Braga's bar scene is lively thanks to the university crowd. The old centre has a good concentration of cafés and bars, especially around the Praça da República and the streets leading off it. After dark the action moves toward the university district north of the centre, where cheap bars cluster around Avenida Central.
Café A Brasileira on Largo do Barão de São Martinho is one of the oldest and most atmospheric cafes in the city, its dark-wood interior largely unchanged since the early twentieth century. For something livelier, the bars along Rua do Castelo fill up with students from mid-evening onwards.