The Late Night, Free Cultural Event Extravaganza: European Night Of Museums 2013

Budget traveling night owl alert: if you’re in Europe right now you don’t want to miss out on the ninth annual European Night of Museums this Saturday, May 18.

The idea is simple: open up museums way past their general closing hours, cut the entrance fee and make museum going a little more like nightlife instead of a rainy Sunday afternoon activity.

Coinciding with International Museum Day, European Night of Museums is organized by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, and this year almost 3,000 museums around Europe are participating not just by opening their doors for the late-night crowd, but hosting special events and beyond. Track them down here.

In Paris for example you have access to 150 museums and cultural centers – most of them for free – and while the waived entrance fee might attract a larger crowd to some of the more well known spots, it also means the chance to explore a few new places that you might have been meaning to check off the list.

In the U.K., you’ll also find Museums at Night, tied in with the European Night of Museums campaign, but open for a couple of extra days, this year held May 16-18, 2013.

Latvia, Romania, Norway … wherever you are in Europe, find a museum and book your Saturday night.

Where to go in the middle of the night

It’s 2am. You’re in the middle of nowhere. You’re up. What do you do?

Cleverly named 2itch.com will tell you what’s open 24 hours anywhere in the US and a few places beyond! You just enter in your location and they tell you what’s open. This is ideal for road trips, business trips, and visiting friends or family who go to bed early.

They currently have over 4,000 locations (including a random 400+ in Phoenix), and a ton are user-submitted, so if you want your town to rock at 4am, send in the right places for people to go!

You can even hook up 2itch to your mobile phone. Visit the website to see. Thanks to reader Tony R. for the tip!

Lunarama: Where To Go To Get Your Food On Late-Night

If you’re planning on staying out late in an unfamiliar city, you might want to check out Lunarama before you go.

Organized by city — almost all of which are in the US — the site feature tons of user-submitted suggestions for all-restaurants and joints. To see how complete the site is, I searched for some of my own favorite places:

  • In downtown Atlanta? Try The Majestic, a diner I used to frequent that hasn’t closed its doors once since 1929. Perfect for calming down after boogeying at Blind Willie’s.
  • Bloomington, Indiana’s Falafels serves some of the tastiest gyros I’ve ever had. Perfect for after a day hiking in the area’s nearby parks.
  • Indy’s Red Eye Cafe‘ll make ya squint, but the food is great. Head there after you drink steins at the Rathskeller.
  • The Big Pink is a great place to go in Miami, post-clubbing or after a long day at the beach.