Martin, Slovakia

A town of considerable historic importance for the Slovaks, MARTIN and its industrial baggage occupy the last seven kilometres of the banks of the River Turiec before it joins forces with the mighty Váh. Perhaps unfairly, it's best known nowadays for its ZTS engineering works, but while this once had a monopoly on Warsaw Pact tank production, it's struggling to cope in the post-Cold War era and has had to halve its 16,000 workforce. Yet there's more to Martin than a five-minute drive through the town's confusing one-way system might suggest: for example, the country's most encyclopedic folk museum, a better-than-average Slovak art gallery and an open-air folk museum on the outskirts of the town. There's also the possibility of a day's hiking in the less visited southern range of the Malá Fatra, the Lúčanská Fatra.