New York nightlife is non-stop and highly addictive. Manhattan buzzes with nocturnal activity, from bustling neighbourhood bars to swank cocktail lounges and ultra hip nightclubs, where some of the world's best DJs entertain the city's ‘beautiful people'.

The East Village, from 14th Street to Houston, east of Broadway, is famous for its local bars that stay open late and its small live music clubs. The Lower East Side, an edgy and hip neighbourhood that borders the East Village at Houston and stretches south to Chinatown at Canal, offers a similar nightlife scene and vibe.

Soho is the cool capital, with its small chic bars attracting models, poseurs and media types. The gay scene is headquartered in the bars of Chelsea and the West Village, which also offers a lively mix of jazz clubs. Gramercy, in the 20s on the east side, has a smaller selection of velvet-rope cocktail lounges. Upmarket tastes are catered for in the sophisticated lounges and cocktail bars in Midtown and the Upper East and Upper West Sides. The city's best nightclub scene is headquartered in the Meatpacking District around Ninth Avenue and 13th Street.

Entrance fees to some of the smarter nightclubs can be pricey and are cash only. The hippest clubs employ strict dress codes, only allowing the cool and the beautiful to break through the velvet ropes. The normal club closing time is 0400, although many venues are open all night. An ever-changing crop of ‘after-hours' places offer entertainment until sunrise, however, alcohol cannot legally be served between 0400 and 0800 or after 2400 on Sunday. The minimum drinking age is 21 and checking of photo ID is mandatory.

Time Out New York (website: www.timeoutny.com) is a very good source of nightlife event information, published weekly and sold at newsagents and kiosks. A good online nightlife and restaurant guide is Yelp (website: www.yelp.com/nyc).

Bars: New York has a massive range of bars, with everything from neighbourhood dives and lively Irish pubs to slick jet-set haunts with DJs and dimly lit, cocktail lounges. Hip bars include Max Fish, 178 Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, which fills with a young, T-shirt-and-jeans crowd, and the neo-Moroccan style Serena, 222 West 23rd Street, Chelsea, a subterranean lounge in the cool and legendary Chelsea Hotel, as well as favourite of the ‘beautiful people'. Nublu, 62 Avenue C, East Village, attracts a festive, alternative crowd to its nights of Brazilian music and cutting-edge jazz. Von, 3 Bleecker Street, East Village, is a great little neighbourhood bar, with a dog or two running around, candle-lighting and a good-looking but unpretentious crowd.

A more sophisticated lounge, the Campbell Apartment, Grand Central Station, Midtown, is tucked away in this busy rail terminal, serving top-class cocktails, like Flapper's Delight, Prohibition Punch, first-rate Martinis and the perfect Manhattan. For old-time New York, there is the former speakeasy Chumley's, 86 Bedford Street, West Village, or The Monkey Bar in the Elycée Hotel, 60 East 54th Street. When it opened in 1936, its patrons included Tennessee Williams and Tallulah Bankhead.

Clubs: The New York clubbing scene is notoriously fickle. These days popular dance spots include Cielo, 18 Little West 12th Street (website: www.cieloclub.com), boasting one of the city's best sound systems. APT, 419 West 13th Street (website: www.aptwebsite.com), has a number of cosy lounges spread among a multi-level apartment-like club. Club Shelter, 150 Varick Street (website: www.clubshelter.com), is a mixed gay and straight mega-club, admired by lovers of highly danceable house music.

Comedy: New York's leading comedy venues, featuring top-line comedians, include Caroline's on Broadway, 1626 Broadway (website: www.carolines.com), HA! Comedy Club NYC, 369 West 46th Street (website: www.hanyc.com), which is booked and managed by comics, and Gotham Comedy Club, 208 West 23rd Street (website: www.gothamcomedyclub.com) - named ‘one of the 10 great places to watch stand up' by USA Today. Co-founded by the late Rodney Dangerfield, Dangerfield's, 1118 First Avenue (website: www.dangerfields.com), has received rave reviews for over 35 years.

Live Music: The famous Madison Square Garden, 1 Pennsylvania Plaza, Seventh Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets (website: www.thegarden.com), plays host to a number of rock and pop heavies, from Britney Spears to U2. The Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street (website: www.knittingfactory.com), stages a good mix of rock, punk, bluegrass and experimental sounds on its three levels.

New York is also home to numerous jazz clubs, including The Blue Note, 131 West Third Street (website: www.bluenote.net), and the Iridium Jazz Club, 1650 Broadway (website: www.iridiumjazzclub.com), which both reel in the best American and international jazz musicians. Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, Jazz at Lincoln Center Broadway at 10 Columbus Circle, Fifth Floor in the Time Warner Building (website: www.jalc.org/dccc), has top-notch jazz performers, as well as a stunning view of Central Park and the East Side skyline.