The new Euro vision of Estonia

Next month, Estonia faces becoming the butt of Terry Wogan's sarcasm: after winning the Eurovision Song Contest last year, its capital, Tallinn, is to host the event.

No doubt Terry will enjoy the quaint centre, with its medieval maze of acutely angled, cobbled streets. On a Saturday night in late March, though, with temperatures plunging to minus five degrees, its pubs and bars are definitely the place to be.

Ten years after its bloodless revolution, Estonia is forging ahead with plans to join Nato and the EU, while making cultural ties with the West, importing dance music and cutting-edge bar design. A case in point, Cafe VS, lies just beyond the city walls. Metal covers every surface: walls, ceiling, chairs and tables. Its basement looks like the inside of a submarine, but at 10pm its clientele are up for it, a table of impassive girls in fur-collared overcoats adding colour. Upstairs, a DJ spins robust techno at a volume that still permits conversation.

Behind the bar is Mark, a printer from London who decided that he "wanted a change". Like many British visitors, Mark came on a stag night but noticed that the city had more to offer than cheap booze and strip joints. Over a half-litre of Estonia's premier brew, the refreshing Saku, he introduces his mate Juan, a Spanish businessman who agrees to show me the city with his Russian girlfriend, Marsha.

"Russian" here refers to people born and raised in the city, but not of native Estonian descent. They retain the spontaneity and vibrancy of people from their mother country. As Mark explains: "If an Estonian is down to his last few quid, he will stay in and watch TV. A Russian will go out and make sure he has a crazy time."

Juan drives us back to the city centre and a square dominated by a grand building with a portico like a Soviet take on classical architecture. This former cinema is now home to Tallinn's flagship nightspot, Club Hollywood. Less impressive is the scrum we have to push through at midnight to get in. Estonians don't believe in queueing.

Grand inside as well as out, Club Hollywood's large dancefloor is packed with groups of men and women eyeing up the opposite sex: here a gaggle of girls with striking Scandinavian looks in revealing tops, there a gang of lads in tight T-shirts, all the better to reveal bodies toned by national service.

Apart from the odd shove, the guys are well behaved - remarkably so, given the talent on show. "The boys here don't know what they've got, they're so used to it," Juan says over a mix of chart R'n'B and poppy house. We console ourselves with Hollywood's comprehensive selection of spirits - the local vodka is clean-tasting and potent.

After an hour of waiting for the music to improve, we leave and motor off up a wide Stalinist boulevard that runs along the old town to a very different club. With comfy seats and tasteful creams, browns and reds, Spirit has a laid- back Shoreditch feel, with a dance hall more welcoming than Hollywood's. High-quality sound systems pump out funky, French-style house. But at 1am it's deserted, for Estonia's top-name DJs are playing Tallinn's biggest club night ...

On up the boulevard for 10 minutes, we hit Sextravaganza, in Club Terrarium. Newly opened in a monolithic complex by the port, it's run by Russians, and looks it. An office-block staircase leads up to a mammoth hall rendered more cavernous by smoke and vast batteries of lights and lasers. The crowd is just as disorientating. On one side, a middleaged, mustachioed, suited man and a woman in frilly garb doing dirty dancing; on the other, trad ravers in baggy clothes and trainers. House music distracts them from what gives the night its name - pole dancers and porn-film excerpts. At 4am, pummelling trance beats herald local star DJ Meri; fans around his booth start moshing. Time for a wander.

At the urinal, I find myself staring through one-way glass at a girl applying her make-up. At least I hope it's one-way. The club's second room is given over to soul, hip-hop and a girl taking a shower in a Perspex cage and dancing for a gaggle of excited blokes. It's 6.30am and we've seen enough. Outside, a long row of cabs awaits - not an uncommon sight in Tallinn. The drivers speak next to no English, but at £2 a ride, you don't mind.

On Sunday night, the old town is deserted. The people of Tallinn are still sleeping off Saturday night. They don't need cheesy song contests to help them celebrate their appearance on the map of Europe.

? The Eurovision Song Contest is on 25 May.

Way to go

Chris Mugan travelled to Estonia with Thomson Breakaway (0870 606 1476); two nights in Tallinn from £329pp (B&B, sharing) at the Hotel Domina City Residence, including flights with Estonian Air.

Gimme five .... destination bars