TravelDay buddy

Kwesi

@lastset · he/him · Lisbon, Portugal

Plan the trip around one room and one night. The rest is what happens on the way.

  • Music
  • Late nights
  • Small rooms
  • Medium pace
  • Mid range

Kwesi is a drawn, fictional companion written by TravelDay. The places below are real entries in our catalogue, and each one names the guide it came from.

How Kwesi travels

I plan a trip around one room and one night. Everything else is what happens on the way there.

I want a small stage, a bar older than the music, and a crowd that came for the band and not for the photograph. Big rooms are fine. I just never remember them afterwards.

I sleep late. I never book the flight out of the morning after. The last set is the reason I came, and it almost never starts when the listing says it does.

  • Music
  • Nightlife
  • Neighborhoods

Cities Kwesi keeps going back to

  • Berlin

    Germany

    The night runs on its own timetable and Sunday afternoon is the middle of it.

  • New Orleans

    United States

    Music in the street, the bar and the park, all inside three blocks.

  • Lisbon

    Portugal

    Home. A small room in Alfama, two guitars, and nobody talking.

  • Seoul

    South Korea

    Basement rooms, record bars, and a market that still feeds you at three.

  • Havana

    Cuba

    I want a full week of it, and I want to do it properly.

  • Nashville

    United States

    Songwriters in the round, playing the version before the record.

What Kwesi recommends

Berlin

  • Berghain · Sight

    The door decides and there is no appeal, so have a second plan for the night. Phone cameras are taped at the entrance, which is the best rule any club ever made.

    • Seen in Time Out Berlin. Listed first among the best clubs in Berlin, in a former power station in Friedrichshain, with a selective door

  • Tresor Berlin · Sight

    Go down the long corridor to the basement floor at least once. The room is the sound.

    • Seen in Time Out Berlin. Listed among the best clubs in Berlin, founded in 1991 and now in a disused power plant

  • Sisyphos · Sight

    An old dog food factory with a yard, a pond and no urgency. Arrive Sunday lunchtime rather than Friday night.

    • Seen in Time Out Berlin. Listed among the best clubs in Berlin, in a former dog biscuit factory, with parties running Friday to Monday

  • Kater Blau · Sight

    Riverside, wooden, with a boat moored alongside. The best place to watch the sun come up without leaving the party.

    • Seen in Time Out Berlin. Listed among the best clubs in Berlin, on the banks of the Spree with a moored boat and outdoor space

  • Club der Visionaere · Sight

    A wooden deck over the canal, tiny booth, no drama. Go in daylight, sit on the jetty, order a beer.

    • Seen in Time Out Berlin. Listed among the best clubs in Berlin as an open-air canalside venue with a wooden terrace and jetty

  • Clärchens Ballhaus · Restaurant

    A dance hall from 1913 with dinner downstairs and mirrors upstairs. Couples who have been dancing here for fifty years, and nobody minds you watching.

    • Seen in Time Out Berlin. Listed among the best restaurants in Berlin as a ballroom dating from 1913 in Mitte, serving comfort classics with live dancing

Lisbon

  • Clube de Fado · Restaurant

    Book, eat early, and stay for the late sets when the room quietens. Talking during a song is the one thing that is not forgiven.

    • Seen in Time Out Lisbon. Listed among the best places to hear fado in Lisbon, in Alfama, in a building that was once a stable and olive oil warehouse

  • A Tasca Do Chico · Bar

    Fado vadio, which means whoever stands up next is singing. Get there before it fills, take the wall seat.

    • Seen in Time Out Lisbon. Described as a home of fado vadio, amateur fado, open since 1996 in a former warehouse

New Orleans

  • Snug Harbor · Sight

    Two sets a night, seated, and the music room is separate from the bar. This is where I send people who say they do not like jazz.

    • Seen in Time Out. Listed among the best venues to hear live jazz in New Orleans, a cabaret-style room on Frenchmen Street

  • Maple Leaf Bar · Sight

    Pressed tin ceiling, back patio, music every night. Uptown, so plan the way home before you go in.

    • Seen in Time Out. Listed among the best venues for live jazz in New Orleans, a local favourite on Oak Street with music nightly

  • Tipitina's · Sight

    Named after a Professor Longhair song, with his portrait over the stage. Funk and brass more often than jazz, and none the worse for it.

    • Seen in Time Out. Listed among the best live music venues in New Orleans, named after a Professor Longhair song

  • The Spotted Cat Music Club · Sight

    No cover, cash for the tip bucket, and a room so small the horn is in your ear. Go at seven, not at eleven.

    • Seen in Time Out. Listed among the best jazz venues in New Orleans as a low-key Frenchmen Street room with frequent brass

  • Fritzel's European Jazz Pub · Sight

    Traditional jazz in a narrow old room on Bourbon Street, which is not a sentence I expected to write either.

