by Sheila Marikar

Cancun 's nightlife is legendary. After the sun goes down, the resort pulses with music and tourists swarm the bars, clubs and performance venues around town. Whether you're looking for an all-night party or an evening theater performance, Cancun offers something to please everyone.

Lobby-bar-hopping is a popular way to start off the night. Several of the larger hotels, like the Crown Paradise Club Cancun and the Avalon Grand Cancun , schedule live music in their bars and offer drink specials through dinner time. The Camino Real Cancun 's Azucar bar is a great place to practice your dance moves and sip tequila before heading out into the clubs.

Dancing is by far one of the most popular nighttime activities in Cancun . Clubbing, (or, “discoing,” as the locals call it) regularly goes on until the sun comes up. Cover charges often apply at clubs; expect to pay up to $25 to get into some of the most popular discos.

Near the Hyatt Cancun Caribe is Coco Bongo, one of the hottest nightspots in town. The venue is huge, packing in up to 3000 people on weekends and during the tourist season. Young people who love to dance flock to Coco Bongo – there's no designated dance floor, so partygoers show off their moves on tables, on the bar, and even on stage with the live band. 1970s and ‘80s dance music alternates with Caribbean , salsa and techno beats to give the club an international appeal.

La Boom, down the road from the Gran Costa Real Hotel & Spa , is known for its theme nights geared towards the spring-break crowd. Nightly deals include no cover charge, ladies' drink specials and free open bar. A weekly bikini night showcases some of the best looking women in Cancun . Be sure to catch the sound and laser light show that begins every night at 11:30 .

Go crazy at Senor Frog's to get the ultimate experience in Cancun clubbing. Located close to the Riu Caribe , the party at Senor Frog's can be seen and heard throughout the Zona Hotelera. From dinner time onwards, the club is packed with tourists of all ages drinking, dancing, and singing along with the live band. Forget beer mugs – here, the brew is served in yard-long beakers. Those who get too tipsy are dumped down long plastic chutes into a lagoon at the center of the club, where they're often rewarded with another drink. Conga lines of whistle girls keep the crowd going late into the night.

Many of the larger Zona Hotelera restaurants turn into hot spots after dark, offering much of the same raucous fun as the discos for a cheaper price. Most of these places are located within blocks of one another , making it easy to hop from place to place until you find a scene that you like. The Hard Rock Café next to the Miramar Mision Cancun features a live rock band every weekend night. From the nearby Beach Palace , you can hear (and sometimes feel) dance music pumping at Planet Hollywood. At the Dady Rock Bar and Grill, a twist on the Dady'O club next door, people come for the food (huge entrees and a buffet from 7PM) but stay for the nightlife (open bar, a DJ and dancing). Carlos ‘n' Charlie's, near the Gran Melia Cancun , also starts out serving good food and adds in live music around 8:30 . Within an hour, the place morphs from a restaurant into a packed frat-house style party.

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