A plan for Manchester

The city is in the North West of England, between Liverpool and Leeds. It is seen by many as a young, vibrant and cutting edge city, where there is always something happening. The "Manchester brand" is seen to extend well beyond the city's boundaries (covering all of neighbouring Salford and Trafford, as well as districts of other boroughs) and even beyond those of Greater Manchester. This serves to reflect the influence it has on the wider region as a whole.

Manchester is a friendly city as well. Northerners do talk to each other and to strangers. Just compare asking for directions in London and Manchester and the difference is often clear. Locals seem more proud than ever of Manchester and all it offers. Some outsiders may find this fierce pride in their city somewhat "un-British". Positive comments and praise go down a treat with the locals, and with all that has happened, such is often due.

The adjective associated with Manchester is Mancunian or simply Manc. The distinctive linguistic accent of the city's indigenous inhabitants is much more closely related to that of Liverpool with its strong north-Waleian (Welsh) roots than it is to the Lancastrian or Cestrian of the neighbouring cotton towns. However, most locals still consider Manchester to be part of Lancashire, and the rivalry with Yorkshire persists.

Although it has gained the stereotype of being very wet, it is actually less than the UK average.

Tourist information

1 Manchester Visitor Information Centre, Manchester Central Library, St Peters Square, M2 5PD, ☏ +44 871 222 8223, fax: +44 161 236-9900, touristinformation@visitmanchester.com. Mon-Sat 9AM-5PM. Has up-to-date lists of places to eat and sleep. The visitor centre has moved close to the town hall. (calls incur a 12p per minute service charge, plus your phone provider's per-minute access charge). (updated Oct 2022)

As you would expect from such a cosmopolitan city, Manchester has a huge selection of restaurants and eateries that serve a vast array of cuisines. Look hard enough and you will be able to find any type of international and British food. It is also worth exploring some of the suburbs for superb, small independent bistros and restaurants. West Didsbury and Chorlton are noted for their large number of great eateries. If you can get there, the quaintly named and somewhat trendy village of Ramsbottom, just north of Bury, directly north of Manchester, is said to be "the new Chorlton", in regards to restaurants, and the place to eat. The usual, well-established UK chains like Café Rouge, Pizza Express, and Nando's are all to be found in Manchester city centre and out of town too.

There are hundreds of kebab and pizza shops on Oxford Road and in Fallowfield and Rusholme. In Rusholme, in particular, locals speak of the £10 curry, where if you bring your own drinks into the curry house, you should leave with change from a ten-pound note.Some of the cheapest, long-established curry cafés, though, are still to be found in the back streets of the Northern Quarter and Central Deansgate offering a novel twist on the traditional British café.

Chinese

There are plenty of all-you-can-eat buffets in Chinatown for less than £10. Prices tend to change with the time of day and likely demand. If you eat earlier in the day, you can have a full all-you-can-eat meal, including soup, starter, and dessert for around £5. Salford is also a good option to look for Chinese food, as a particularly high concentration Hongkongers have settled there.

Mid-range

British

Sam's Chop House on Chapel Walks is popular with visitors looking for a British dining experience (not an easy feat in the UK's big cities), as well as Sinclair's Oyster Bar at Cathedral Gates. Many hotels offer menus that tend towards national dishes.

Manchester has a diverse nightlife and can offer a wide range of night-time activities. It has a vibrant and varied nightlife scene, including numerous clubs as well as a huge range of drinking establishments from traditional pubs to ultra-chic concept bars. Very high-profile, of late, is the Cloud 23 bar on the 23rd floor of The Hilton, Deansgate. A bit pricey, but with attentive table service, and worth it for the views alone. By the way, the personnel is very friendly and won't kick you out if you just want to have a look - you can go up for free. To avoid the sometimes 2-hour long queues, try it during the week. The bars in The Radisson Blu and The Aurora Hotel are also upmarket. For other upmarket venues (there are some very discreet ones catering for the most privileged in town), your hotel concierge should be of help in pointing you in the right direction.

For a slightly more quirky place to have a drink, The Temple of Convenience is aptly named as it is a converted underground public toilet in the city centre. The bar receives many high reviews although it's quite small and may be crowded. Famed for its musical past, the University of Manchester Student's Union on Oxford Road hosts almost nightly gigs in its four venues on Oxford Road ranging from local unsigned bands to international superstars. The Manchester Apollo in Ardwick is a slightly bigger venue having boasted appearances from Blondie to Kasabian. Smaller bands can also be seen at a range of excellent venues in the city including the Night and Day, in the Northern Quarter, and Albert Hall just off Deansgate, O2 Ritz & Gorilla near Oxford Road.

Transport in Greater Manchester is overseen and co-ordinated by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) who use the branding "Bee Network" (Information: 0161 244 1000).

Bee Network operates a multimodal journey planner which is a great help in planning getting around the Greater Manchester area. Bee Network sell a number of tickets which are valid for multiple operators, such as the1-day Bee Bus tickets are £2.50 for children and £5 for adults. If you are planning to do a lot of travelling in one day, these might be your cheapest option. If using Metrolink There are tickets for single people and family tickets. The cheapest off-peak fares are after 9:30AM. For Smartphone users there is a "Bee Network" app available for Android & iPhones which has journey planning tools and the availability to purchase some ticket types.

Maps

Dotted around the city centre on main streets including Deansgate, Oxford Road, and Market Street, are the pedestrian-level street maps. They are usually placed in normal advertising hoardings, which can make them difficult to spot from a distance. The maps have been updated with different colours for each district area of the city centre. Your position is marked by a dark circle. They cover the whole centre down to the university district and also central Salford up to Salford University. You can obtain a similar map from the tourist information centre or download one from here.

Most smartphone owners use Google or Apple Maps but if you are more "Old School" A-Z maps are still available. These street maps, in book form, are available from newsagents or bookshops and, depending on size, cover everything from the city centre to the whole Greater Manchester conurbation.

On foot in the city centre

Manchester city centre's many attractions are easily reached on foot, and walking provides the perfect opportunity to take in the architecture of the city. There are various pedestrianised streets across the city centre such as Thomas Street, Market Street.

If you're uncomfortable around thousands of intoxicated young people, then you should probably avoid Friday and Saturday night taxi queues in the city centre. You should also avoid any conflict with door staff at bars, clubs and pubs.

All pubs, bars and clubs are best avoided on days where the Manchester derby football match is taking place. Relations between the two sets of supporters have never been amicable, to say the least, but things seem to have deteriorated. What starts out as "banter" quite commonly gets out of hand. Wearing a Liverpool or Leeds Utd shirt while you are in Manchester may also draw some unwanted attention to yourself. If you do attend a football match at Old Trafford, or watch a game with fans in a pub, be careful not to raise the issue of the 1958 Munich Air Disaster, especially if you are openly identifying as a supporter of a rival team. While the disaster was more than 60 years ago, "Munich chants" and related slurs still cause deep anger and hostility, and could provoke a violent response. Similarly, talking about "oil money" around Man City fans - or accusing them of "buying success" - will cause hostility. As a general rule, on match days, if you want to openly show support for Man Utd, do so in the areas around Old Trafford in Salford and the Quays, and if you want to do the same as a Man City supporter go to the Etihad.