the hotel’s breakfast menu rolls out.

Once a haunt of Picasso and Hemingway, this absinthe bar is one of the oldest venues in Barcelona and its antiquated charm seeps out of the walls. With its vintage bottles, chandeliers and constant hum of Catalan voices, it’s no wonder Woody Allen chose to shoot a scene from Vicky Cristina Barcelona here. When you ask for an absinthe they’ll give it to you in a tall glass with a sugar cube, spoon and bottle of water with a perforated top. Place the sugar cube on the spoon and pour the water over the sugar cube slowly, watching the green liquor turn white and milky. It’s a classic absinthe ritual and adds to the charm and experience (and stops you looking like an absinthe newbie).

For electro-heads, Moog is the club you have been looking for – a slightly edgier option in comparison to the more mainstream favourites of Apolo and Razzmatazz. Moog is a club dedicated to electronic music playing everything from house, drum ‘n’ bass, trance and classic techno. Attracting a mixture of major international techno DJs, lesser-known Spanish DJs and other upcoming international stars introduced to a Spanish audience.

After spending many hours waiting in laundrettes, Gerard Navas and Marta Pérez decided to open Eixample’s LaBar, part launderette and part bar. To the combined smell of coffee and fabric softener, locals hang out while their clothes spin – although anyone is welcome, of course. Musicians perform every Thursday evening while emerging artists such as Lidia Anaut grace the brick walls.

The striking 70’s exterior of Balius Bar in El Poblenou hails from the building’s days as a hardware-come-drugstore run by the local Balius family. Today, the neighbourhood hangout – locals still outnumber tourists – retains a nostalgic feel thanks to the traditional nineteenth-century hydraulic floor tiles and unpretentious cocktail and small-plate menu.