Sweden's hippest, most beautiful city is well worth its reputation. Located on the East Coast, it's close to great floes of water and beautifully wooded offshore islands, plus a range of historic buildings that give it an ageing, lived-in feel - at odds with its status as Sweden's most modern city. And you can forget the minimalism of Ikea and the miserablism of Bergman – the nightlife is loud and happy, the women are Ice Queen beauties straight off the covers of fashion magazines and the drink, though pricey, is strong and plentiful. Absolute!

Café Opera

Box 1616 SE-111 86 Stockholm,
Hours: Daily 17.00 – 05.00

Your chance to catch a glimpse of the rich and famous if you haven’t quite made your first million yet (but you’re working on it.) Classy, shiny, sparkly and … pricey. Console yourself with some good Irish medicine, you know what I mean.

Berns

Berzelii Park PO Box 16340
Stockholm, 10327
Telephone: 00 468 56632222

A spectacular 19th-century baroque house in Berzeli Park that would probably be a Heritage museum if it were in Britain. Instead it's a magnificent multi-purpose venue where the party lights are partly provided by crystal chandeliers hanging from 6m-high ceilings. The building includes a stylish hotel, a fine Conran-designed restaurant, a cocktail bar, a plush deep-red lounge bar with low sofas, and a swish members-only club in the basement. Aside form strong drinks served by mixers well-versed in the vodka cocktail, the bars and club specialize in music, with local and international DJs spinning house, soul, R & B‚ B and Hip Hop in the three different rooms. Once again they have a great terrace that's a big crowd-pleaser in summer. We say, Berns the candle at both ends

Gondolen

Stadtsgården 6 Södermalm
Stockholm, 104 65
Telephone: + 46 8 641 7090
Hours: Mon-Fri 11:30am-1am; Sat 1pm-1am

A Södermalm classic, this one a gourmet French restaurant in a setting that will stun the most jaded of locals. Suspended beneath a pedestrian overpass above the channel that divides Södermalm from the island of Gamla Stan, the structure dates back to 1935, and the 1940s interior attests to that. But when you're whisked up about 11 floors and your view is of the open seas, gorgeous Lake Malar and downtown Stockholm twinkling in the winter night, you are right at home. The main restaurant is pricey, the more modest "Kitchen" cheaper, but order a whiskey sour at the glass-walled bar, soak up the view and you won't mind what you pay for your meal.

Halv Trappa plus Gard

3 Lastmakargatan
Stockholm, 11636
Telephone: 00 468 611 0277
Hours: Mon - Tues 5pm - 1am Wed - Sat 5pm - 3am

A relaxed and trendy Stureplan spot with a ground floor restaurant and an apartment-like loft bar, each with separate entrances. We like it upstairs where groovy scenesters sit on the floor at low tables, take strong drinks at the bar or groove to the breakbeats played by some of Stockholm's hottest DJs. Of course the gals in here all look like catwalk queens and in summer, when the back yard is open, it's a parade of gorgeous flesh close to paradise. But Gard, we're not complaining.

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