Ostrava, Czech Republic

Having spent decades as the kind of place you'd be best advised to avoid, OSTRAVA (Ostrau) is emerging onto the must-do list for Moravia-bound travellers. Long dismissed as a grim coal-and-steel town blighted by environmental pollution, the Czech Republic's third-largest city experienced an almost total economic collapse in the 1990s. Heavy industry's decline did however bring an immediate improvement in the air quality, and Ostrava – drip-fed back to life with European Union funds – set about reinventing itself as a forward-looking post-industrial metropolis. Crucial to Ostrava's new image is its growing reputation for hedonism-fuelled nightlife, thanks in large part to the popularity of Stodolní – a pedestrianized street which constitutes a single uninterrupted strip of bars and clubs.