Manchester: Your Next City Break

While international travel is as available as it has been in more than a year, mitigating the risk of catching (or, more importantly, spreading) Covid means it’s still complicated and expensive and lots of people are looking at rural staycations and UK city breaks. If you’re looking for a city with culture, great food and plenty of things to do Manchester might just fit the bill. Let us be your guides!

Sports

Manchester is famously a city of sports, home to two of the country’s and indeed the world’s top football clubs. Whether you follow Manchester United, Manchester City or you’re simply carried away by the scale of the passion at play in fans of either team, Manchester has a lot to offer you. Both teams have dedicated museums showcasing the history of their most famous players, managers and trainers, and how they built their current titanic reputations. You can also tour the stadiums to see where the magic happens even if there’s no game on.

History

Manchester has a rich history, from it’s early Roman settlement as the fort of Mamucium, it’s huge expansion due to the industrial revolution and its 20th century life transitioning from manufacturing into a vibrant cultural centre. This history is curated and displayed in many museums spread across town, from a recreation of that initial Roman fort, to the story of the city’s latter day ascent in the science and technology museum. There are also plenty of smaller, more specialised galleries and museums, focusing on a single moment in history or a local resident. The Pankhurst Centre on Nelson Street is well worth a visit, for example. As the home of the Pankhurst family between 1898 and 1907, it was the first meeting place of the Suffragette Movement, and remains a place of pilgrimage for those inspired by it.

Food

Manchester has a vibrant culinary scene, from the infamous Curry Mile to sophisticated contemporary restaurants which rate among the best in the world. The city’s Michelin starred eatery is called Mana, an exemplar in the art of contemporary British food, using fresh ingredients from all the UK. including reindeer moss brought direct from the Isle of Skye! If you want something a little more approachable you could always head back to the Theatre of Dreams and check out the specials at Cafe Football – a restaurant which aims to capture the spirit of the game with dishes like the Nicky Butty club sandwich and Scholesy suet pudding!

You can check out our other Days Out in other areas, to see what to explore.