Fun and entertainment San Francisco

San Francisco is not a city where you can stay out late. You can go to the movies, concerts, operas, ballets and musicals, but there are very few clubs where you can go out dancing, due to legislation prohibiting the sale of alcohol after 2am. The days of the Barbary Coast are long gone...

Tickets for musicals easily sell for over US$100 per person, and the experience is often grandiose. But there's no shortage of intimate, off-the-beaten-track venues, and the performances are almost always top-notch. Push open the door of a small jazz club and you may see virtuosos for the price of a single drink... The same goes for small theaters, which can hold some wonderful surprises. In comedy clubs and certain jazz clubs, you often have to add two obligatory drinks to the price of the ticket (which is usually around US$10-15).

If you're broke, the best solution is to queue outside the theater where the play of your choice is being performed to obtain rush tickets, often sold for as little as US$30. These are unsold tickets for shows playing on the same day. In some cases, a handful of even cheaper tickets (from US$25) allow you to see the show standing up, behind the last row of spectators!

The best deal is the Music City Hotel, which gives away free concert tickets to its guests. Let's hear it...

If going to see a show is part of your San Franciscan checklist, and you don't intend to queue for hours to get discounted tickets, it's imperative to make your reservation several months in advance. That way you'll have more choice and get the best possible price. This advice applies equally to musicals and concerts at renowned venues.

The All Nighter (www.511.org/transit/allnighter) is an all-night bus system in the San Francisco Bay Area. Parts of this service follow the rapid transit and commuter rail services of BART and Caltrain, which are the main rail services between San Francisco, the East Bay, the Peninsula and San Jose. Neither BART nor Caltrain provide all-night service due to track maintenance during these hours; the All Nighter network fills this gap. Otherwise, you have the option of VTC.

When it comes to dress code, what you wear depends on where you're going out. Most of the time, your casual daytime attire will be just fine for an evening out. But a night out at the opera is the perfect occasion to bring out your finest tuxedo or your most glittering gala dress! If you go to techno parties, you're likely to run into Burners, descendants of the futuristic rainbow-furred hippies who appeared at the Burning Man festival.

San Francisco's smoking laws are strict and rather dissuasive. Smoking is prohibited in all enclosed public spaces (with the exception of cigar bars), so you'll have to step outside if you want to light up a cigarette. E-cigarettes are subject to the same restrictions as tobacco.

We don't recommend buying tickets for shows from street vendors, no matter how desperate you are. You won't be a winner, and if a scalper offers you tickets at dream prices, you can be sure it's a scam.