Alcohol rules are wildly local, and evening plans benefit from knowing which regime you are in. The main variables: shop sales hours, with many countries cutting off retail alcohol in the evening or banning sales on certain days and holidays; bar and club closing times, ranging from early mandatory closings to round-the-clock cities; public drinking, legal and normal in some countries, ticketed in others, and a serious offense in a few; and dry days around elections and religious occasions, common across South Asia and elsewhere.
A separate cluster of countries regulates alcohol tightly across the board, limiting it to licensed venues and hotels, restricting it during religious periods like Ramadan, or requiring permits, and in a few places prohibiting it entirely. Minimum drinking and purchase ages also vary, as does zone-based licensing where one district parties while the next sleeps by law.
The practical moves: check the destination's norms before planning a nightlife-centered trip, buy retail alcohol before the cutoff hour where one exists, keep drinking inside licensed venues when in doubt, and never assume the habits of home transfer. Hotel staff will map the local reality for you in one conversation, including the unwritten parts no website covers.