It is a hot June Friday night in Brno, before the last of this season's fireworks contests rips into the night sky above the gothic steeples of Petrov church, and I've just withdrawn 2,000 krona (about £70). That's a lot for a weekend, jokes Michal Kasparak, a local journalist and the man behind Brno Now (brnonow.com), an English-language blog on what to do in the Czech Republic's second city, and my guide for my stay.
After a long weekend in Brno, capital of eastern, wine-producing, Moravia, I realise Michal wasn't joking. Brno is cheap. Very cheap. Far cheaper than its more worldly compatriot, Prague, 150 miles to the north-west.
Four-star hotels here are great value given the service and grandeur of some, and Brno is so compact that you don't need taxis. It is surprisingly rich in sights, too, be they Hapsburg homes, opera houses, communist concert halls or – the icing on the cake – stunning icons of functionalist architecture.
Good food and drink are cheap. Whereas you need satnav, fluent Czech and a degree in orienteering to find a beer for under £1 in Prague, in Brno a gorgeously frothy, hoppy, locally brewed beer such as Dalesicke, is literally cheaper than water, even in a swanky nightclub. Not that Brno does swanky. Or trendy. Or expensive. In fact, it's all rather refreshing.
Brno seems friendlier, more laid-back and more fun than the capital – where they call Brno "the communist city with colourful buildings". Mass tourism seems to have passed Brno by, except for its annual motorcycle Grand Prix (13-15 August this year). Which is odd given that this near-800-year-old city boasts a Unesco world heritage site within its walls – Mies van der Rohe's Villa Tugendhat, a masterpiece of 1920s functionalist design - plus Spilberk castle in the old town.
Still, not spending £70 over a weekend in a city full of bars, clubs and restaurants that is home to 400,000 people, a quarter of whom are students, seems a stiff challenge.
My first dinner offers a clue. At Vytopna (ul. Hlinky 34), which serves beers on a model train, we tuck into starters of salmon, brown bread and pickled pear with duck liver, followed by Flintstone-size grilovana zebra (fear not – it's smoked honey ribs of pork), with mustard and pickles. There's enough food for four, but the bill comes to about a tenner.
After the fireworks, the crowds make for the bars and clubs in the old town, heading down through Petrska to the still functioning Krautmarkt (vegetable market), home to cafe bars such as the brilliant Air Cafe (ul Zelny trh 8), a shrine to the Czech RAF, chock-full of memorabilia, then up via Dominikanske, where we stumble upon Pivnice u Poutnika (Starobrnenská 16/18; go through an arch, past the boho Taverna Trojka, through the live music courtyard, past the sculpture, and stop below gay club Acko).
Here, off the medieval courtyard, merry pipe-smoking punters knock back strong Pelhrimov beer, slivovice (potent plum brandy) chasers and utopenec, Czech tapas of onions and peppers encased in sausage meat and fished from a jar of pickled water. They're good. Honest. Czech tapas are more refined at Panoptikum (Jakubka 9), a modern bar serving great beer, snacks such as hermelin (strong cheese kept in oil, served on brown bread), korbacik (cheese strings), the ubiquitous "beer balls" (paprika covered cheese balls with gherkins and bread) and masovy knedlik (meatloaf tapas). There is heartier fare too; a turkey breast rolled with bacon and spinach in a cream sauce with dry tomatoes and plums.
Pegas on the same street is a new hotel brasserie, pumping out beer brewed in vats behind the bar and perfect with the spicy house goulash. It also has a more designer take on utopenec.
Perhaps the best find was the new Hansen restaurant , a more formal white-tablecloth establishment on the ground floor and summer terrace of the Brno Philharmonic's headquarters. I had succulent duck thigh with red cabbage and potato dumplings, washed down with a huge glass of red.
I realise I'm not even edging the £70 challenge, and Brno's clubs aren't going to help. You may not get the best DJs in Brno, or the glitziest interiors, but door prices are about £1. Livingstone's (5 Dominikanska nam) is a raucous, smokey dive in a passageway and popular with students. Drinks are £1 a pop. You'll find a fun crowd at Caribic (Behounska 22/24), a cellar club a whole 10-minute walk across town. Here I find myself grinning as unselfconscious locals bounce around to europop and Lady Gaga.
Perhaps the hippest place in town is Fleda (Stefanikova 24), in the historical home of 19th-century cabaret Fledermaus, which hosts visiting acts such as the recent, erm, Last FM party and Chumbawamba. There's a cool hostel above, too. The Duck Bar (Kamenná kolonie 10c) also hosts music and themed parties.
Cellars are a way of life in Brno (you see dusty examples up for sale in estate agents) including the legendary, labyrinthine Charlie's Hat Music Pub (Koblizna 12, £1.50 entry including first drink). Most beer halls and pubs are underground, too, such as the new The Pub (Behounska 9), which has pour-your-own beer – the tap's on your table. Vinotekas (wine bars), of which there are scores, are also subterranean – Brno citizens may deign beer a religion, but it's the local vineyards that bring in the profits.
More light will be shed on Brno's subterranean life when vast catacombs under the town open soon. Some 50,000 skeletons were found under Jakubske namesti in 2001, an ossuary second only to Paris's, apparently. Shops, bars and museums are planned in the sprawling tunnel complex. In the meantime, the vast eerie crypts underneath the Capuchin monastery house open caskets with mummified monks in varying states of decomposition (book in advance).
It's easy to discover Brno beyond the beer and wine, thanks to a new set of walking guides. Grab one from your hotel reception, and spot Moravian baroque, Hapsburg neo-renaissance and medieval gothic architecture. Sadly Villa Tugenhadt is closed for refurbishment until January 2012.
Michal takes me off the beaten path to Severi, a few minutes' stroll north-west from the tram hub at Zerotinovo nam, and perhaps Brno's up-and-coming residential district. Bars dot the residential Gorkeho, where Café Falk is a swish new Hapsburg kavarna serving gourmet coffees such as an Algerian version with egg liqueur and cocktails. The most expensive is a shocking £2.40.
In an excellent old-style wood-panelled Pilsner Urquell pub called Blahovka, Michal recommends the local delicacies, pork knee or roast goose, the former a huge dish for three or four. We settle for beer balls.
Turning on to Maresova, we find Pub Richard, which serves a tasty wheat beer (psenicno pivo) while the arty set seemingly gather at the library-style Salon Daguerre (Slovakova 1).
Things are changing in Brno, says Michal, joking that Prague will soon no longer look down its nose at the second city. He quotes a traditional story: "A man from Brno meets a man from Prague, who asks what people from the second city think about people from the capital. 'They say you look down on us,' Mr Brno says. 'Oh,' shrugs Mr Prague. 'And do you want to know what we say about you folk from Brno? Nothing!'"
Well, they do say something, usually that it's the "last inhabited curve before Vienna" or "the sleepy village in the wild east". But sleepy Brno definitely isn't; cheap it definitely is. Michal doesn't care about such talk: "We are friendlier, more laid-back. We don't care so much about money as Prague people, and that's good." More bohemian than the Bohemians? "Ha, I guess so."
• This article was amended on 24 June and 9 July. The original said that Spilberk castle was a Unesco site; and due to an editing change, the castle was said to be 30 miles outside Brno. A pub was spelled Blahovy and Pegas was referred to as a new hotel brasserie. This has been corrected.
• Ryanair flies from Stansted to Brno from £30 return. Doubles at the Best Western International Hotel cost from £80, and from £70 at the new boutique Comsa Palace (+420 532 156777). For further information see brnonow.com, xs4all.nl/~patto1ro/brnopubs.htm. and czechtourism.com
