Ålborg Nightlife

I popped in here on a couple of occassions on my trip. The bar is full of locals and serves up some decent beer.

We tried to get a round in of 8 Belgium Hoegaarden, but they ran out after 2 so I went for the bottle of decent German Weiss beer Erdinger instead.

Dress Code: Smart casual, although they were certainly happy to welcome us in after the match.

I don't normally like going in these types of places when I’m away in Europe, as it kind of defeats the object of trying something new when I go away. The John Bull pub was however excellent with the Danish tradition of loving their beer. It had a huge amount of beer taps at the bar, although I’m not sure if they were all working at the time. There’s plenty of decent beer to choose from so you certainly won’t go thirsty.

This street is packed full of bars and restaurants and is a great place to have a pre match drink. The bars are pretty small, but most have some type of music playing and have a dj dance floor of sorts late at night. Euro Pop at some of its best!

Dress Code: Casual

The nightlife in Aalborg, especially in summer time is very crowdy! There were so many people in the "bar street" that I could easily lose my friends.. Every bar was filled with people, the music was very loud but people seemed to enjoy it. So if you're a night person and enjoy drinking, get yourself to Aalborg! If you instead do not like the smell of smoke and loud music, try some other town.

This is a street with many pubs, discos and restaurants. And in the night it's like a big festivall on the street. Most of the time you don't have to pay an entrence fee for the discos and often a dancing place is included in the bar. It's just fun!

Dress Code: Don't dress to warm! In most of the places it's hot inside and you will be not very lucky wearing a sweater.

4 more images

My own all-time favourite place to spend my precious sparetime and money is a rather small and very intimate establishment in Maren Turis Gade, a street parallel to Jomfru Ane Gade off the pedestrian street Bispensgade. “Polly” is the name of a huge plastic parrot painted in psycadelic colors resting in one corner of the main room. Although the name suggests a café where you would imagine you would be likely to sip your latté whith friends and grab a sandwich, it is really a genuine bar slash pub frequented by a range of obscure and half-weired regulars from many different social layers as well as parties of colleagues or classmates out for an early start-up drink or late-finish-one-for-the-road-pint or two. The place is somewhat misplaced for the central area of Aalborg as most of the regular-based establishments are usually found in the primary residential areas sorrounding the city centre. Nonetheless, the place truly provides a more than welcome sanctuary from the discos, posh cafés and bars packed with teenagers in the primary hot-spot of Jomfru Ane Gade just a few yards away. The bartenders are real pros and super-friendly and you need not come by more than a few times to be recognised both by the staff and the most hard-core regulars. Adding to the pleasures, the prices are really modest compared to the “real” cafés found around town. Usually there is a very relaxed atmosphere, a lot of fun, and the diversity of the regulars makes it possible to have a laugh and a good discussion on the same night out. Although the place is not very large, it manages to organise live music from time to time. On such nights, the place is extremely crowded.
Also, at Pollys a lot of activities for those frequent guests are organised. It’s really a community of its own. Anyway: My personal favourite. It is likely that we’ll meet here, should you drop by…and you definitely should!

Dress Code: Leave your tie and coat at home and put on some half-worn-out jeans and a T-shirt (or sweatshirt depending on the weather conditions...)

The nice thing about Aalborg is all of the clubs are on one street known as Jomfru Ana Gade. It is a small pedestrian street but is packed with about 25 clubs!

Since alcohol is expensive, most people drink at home before going out. Therefore 'The Street' doesn't get busy until 1am. However the bar owners have realized this and if you go earlier, between 11pm - 1am you can often get coupons that get your a free beer in a bar.

Café Klostertorvet is one of Aalborg's most well-established and most popular cafés and absolutely one of the best places for spending an evening, if you are just a little too old for the dancing parlours and techno beats in Jomfru Ane Gade or simply want to be able to have a quiet conversation, a cafe meal and a chance to meet local students and citizens without having to shout to be heard.

The food is not really anything out of the ordinary, but still absolutely OK. Prices are in the high end, except for special offers for drinks, beers and food at lunchtime and in the early afternoon.

The café has changing art exhibitions of works by local artists and some very interesting decor. Build in two floors but in fact the place is one large room.
A speciel feature is the full-size real piano attached to the ceiling with wires which is occassionally lowered when a capable musician comes by or when there is live music in the café from time to time. If you are a dare devil, choose the tables directly beneath it! (Has stayed in place so far, though).

During spring and summertime the place has tables available outside on the picturesque C.W. Obels Square.

If you don't like crowds, avoid Friday afternoons and evenings when the students are off to weekend. Otherwize, this is the best time to meet the cream of the local (and intenational!) youth.

Every year in September during Aalborg Jazz Festival a concert or two are always given in this relatively small café adding an unmatched intimacy and very cozy mood to the music.

The café is situated in the city centre right next to the main entrence to the very old Monestary of The Holy Ghost - hence its name ("Klostertorvet" means Monestary Square).

Dress Code: No dresscode - come as you are! (You should wear clothes, though...!)