Food, folks and cheap booze: pencil them in on your calendar for your next long weekend and head to Puerto Penasco. This is the kind of town where Saturday night stretches out for week at a time. Set a course to El Mirador, AKA "The Strip," Puerto Penasco's downtown that straddles the main scene and the town's sizzling beach. You can drink all night at some of the bars on the strip for $10 and hey, you can't get that kind of buzz at home.
Nightlife on El Mirador is about barhopping, beach-walking, and people-watching. And a good place to start is at Manny's Beach Club, one of those great dive-y bars that feels as comfortable as your favorite pair of jeans. The club's open-air bar is where the party starts and often stays. Even though the lines can get long, the wait staff is very good about patrolling the tables. There's plenty of dancing at Manny's, but the dance floor is smaller than at most clubs.
Dancing is one of the main attractions at the Pink Cadillac. The warehouse-style club pumps out Top-40 and has enough space for you to get your groove on. If you'd rather be a spectator, though, the rooftop deck gives you space to make your own running commentary on the people inside and outside the bar. There's a good American menu inside the club's 1950's-style diner, or you can order at the swim-up bar inside the club's pool. A cool and soothing sports bar soothes the crankier members of your traveling party.
If you've got the high-maintenance sister or similarly snobby crew along with you, try out Elixir, a discotheque and bar that's high-end enough to let them pretend they've stepped onto a movie set. The music is more dance, house, and trip-hop flavored, easing into chill-out as the club kids wind down in the wee hours.
A slower-paced, but still very cool place is the Baja Hotel and Cantina. This is a club that seems most like it was pulled out of an American main street and plugged into El Mirador and its historic building only adds to the easy-going atmosphere. The dress code is casual, the pool table friendly, and the live bands on Fridays and Saturdays will play most of whatever you scribble on a napkin and hand to them. If you don't want to change out of your swimsuit, this is the best place to spend the evening. The Baja's full-service, swim-up bar serves the restaurant's delicious mix of American and Mexican favorites.
Before you slip out of your wet swimsuit and into the dry heaves, please remember to walk every where you go because it's just safer and easier. You won't have to worry about the notorious Mexican traffic laws, and you can get pretty much anywhere in town in 15 minutes. Or taxis are plentiful on El Mirador and will get you back to the house fairly cheaply.
This guide to the ins and outs of clubbing and carousing was brought to you by Shanna Peeples.
Did you know that Puerto Penasco has scenery and culture? Did you care? We figured as much. Did you know there are tons of clubs and bars and the Spring Break atmosphere extends to just about every season. Are you back with us again? Good. Now go rent a Rocky Point condo to serve as your party headquarters.