    • Seen in Time Out. Described as the oldest operating jazz club in the city, in an 1831 building on Bourbon Street

  • Bacchanal · Bar

    Buy the bottle inside, they open it, you sit in the yard. Bands play in the garden and the neighbours are fine with it.

    • Seen in Time Out. Listed among the best places for live jazz in New Orleans as a Bywater wine bar with a large patio

Plans you can copy

Berlin, four nights and one long Sunday

4 nights · May to September · Medium pace · Mid range

Starts with a ballroom and a jazz bar, ends somewhere with no clocks.

  1. Day 1

    Start slow, in Mitte

    • Clärchens Ballhaus · Evening · Meal

      Eat in the garden if it is warm, then go upstairs to the mirror room and watch the dancing.

      • Seen in Time Out Berlin. Listed among the best restaurants in Berlin as a ballroom dating from 1913 in Mitte, serving comfort classics with live dancing

    • A-Trane · Night · Sight

      Small jazz club in Charlottenburg, two sets, seated. The late Saturday session runs past everyone's bedtime.

    • Kunstfabrik Schlot · Night · Sight

      A basement with a jazz programme and no attitude. Good for a first night that does not commit you to a whole one.

  2. Day 2

    Kreuzberg, loud

    • SO36 · Evening · Sight

      Punk, ska and a monthly Turkish queer night, in a room that has been doing this since the seventies.

    • Festsaal Kreuzberg · Night · Sight

      Concerts first, club after, with a terrace over the canal for when your ears need a minute.

    • Lido · Night · Sight

      An old cinema, a good sightline from anywhere, and touring bands who have not got big yet.

  3. Day 3

    Canal, river, and back

    • Club der Visionaere · Afternoon · Sight

      Daylight, a wooden deck, one small booth. This is the most Berlin hour of the whole trip.

    • Kater Blau · Night · Sight

      Riverside, fires lit, two floors. The queue is long and it does move.

    • Wilde Renate · Night · Sight

      An old apartment block turned into rooms you get lost in. Smaller and sillier than the famous ones.

  4. Day 4

    Sunday, which starts on Saturday

    • ://about blank · Night · Sight

      Two floors and a garden. The garden is where the night gets decided.

    • Sisyphos · Night · Sight

      Arrive Sunday in daylight with a jumper and low expectations of leaving.

      • Seen in Time Out Berlin. Listed among the best clubs in Berlin, with parties running from Friday through to Monday

    • Berghain · Night · Sight

      If the door says no, that is the end of it. Have somewhere else in mind and do not argue on the step.

      • Seen in Time Out Berlin. Described as having a selective door policy, with three floors inside the former power station
  • Seen in Time Out Berlin. Time Out's current list of the best clubs in Berlin, used to check which rooms are still running

New Orleans, three nights of music

3 nights · February to May · Medium pace · Mid range

Frenchmen Street first, then uptown, then the room with the portrait over the stage.

  1. Day 1

    Frenchmen Street

    • New Orleans Jazz Museum · Afternoon · Museum

      In the old Mint building, with free performances on some afternoons. Check the board on the way in.

    • The Spotted Cat Music Club · Evening · Sight

      Early set, standing room, cash for the bucket. Then walk fifty metres to the next door.

    • Snug Harbor · Night · Sight

      Buy the seated ticket for the second set. This is the listening room of the street.

      • Seen in Time Out. Listed among the best venues to hear live jazz in New Orleans, a cabaret-style room on Frenchmen Street

  2. Day 2

    The park, then uptown

    • Congo Square · Morning · Walk

      Stand in it for a while before you read about it. Sunday drum circles happen here and they are not a show for visitors.

    • Café du Monde · Morning · Coffee

      Cash only, beignets and chicory coffee, and do not wear black.

    • Commander's Palace · Midday · Meal

      Weekday lunch with jazz, a jacket, and the turtle soup. The one properly grown-up meal of the trip.

      • Seen in Time Out New Orleans. Listed among the best restaurants in New Orleans as a Garden District Creole institution known for turtle soup

    • Maple Leaf Bar · Night · Sight

      Late start, back patio, and whoever is playing is worth staying for.

  3. Day 3

    Quarter, then Napoleon Avenue

    • French Quarter · Morning · Walk

      Walk the river end early, before the heat and the crowds. The quiet blocks are north of Royal.

    • Fritzel's European Jazz Pub · Evening · Sight

      Traditional jazz, one drink minimum, standing at the back is fine.

    • Tipitina's · Night · Sight

      Last night, uptown, and the portrait over the stage is the whole history of the place.

      • Seen in Time Out. Listed among the best live music venues in New Orleans, named after a Professor Longhair song
  • Seen in Time Out. Time Out's list of nineteen venues for live jazz in New Orleans, used to order these three nights

Kwesi is a TravelDay buddy: drawn, fictional, and not an account in the network. Research edition 2026-09-17.