Girls on tour: the best places for a Manchester hen do

If you’re in Manchester to see a big name music act, chances are you’re seeing it at the AO Arena.

The Dakota Manchester describes itself as Manchester’s best hotel. We’re not getting into that debate but we will say it’s the city’s most glam.

Designed by Amanda Rosa and owned by Ken McCullough, it’s low-lit and brooding, in a stylish, noirish way.

Food hall meets music festival is how we’d describe Freight Island to anyone confused about what they’ll find at this regenerated rail depot beyond Piccadilly Station. 

Grand Pacific is the work of Living Ventures and it easily outshines its sibling venues in terms of pure glamour. Not in a big chandeliers, glass and chrome Spinningfields way, but with a decadent blend of colonial Raffles-style grandeur and some of the best of the city’s Victorian architecture.

Get your game face on with an afternoon of pool, shuffleboard and table tennis at Pong & Puck in The Great Northern.

Want to fall in love with your city all over again? Take a boat tour from Manchester River Cruises, and you’ll see its iconic views from a new and surprising perspective.

Malmaison Manchester Deansgate is a cool new boutique hotel in the heart of the city. It has amazing views, two restaurants and a quirky 60s style.

With its terrace overlooking Albert Square and Manchester Town Hall, and a beautiful interior featuring a 40-seater private dining room, an open kitchen, and an oyster bar, Piccolino Caffé Grande Manchester is a real destination restaurant. (And, notably, it’s one that doesn’t price people out of the experience.)

From the same team behind Piccolino, Riva Blu Manchester aims to bring a little bit of La Dolce Vita to The Corn Exchange. With a sleek cocktail bar, open kitchen, and alfresco terrace, it’s styled on the high-society glamour of the 1960s, and “modern Italian” cuisine is the name of the game.

Sora Manchester is a rooftop bar and restaurant serving up sushi, Pan Asian small plates and views across the city’s impressive Victorian neo-Gothic architecture.

Three Little Words is housed under the arches at the lesser-visited end of Watson Street, near Beetham Tower. Inside you’ll find the Spirit of Manchester gin distillery, a cocktail bar, and a kitchen serving small plates with thoroughly decent cooking. It’s certainly a place worth knowing about.

Lincoln Square’s traditional Cantonese restaurant Wing’s has been an institution in the city centre since 2004, when it first found fame through the patronage of Premier League footballers.

It takes more than famous names to keep a restaurant thriving though – and it’s testament to the consistency and quality of the upmarket British-Cantonese food that Wing’s is still going strong 20 years later.

The Frog and Bucket is one of Manchester’s longest running comedy clubs and one of the first venues to open in the (now booming) Northern Quarter.

Junkyard Golf is Manchester’s original crazy crazy golf. There are imitators and imposters but this was the city’s first day-glo, booze-fuelled, loud, throbbing take on the traditional seaside game for kids.

With its glowing neon graffiti, low lighting, and hip hop soundtrack, Lane 7 in the Great Northern on Deansgate looks more like a punky 1980s nightclub than a wholesome, All American bowling alley.  

As well as bowling, there is fancy-pants bowling with neon zig zags. A bit of a cross between a new restaurant opening and Blade Runner. All the bowling is pretty sleek and shiny though with the standard graffiti décor.

Non-bowling entertainment includes just about everything that could possibly be construed as competitive with the exception of tiddlywinks.

The Pace Health Club & Nu Spa sits inside the Park Inn by Radisson hotel, on the edge of the city centre, close to Manchester Arena and Victoria Station.

Two things that are guaranteed to release endorphins: puppies and yoga. Paws Yoga combines the two, and was the first yoga class of this kind to touch down in Manchester.

Situated at Dock 8, Salford Quays, Salford Watersports Centre aims to make its activities accessible to everyone who wants to dip their toes in the world of watersports. It offers open water swimming (winter and summer), paddleboarding, sailing, kayaking and powerboating.

Hearing the thud of axes can be a little unnerving as you leave the cinema in the Great Northern – especially after a slasher film – but the axe throwing at Whistle Punks is about letting off steam not cutting off limbs.

It’s competitive and a bit like darts really, only you’re throwing whacking great axes at the target instead. A bullseye with an axe is very satisfying indeed.

Banyan in Manchester’s Spinningfields is a sleek and chic take on all day drinking and dining.

From bottomless brunches every day to late-night fizz, there’s always something happening. These hybrid anytime venues can be a difficult act to pull off but Banyan gets the balance right. It’s the sort of place where you can just as easily call in for a coffee as have big celebration meal.

BLVD is the place to go if you want cool cocktails and a party atmosphere with your meal. It’s a place to get glammed up, to see and be seen with a soundtrack of House, R&B and Hip Hop to go with your Mediterranean small plates.

