12 Best Things to Do in Manchester

This quayside location in Trafford Park was bombed heavily during WW2 so it’s especially appropriate that it was chosen as the home of the Imperial War Museum North. 

The 2021 opening of this new 154-acre garden was greeted with much excitement and long queues, and rightly so. Once a derelict and overgrown site, it’s now a major visitor attraction with plenty to offer all year round. 

Manchester Museum reopened in February 2023 following a £15m transformation to make it more inclusive and more imaginative in how it tells its stories.

Even if you’re not a Blue you can’t help but be impressed with the scale of the Etihad Stadium in this regenerated area of East Manchester.

Even if it’s not a match day, there’s plenty happening at the iconic Old Trafford stadium. The best way to experience it (aside from watching a game, of course) is to go on the behind-the-scenes Manchester United Museum and Stadium Tour.

Any art lover’s trip to Manchester would not be complete without a morning or afternoon spent gazing at the walls (and wallpaper collections) of The Whitworth.

Where else but footy-mad Manchester to house the National Museum of the UK’s favourite sport? Explore the history of the beautiful game inside the unusual-looking Urbis building next to Manchester Victoria train station.

Only open on Wednesdays (and closed entirely during the winter months), Victoria Baths isn’t fully geared up as a visitor attraction. But it’s still one of Manchester’s most beautiful and best-loved buildings. If you get an opportunity to see inside, take it. You’ll be smitten.

Much like the once mighty industrial power of the North, Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum has shrunk noticeably over the years. But it’s still well worth a visit.

The People’s History Museum tells the story of the development of democracy in Britain. It’s the only museum in the UK that focuses on the revolutionaries, reformers, workers, voters, and citizens who believed in ideas worth fighting for, like equality, social justice and co-operation.

Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre is an exciting clash of modernity and history and the same can be said of its programming.

It’s part of the University of Manchester but you don’t have to be a scholar to enjoy this inspiring space. In fact, John Rylands Library was built to give the people of Manchester a place where they could read, create and wonder.