My friends and I are students from University College Northampton, I live in Leicestershire but they had never been before.

To end the academic year we decided to celebrate my birthday together in Leicester. We booked a room at the Travelodge which, although had no parking facilities was located conveniently outside the Shires Shopping Centre and close to the pubs - a necessity for us students!

We spent the day shopping and then relaxed in the hotel before hitting the town.

A traditional style English pub

The night begins
We started the drinking session at the Highcross, a traditional style English pub crammed with football fans and then we progressed on to Squares.

My friends all loved Squares it was the favourite pub of the night, they played good party music to get us into the mood. The place was busy, although not crammed and the service at the bar was excellent and very speedy.

My friends were amazed by the excellent cocktails they served and particularly enjoyed the party sized giant pitchers. The bar men have a particular party trick for special events if you ask nicely - it involves whipped cream and a lot of humiliation!

Time for a breather!
Anyway we then progressed to Yates's which is a fun and cheerful pub on the way to Showrooms on Charles Street - with its cosy cosmopolitan style and its trendy upmarket feel we found it to be a great bar to have a laugh and a chat before going on to the clubs.

Making your night entertaining - Showrooms

Showrooms is located between the most popular bar venues and the nightclubs and so therefore a convenient place to stop and relax on the lovely suede sofas before heading off for something more hardcore.

Dancing shoes on?
Our chosen club for the evening was the aptly named Life, here there is a variety of music ranging from Abba to Black-eyed Peas and other more extreme dance anthems.

The dance floor is small but adequate and you can easily get lost in the amount of fake smoke that is blasted out at you. Nevertheless it is a lively night club and one of Leicester's most popular, however the service was less than sufficient and you should expect to have to endure some time standing at the bar waiting for service.

Leicester's the place!
Overall Leicester provided a great night out and has a brilliant choice of bars, but the nightclubs are less than you would expect for such a great city and so my advice would be to enjoy as many bars as possible before surrendering to the desire to dance the night away and defiantly pay a visit to the bar men in Squares!

Hannah O'Dell