This is easily the best way to spend an evening on holiday

Times

04-05-2025

My No 1 holiday rule is that you should never idle away an evening browsing Netflix, Amazon Prime or whichever other streaming platform your hotel TV has to offer. This sort of behaviour is typical of your non-holiday self and, therefore, not acceptable. The only exception to the rule is when you go away just before a season finale is released and cannot bear the wait — fine, swerve the spoilers and go to TV town.
In fairness it can be hard to know what to do after dinner, especially if you're travelling solo. The most obvious answer is to drink. The second is to devour all those books you've never got around to reading. Alternatively you could combine the two — I've lost count of the number of city breaks I've taken in which the evenings have involved poring over chunky historical works in inappropriately lit dive bars. Do the narrative and detail go in? Not often. But it's certainly more enjoyable — and edifying — than crashing in a box room and rewatching The Walking Dead.
Now that I am at an age at which hangovers hit harder, I've started taking a more refined approach. Self-improvement is still a goal, but why not make it relevant to the destination? Increasingly I've found that the most authentic way to experience a city at night — to see it through a local's eyes — is with a show, perhaps at a dance venue or jazz club. Usually these aren't places that tourists frequent. But they offer more vivid, tangible insight into a country's culture and history than, say, a museum; they are more fun too. Crucially language barriers can be avoided. And in the spirit of doing things like a local you can afford to be spontaneous — if you're not too fussed about what you're seeing you may well be able to grab tickets on the day for no more than the price of a cocktail.
The most memorable evening of a recent trip to Armenia segued from ballet to jazz funk. Yerevan, the capital, is dominated by the National Opera and Ballet Theatre, with the city's two main boulevards meeting at a crossroads behind the building. Here, in a chandeliered, velvet-seated setting that has remained largely unchanged since it was erected by the Soviets in the 1930s, we saw Masquerade, based on music by the composer Aram Khachaturian. The best thing about the show wasn't the impressive twirling or leaping, nor even the thrillingly full-on score, involving a choir bellowing from the balcony — it was the cheery, unpretentious vibe. The crowd comprised young families, students, pensioners, all there to watch a commonly rerun show on a Wednesday night. You could tell from the well-rehearsed sprint to the baklava stand during the interval that this was something you just do in Yerevan. The Royal Opera House in London could only dream.
Then came the 16-piece jazz-funk troupe. Around the corner from the theatre, the Artsakh State Jazz Orchestra had filled the underground Ulikhanyan Club with their pals. There were no overserious, chin-stroking types here; instead a certain buzz and jollity were palpable. Led by the conductor-trumpeter Tigran Suchyan, the band rattled through originals and Herbie Hancock covers, the whole room nodding along in delight. I learnt that they were originally based in Stepanakert, the capital of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, until a 2023 Azerbaijani offensive forced its Armenian residents to flee, before settling in Yerevan. How's that for an immersive (recent) history lesson?
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Most big cities have a big theatre with accessibly priced ballets and a jazz club with shows every night of the week (other favourites of mine include Nardis in Istanbul, De Muze in Antwerp and New Morning in Paris). But a third option is the cinema — not the local equivalent of Vue or Cineworld, but one of those historic picture houses from the early 20th century of which many European capitals have a glut.
Le Louxor, done out like a palace inspired by ancient Egypt, is an atmospheric spot in the French capital to catch English-language arthouse films (be sure to pick a screening marked 'VO' — version originale — to steer clear of dubbing). And just as magical, in Berlin, is Kino Babylon, which specialises in silent films screened with live accompaniments from its in-house orchestra; most have English subtitles.
In Yerevan that night we had such a great time we ended up losing a phone and sharing a bucket in KFC. The second rule of holidays? Chicken strips are a just reward for an evening of high culture and sophistication.
Have you found an interesting way to spend an evening that has helped you to get to grips with a new city? Let us know in the comments below