Ultimate Guide to a Weekend in Manchester

Posted on 04/22/2019

Manchester is slowly becoming my favourite city in the United Kingdom, and this blog post will certainly tell you why. As with my travels, most of the time I head off on a flight to somewhere in Europe, but back in March I decided I wanted to head north for a weekend in Manchester. The city is home to football, architecture, rooftop terraces and quirky Northern Quarter.

And it’s also a pretty compact city with it being possible to walk from one end of the city to the other in less than 15 minutes, and everything seems so close and accessible. Here’s my city guide to a weekend in Manchester….

Contents

TOP THINGS TO DO ON A WEEKEND IN MANCHESTER

Northern Quarter
Vinyl shops
Victoria Baths
Ancoats
The Lowry
Manchester Pride
National Football Museum
Chinatown
Manchester Central Library

HOW TO GET TO MANCHESTER

Its incredibly easy to get from anywhere in the UK to Manchester, especially by rail. The train from London to Manchester takes only 2 1/2 hours and is the easiest and fastest option. If you plan in advance you can get tickets for as little as £15 but we booked within four weeks of travel and it was about £50 return. When you’re in Manchester you can walk everywhere – there’s no need for a car and if you do want to head out of the city to Salford or Trafford then hire an Uber as they are super easy to use. There’s also a tram, with a new stop heading over to the Trafford Centre coming in 2019/2020.

WHERE TO STAY IN MANCHESTER

Budget

Travelodge Manchester Central is basic but worth the money with a great location and access to all the hotspots in the city, including the bars. Prices start at £60

DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Piccadilly is great for the location, connected to Manchester Piccadilly station and is a super-comfortable, modern hotel. Prices start at £100

Hotel ibis budget Manchester Salford Quays is a 21-minute walk to Media City UK, a 15-minute walk to Old Trafford, a 14-minute walk to the Lowry Theatre with easy access to the city. Prices start at £90

Mid-range

The Midland Hotel is iconic and has a lot of history. It is also centrally located with amazing architecture and it’s loved by locals and tourists alike. Prices start at £100

Didsbury House Hotel offers a greener, quieter go-to – but not too far outside the city centre. The 27 rooms at this branch of the Eclectic Hotel group are totally irresistible. Prices start at £135

Hilton Manchester Deansgate occupies the lower 23 floors of Manchester’s tallest building, the 47-floor Beetham Tower. The views are amazing! Prices start at £170

Luxury

The Principal Manchester is another 5* hotel in the centre with a decadent feel and amazing food at The Refuge! Prices start at £170

The King Street Townhouse is the first ‘baby grand’ hotel in Manchester, and offers incredible views of the city. It’s in the former Manchester Salford Trustees Bank building so has a long history too! Prices start at £190

Great John Street Hotel is a red-brick boutique hotel is part of Manchester’s Eclectic Hotels group, which also counts King Street Townhouse among its establishments. Prices start at £270

WHERE TO EAT IN MANCHESTER

Neighbourhood is an amazing cafe located centrally with an amazing bottomless brunch. It’s the perfect place to head with your girls on a Saturday morning! For only £30 per head you get to choose a brunch dish and unlimited drinks for 1.5 hours.

Albert Schloss – Albert’s Schloss is Manchester’s first Tankovna, serving the freshest Pilsner this side of the Danube. Add to this, 10 heritage brews on the taps, Alpine cocktails, homemade Schnapps, an uber wine list and ‘push for Prosecco’ buttons on every table. We headed here on the Friday night when arrived and it was heaving, with an amazing atmosphere and crowd, before the drag queens even arrived!

Mackie Mayor – A huge converted Grade II-listed building close to Band on the Wall that promises 400 seats and cracking food from the likes of pizza Gods Honest Crust. The people behind it are also responsible for the regenerated Altrincham Market. A game-changer for the region’s culinary offering if ever there was one.

Evelyn’s Cafe – We stumbled across Evelyn’s not long after arriving in the city, and it was an amazing place to sit down, grab a glass of wine and relax. It’s also great for coffee and brunch, where you can dine all day!

20 Stories – 20 Stories is an iconic restaurant in the heart of Spinningfields which serves both food all day and is the perfect place for a cocktail and to take in the views across the city. There’s also live music, a rooftop garden with trees scaling two storeys high and unparalleled views. And also check out the bathrooms…

Peter Street Kitchen – Another place recommended by many locals, located in the Radisson Blu Edwardian Manchester, they offer an array of small plates from Mexican and Japanese cuisine. It’s popular though so book well in advance and be prepared to the wowed!

