The Lagos pub crawl

A pub crawl through the old town of Lagos, Portugal, built for backpackers and solo travellers. Bars, drinking games and a club finish, every night of the week through the season.

How the night runs

• Message us on WhatsApp to reserve a spot. No app, no booking page, no deposit.
• Arrive at Banana Beach House, Estr. da Ponta da Piedade 23, 8600-544 Lagos, Portugal, between 20:00 - 20:45. Meet inside the reception area.
• We leave at 20:45. Turn up before that or you will miss the group.
• Bars first, then a club. Venues change night to night depending on what is busy, so no two crawls are the same.
• Stay as long as you like. Nobody is counting heads at the end.

What usually happens

• Pubs, bars and clubs around Lagos old town
• Boat parties (when the season lines up)
• Beer pong and beer bongs
• Shot challenges and drinking games
• Group photos sent the next day
• Meeting other backpackers and travellers

None of that is a fixed itinerary. The point of a crawl in a town this small is that the host reads the night: which bars are full, where the music is right, when to move. Some nights are a beer pong marathon and some nights are a straight run to the club.

Price and payment

Message us for tonight's price. Paid on the night, in person. Anything you buy at the bar for yourself is separate, and Lagos drink prices are reasonable by Western European standards. Bring some cash as well as a card — smaller places still prefer it and card machines have bad nights.

Who comes

The crowd is mostly 18-30 and heavily international: Australians, Brits, Germans, Canadians, Dutch, Americans, and a steady flow of people working their way along the Portuguese coast. Most arrive alone. If you are travelling solo and reading this wondering whether you will be the only one, you will not be — that is the standard case rather than the exception.

Rules we actually enforce

• 18+ only, and venues may ask for ID at any point in the night.
• We can refuse or remove anyone who turns up already too drunk. It protects the night for everyone else and keeps the bars on side.
• Look after each other. Nobody gets left behind between venues.
• Keep the noise down on residential streets. Lagos is a town people live in.

Finding the meeting point

Banana Beach House sits on Estr. da Ponta da Piedade 23, 8600-544 Lagos, Portugal, on the road that runs south out of town towards the Ponta da Piedade cliffs. From the old town it is a walk of about ten to fifteen minutes, mostly uphill on the way there and very easy on the way back. From the bus terminal or the marina, allow twenty minutes on foot. Come inside the reception rather than waiting on the street, because that is where we do the head count and where people start talking to each other before we set off.

What to bring

• Physical ID. A photo on your phone is not enough for some door staff. Passport or national ID card.
• Cash and a card. The smaller old town bars still prefer cash and card machines fail often enough to ruin a round.
• Closed shoes. The old town is cobbled, the clubs get slippery, and some doors turn away flip flops later in the night.
• A charged phone. Useful for finding the group again if you drift off, and for the photos that end up on this site.
• A jacket in spring and autumn. Lagos cools down hard after midnight even in a warm week.

If it is your first crawl

The first twenty minutes are the only awkward part, and they are awkward for everyone equally, which is what makes them fine. People arrive alone, stand near the door, and wait for something to happen. What happens is a game, usually loud and usually stupid, and by the second bar the group has sorted itself into little clusters that stay together for the rest of the night and often for the rest of the week. You do not need to be a big drinker. Plenty of people pace themselves or stay on soft drinks and still have the night they came for, because the point is the group rather than the volume.

Running late, or leaving early

We leave at 20:45 and we do not wait, because the bars expect us at certain times. If you are behind, message us and we will send you the name of the bar we are in, which is normally a two minute walk from wherever you are in the old town. Leaving early is completely normal too. Tell the host or do not, either way nobody chases you, and the walk home from the club end of town is short and well lit.

Season

We run April to October. Outside those months the town is quiet, most of the late venues cut their hours or close, and a crawl would not be worth your money. If you are planning a winter trip, come back in spring.

Where the crawl goes

Around the old town, which is small enough that every stop is a short walk from the last one. We do not publish the venue list, because the whole value of a local host is picking the rooms that are actually full on the night rather than marching a group into a half empty bar because a website said so. Fridays and Saturdays run louder and later; midweek nights are smaller and usually the friendlier of the two.

Questions we get asked