Our nights out on the weekends generally follow a very carefully planned routine: pregame, hit a bar, hit a club, maybe hit another bar, and go to sleep (with or without someone). So where has the spontaneity gone? For those nights when you just don’t want to have the typical club night, or when you are bored of chilling at the common bars, we give you a few ideas of things to do, only slightly off the beaten path.
1. Bar Crawl from Yesteryear
If you’re feeling nostalgic for simpler times, create your own historic tour-- of bars that existed before 1920. Before prohibition came and put a black shroud over NYC nightlife for 13 depressing years, the city was full of bars that catered to the fist-pumping, shot-gunning citizenry of the early 20th century. While most of these bars were lost during prohibition, some still remain today, and we are not talking about imitation speakeasies. So if your looking for a more classic kind of bar crawl, head over to any one of the city’s oldest watering holes. Some of our favorites include, Bridge Cafe (est. 1794), Chumley's (est. 1830s), and McSorley's (est. 1854)
2. Welcome to the Big Apple
When you are a native New Yorker, nothing is more frustrating than the hoards of tourists that infest the city, especially when they think they are experiencing New York’s best nightlife-- in Time Square. We always say we'll try anything once, so our suggestion is to not do as the locals do for a night, to the extreme. Go buy an I Love New York t-shirt, don that trendy foam Statue of Liberty hat, and run around Time Square laughing loudly in some kind of foreign accent, drinking heavily, and ogling the bright lights.
3. Dragging You off Your A**
Feeling like royalty? Why not spend your evening among New York’s queens, drag queens that is. Nobody quite knows how to party like the drag queens, and it is guaranteed that even the most conservative person will get loose. So head over to any of NYC's drag clubs for that dose of feathers, sequins, booze, and beauties that will surely get that stick out of anyone’s behind. We like the infamous Lucky Chen's, Barracuda, and Splash Bar just to get started.
4. Drunken Kiddie Party
Everything is better with a buzz. So why not take your favorite past times and give them a twist? Although it’s gotten more and more popular, we still agree that drunk-bowling is one of the most entertaining ways to spend your night. When you bring together top shelf liquor, a group of your best buds, and a pair of balls, the best kind of drunken mayhem is bound to ensue. Caution: lanes do not make for good beds in which to pass out on.
5. Hunters and Gatherers
Society has evolved so that we no longer have to hunt for our food. But why not get in touch with our wild side in a city commonly referred to as a jungle? It seems to us at Clubplanet that the more modern form of chasing down game with spears, is chasing down food trucks holding wads of cash after a night of hard drinking. Some of the city’s best grub is held within these speeding kitchens on wheels, so kick up your heels and chase ‘em down. Make sure to go with friends, you may look a little stupid running alone in the streets.