Malmo Malmo may be joined at the hip with Copenhagen, but despite being a hop and a skip away from the Danish capital, its character is decidedly Swedish - more confident reserve than bawdy approachability. Cross the Öresund Bridge and the tourist throngs thin out, coffee supplants beer as the beverage of choice and the general pace slows from an urban sprint to a vaguely suburban stroll.

In its attitude, however, Malmö is anything but suburban. Sweden's third city, it may be less familiar than its bigger siblings, Stockholm and Gothenburg, but this formerly industrial metropolis is arguably more progressive and dynamic, shaped by its pockets of multiculturalism and knack for reinvention. Here, once crumbling warehouses have found new life as artisan food markets and gallery spaces; hip clothes stores sit tooth-to-jowl with authentic Syrian, Turkish and Lebanese restaurants, run by the city's buoyant immigrant communities, while a commitment to sustainability has seen pioneering new models for urban living flourish, from eco hotels to carbon-neutral neighbourhoods.

Malmö is not only the place where Sweden clasps hands with Denmark, but where old meets new, cultures collide and where wandering the streets will have you rethinking what you thought you knew about the Nordics.