The combination of liberal licensing laws, late night opening and an innovative music scene has established Germany as a worldwide centre for a varied and intense clubbing scene. Whilst you will find good nights out in most of major cities, it is in Berlin, Frankfurt and Cologne where you'll find the biggest scenes.

Berlin has always been known for its cosmopolitan and liberal feel and the club scene took off when the city was still partitioned by the Berlin Wall. Before the wall came down, most of the scene was located in West Berlin but today many of the more interesting clubs can be found in East Berlin, located in abandoned warehouses or historic buildings. There is little distinction between bars and clubs, as many bars will also have a DJ and a dance floor.

Germany is well known as the home of techno music. However its notoriety does tend to overshadow other types of music such as house, drum n' bass, Latin and trance. You'll need to hunt down an up-to-date local listings guide for the best events as line-ups and clubs change so frequently. Berlin's weekly free paper Der Flyer is a great place to start.

Clubs tend to get going around midnight, and some don't open until 11pm. Hardened clubbers will party way past sunrise, often leaving one club at 5 am or 6 am and moving on to another.

No discussion of the club scene would be complete without a mention of The Love Parade. This enormous summer party takes place in and around the Tiergarten Park in Berlin attracting over a million partygoers from Europe and further afield. It brings revellers out in their thousands every summer and has become one of the highlights of the clubbers' calendar. And for the more serious clubber, there's also a less commercialised version of the festival held at around the same time.