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Prague’s most chic disco pushes the limits with parties so hedonistic you wonder if there isn’t a law against them. Hip-hop, funk and disco are the prevalent flavours on the dance floor. The vegetarian café upstairs is open until 4am. During peak lunch and dinner hours, it can be very hard to find a seat.

This gritty former cinema is a must for fans of jungle and dub. The parties continue well into the morning, much to the dismay of the Roxy’s neighbours. Such live acts as the Asian Dub Foundation take the stage when it’s not occupied by DJs or the occasional experimental theatre production. A portion of Roxy’s proceeds goes towards funding the Linhart Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose aim is to promote contemporary art. Keep abreast of Roxy’s events at www.roxy.cz.

In addition to being at the heart of Prague’s indie and world-music scene, the Akropolis hosts the likes of Ani Difranco, Apollo 440 and Transglobal Underground. The small, smoky Divadelní bar is the hippest, hosting Prague’s best DJs. On the ground floor level is a café and Czech restaurant. On a more cultural note, this is also the best venue in town to hear contemporary Romany music from such local acts as Alom or Věra Bílá and Kale.

The former public bath- house, just 100 m from Charles Bridge, was converted into a dance club in the late 1990s. You can still admire the original tiles along the corridors and the splendid mosaic murals. Drained of water, the pools now serve as the dance floors.

Žižkov’s newest club resounds with dub and reggae most nights, while tough kids in jeans and hooded sweatshirts shuffle to the music or huddle over joints of marijuana. This is the best venue if you want to hear home-grown hip-hop. It’s also impossibly smoky, so don’t wear anything that can’t be washed or thrown away.

The proprietors of Mecca have turned this former factory in the Holešovice warehouse district into a giant dance-and-dining emporium. The food is nouvelle cuisine, the crowd trendy and the parties wonderful. A little off the beaten track – take a taxi – but the trip is worth it. The restaurant serves food until 2am.

A club chronicler in the mid-1990s wrote that Jo’s had its finger on the pulse of Prague’s “expat scene”. Little has changed here since. The backpack set still bump eagerly to pop tunes on the cramped cellar dance floor. If you’re hungry, upstairs is a restaurant serving passable Tex-Mex food.

The shoebox-sized cellar at “Little Glenn’s” has to be Prague’s smallest jazz venue. The music ranges from African-inspired drumming to blues to modern jazz, and most of it is of a high standard. Upstairs is a café where you can get reasonable food and brunch at weekends. From the same entrepreneurs who brought you Bohemia Bagel.

Prague’s music scene is teeming with so-called “revival bands”, most of whom take the stage here and entertain audiences with tributes to everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Sade. There are also several bars, an internet café and a screening room where you can watch films of various past rock concerts.

Local “big-beat” acts are the mainstay at this Wenceslas Square music bar, but it occasionally hosts big names in jazz such as Maceo Parker, as well as where-are-they-now relics. (A separate adjoining venue, the Velký sál, or large hall, hosts bigger acts such as Wynton Marsalis.) The club’s 1980s night is one of the biggest dance parties in town.