Describing itself as a full-time party bar and part-time pizza parlour, Crazy Pedro’s is hot on super-chilled drinks, from frozen margaritas to ice cold beers. It’s also the place to head if you haven’t settled the Hawaiian-pizza-isn’t-a-real-pizza argument.

Diecast is a party venue and ‘creative neighbourhood’ five-minutes’ walk from Manchester Piccadilly station.

Dimitri’s has been serving up mezze for over 30 years now. It’s a stalwart of the city’s food and drink scene and with its vibrant atmosphere and happy holiday food, it will probably keep going for 30 more.

It’s sharing food that will bring back memories of trips to Crete or Kefalonia with hummus and generous baskets of pitta breads, juicy olives, stuffed vine leaves, moussaka, herby lamb chops and kebabs all featuring on a typical menu.

For many people, Argentinian restaurant Gaucho Manchester is the destination in the city for very good steak paired with very good wine. Housed in a converted Methodist church on Deansgate, with an open kitchen, and the original church organ still in-situ, it’s also known as one of Manchester’s best-looking spaces for dining.

First and foremost a bar and nightclub, Impossible’s Instagram account is filled with a bevvy of posing beauties enjoying cocktails and wine in the velvet-clad club and out on the sun-trap of a terrace that overlooks Deansgate’s Great Northern Warehouse.

The Ivy Manchester is an exuberant over-the-top place that’s perfect for glamming up and going out. The décor is wild yet smart and service is smooth and professional. The roof garden is a must.

There’s an abundance about The Ivy with the costumed doorman, and the levels and levels of fun: The Ivy Asia; The Brasserie; The Ivy Roof Garden; the lurid floors; the lacquered screens; the mirrored central bar. It all adds up to a sense of occasion, a place where dining out is something special, something to dress up for.

Let’s get this party started… but not without lining your stomach first, fun fans. With tapas-style dishes for sharing as well as more substantial sit-down dinners, along with signature cocktails “designed to inspire”, Ménagerie is an immersive dining and drinking experience.

MOJO Manchester is a red-blooded rock and roll bar with an atmosphere that comes from a guitar-led playlist. The music policy covers the best rock and alternative anthems from the 1960s to now, a welcome change from the generic bar music played almost everywhere else.

If antique glassware and taxidermy squirrels are your thing, this is your kind of drinking den. Hidden above New York-style rum bar Cain & Grain, and behind a door disguised as a stack of crates, you’ll find Science & Industry – an eccentric speakeasy bar.

Zouk specialises in ‘apna’ – home-style cooking shot through with colour and heat from the spices and herbs. In recent years it has incorporated elements of global street food to its menu (Lahori wagyu sliders for example) but the main focus is still the authentic Indian and Pakistani cooking that made Zouk a success.

The Alan is surely one of the most creative and design-led venues in Manchester city centre. A stylish six-storey hotel on Princess Street in the centre of the city with an open-plan kitchen, bar and restaurant. As well as meeting and event spaces.

In Manchester’s cool and vibrant Northern Quarter, it doesn’t get more central than Church Street by Supercity. These one and two-bedroom apartments are ideal for couples and groups wanting a stylish and modern base in Manchester city centre.

Clayton Hotel Manchester is a large modern hotel with 329 air-conditioned rooms, a gym, meeting and event spaces, and a restaurant.

Hyatt House is a modern aparthotel in Manchester’s university area with a range of studios and one-bedroom suites. It has a relatively peaceful setting, considering it’s moments away from the bustle of Oxford Road and only ten minutes from the city centre by car or public transport.

The Jacksonheim Boutique is the group name for a portfolio of luxury aparthotels and serviced apartments in some of the most popular locations in Manchester. If you’re looking for somewhere to stay with style, character, and all the comforts of a home-from-home, their range is your place to start.

King Street Townhouse is a 4-star luxury hotel in the heart of Manchester City Centre. It’s well known for its spa facilities – including a very special infinity pool with views of the city from the top floor of the building.

Leonardo Hotel Manchester Central is a bright modern hotel with a fantastic location near to the Bridgewater Hall and HOME for cultural activities and handy for Manchester Central Convention Complex if you’re travelling for business.

Based conveniently near Manchester’s gay village in an early 20th-century warehouse, Leven opened in October 2021 as one of its newest, and coolest design hotels.

Motley is a bar and restaurant attached to Yotel on Deansgate. With its suntrap terrace, it’s definitely not just for hotel guests. Outdoor tables are screened by planters that always seem to be bursting with life. It’s a bit of a green oasis on Deansgate’s muddle of concrete, glass and imposing Victorian brickwork.