Sunset Bar – This place is an Instagrammer’s dream with velvet seating, neon wall signs, flower walls and much more. The restaurant has an exquisite sunshine infused selection of sushi and deliciously light Asian fusion dishes and it’s also a great place to grab a cocktail.

Ezra & Gil – This place is a contemporary urban venue for coffee drinks and a menu of imaginative light meals. Ezra & Gil’s menu goes through slight changes every season and caters for all – vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options are available.

WHAT TO DO IN MANCHESTER

Northern Quarter

The Northern Quarter is jam-packed with art galleries, shops, cafes, restaurants, street art and more. It’s the perfect place to head on a Sunday for a wander.

Victoria Baths

When it opened way back in 1906, Victoria Baths was described as the “most splendid municipal bathing institution in the country.” It’s a swanky swimming pool alright and, when it closed in 1993, everything from the ornate Edwardian tiles to the retro poolside changing rooms were perfectly preserved. Now, it hosts some of the best events in the city, the empty pools filled with antiques fairs and food festivals.

Crystal Maze

If you are aged anything from 20-40 years old, you will understand my excitement when we decided to head to Crystal Maze in Manchester on our final day in the city. The hit 90s TV show can now be experienced through am breathtakingly immersive, genuine 3D life. It’s where teams run around madly, shout themselves hoarse, complete all sorts of tricky challenges and finish up in some lovely satin bomber jackets. Honestly, this has everything. And we really loved jumping in to The Crystal Maze LIVE Experience.

All you have to do is gather up some friends, form a team and be ready to take on the many challenges contained within The Crystal Maze LIVE Experience. Throughout your experience you will be expertly guided by your eccentric Maze Master as you journey through four different adventure zones: Aztec, Industrial, Futuristic and Medieval. As you make your way around the experience you take it in turns to take part in the challenges, collecting crystals: every challenge successfully completed wins your team a crystal. Then once you are finished you head in to the famous final challenge – The Crystal Dome. Here, your team must work together to catch as many tokens as possible, a task made so much harder by the Dome’s super-strength fans.

Vinyl shops

Independent record stores such as Vinyl Exchange, Eastern Bloc and Piccadilly Records have been supplying Mancunians with good tunes for years, and have become world-renowned for their collections.

Ancoats

It’s no secret that Manchester’s food scene is growing at an incredible rate, and a restaurant tour of Ancoats is the best place to start exploring it. Formerly known as little Italy given its Italian immigrant population in the late 19th century, it seems fitting that one of the first game-changing restaurants in recent years was Rudy’s Neapolitan Pizza.

The Lowry

Another iconic building in Manchester in The Lowry! The wonderful waterside location is just ten minutes from the city centre, where The Lowry, Imperial War Museum North and Old Trafford Stadium are all within walking distance of each other. The Lowry is a hot spot for top theatre, from world premiers to West End successes.

Manchester Pride

In August each summer, Manchester Pride takes centre stage. This year’s festival will have a radically different feel, with bosses moving its main music venue from the Gay Village to a huge disused former railway depot. A full Rainbow Pass costs £64.50 but, if you want to join in and save some pennies, watch the parade on Saturday for free.

Manchester City, Manchester United and the National Football Museum

Manchester is world famous for their football, with people in the far flung areas of the world, knowing about Manchester United and David Beckham. With two major teams plus the National Football Museum in the city centre, it’s safe to say that some Mancunians – and tourists – live and breathe football.

Chinatown

Chinatown in Manchester is reputedly Europe’s largest, with its collection of restaurants, bakeries, businesses and supermarkets concentrated across a number of blocks in the city centre. A beautiful three-tiered pagoda welcomes you into the area and it’s a great place to visit at any time!

Manchester Central Library

This incredible piece of architecture is a must-see and the oldest surviving public library in the English-speaking world is Chetham’s in Manchester, an extraordinary place filled with ancient books and Hogwartian dark, wood-panelled rooms. There’s also the Victorian Gothic John Rylands Library on Deansgate.

Ultimate Guide to a Weekend in Manchester

TOP THINGS TO DO ON A WEEKEND IN MANCHESTER

HOW TO GET TO MANCHESTER

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