Orlando Nightlife

Orlando boasts a surprisingly vibrant and active night-time bar and club scene, with three main venues, Downtown Disney's Pleasure Island, Universal's CityWalk and Downtown Orlando, where there is an ever-changing line-up of nightclubs.

At Pleasure Island, seek out the Adventurers Club for eclectic live comedy and Mannequins for pure dance; at CityWalk, don't miss Bob Marley's for live music and the groove at their standout dance club; and in Downtown Orlando, don't miss bars like Sky 60, Eye Spy and Wall Street Cantina (all on Orange Avenue) and excellent nightclubs like The Social (on North Orange Avenue), with live music (blues, rock and jazz) and resident DJs or the Monkey Bar (on Wall Street) for its suave cocktails. Other one-off clubs worth noting are the duelling pianos of Jellyrolls at Disney's Boardwalk Resort and House of Blues at Downtown Disney.

There is a small but thriving arts centre in Orlando, the majority of which is centred on the downtown area. The Orlando Ballet (tel: (407) 426 1733; website: www.orlandoballet.org) is Central Florida's only professional resident ballet company and one of the few ballet companies of its size performing the full-length classical ballets, mostly at the downtown Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre (but in 2009 many arts organisations will move to the new Orlando Centroplex).

Orlando Shakespeare Theater (tel: (407) 447 1700; website: www.orlandoshakes.org) offers classical productions year round at the John & Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center on Princeton Street in the Loch Haven Cultural Park. The latter also houses the Mennello Museum of American Art (tel: (407) 246 4278; website: www.mennellomuseum.com) and family-friendly Orlando Science Center (tel: (407) 514 2000; website: www.osc.org).

The Bob Carr Performing Art Centre, 401 West Livingston Street (tel: (407) 849 2001; website: www.orlandovenues.net) is the premier venue for theatre, ballet and opera, while Orlando Repertory Theatre, 1001 East Princeton Street (tel: (407) 896 7365; website: www.orlandorep.com), is a professional company that works in partnership with University of Central Florida to stage family-appropriate classics and riffs on kids' literature. There's the regular main stage season, an 'American Classics' series that honors US playwrights, and a youth academy for aspiring young actors.