30 best team building nights out in Manchester

11 Central is another venture for Seven Bro7hers, only this time their Sis4ers are on board too so the bar is a fantastic mix of craft beer and craft gin.

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

October 2003 saw the first of the four Evunas open, grabbing a prime position on Deansgate and a reputation for being a go-to place for Spanish cuisine. Plenty of exposed brick, wine-lined walls and low, dark lighting all add to the atmosphere, perfect for cosying up over those authentic small plates.

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. 

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.

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

Boom Battle Bar Manchester is an all-in-one bright neon activity centre in the Printworks. It’s an indoor playground primarily for adults (over 18s only after 7pm) with shuffleboard, axe throwing, augmented reality darts, pool tables, karaoke and beer or Prosecco pong.

Chaos Karts puts you in the driving seat of an immersive augmented reality experience, bringing real-life karting and gaming together.

With 180m of downhill skiing and snowboarding, Chill Factore is the UK’s longest indoor real snow slope. And though you can’t compare it to the glistening slopes of Chamonix, it offers enough action to make a day trip there a must for anyone interested in snowsports (or just larking about on a sledge).

Cork & Canvas is a sip and paint events company which puts on sessions at venues in and around Manchester including Freight Island, New Century Hall and The Old Bank in Ramsbottom.

Creatures Comedy Club is an independent venue in the Northern Quarter with acts on stage seven nights a week. It’s a good place to catch local talent as well as bigger names trying out new material.

It’s a dream come true for kids of the 90s: a chance to show off your skills on the legendary TV game show, The Crystal Maze.

DNA VR is a virtual reality arcade with three different gameplay options. You can communicate with your friends through the VR headsets as you play and it’s all private. You play with your friends, not some randoms. Everything is overseen by your own VR wizard so you don’t succumb to the zombie apocalypse too quickly.

Electric Shuffle is a fresh take on shuffleboard. Usually associated with the pubbier end of the bar spectrum or the subterranean neon of a gaming venue, this is something new.

The ultimate rainy day activity (and Manchester certainly has its wealth of those), Escape Hunt at the Corn Exchange places you in a locked room for 60 minutes for fun.

Flight Club is a hit in London, Birmingham and Manchester, with its primary aim (sorry) to offer a contemporary take on playing a round of arrows in the pub – you can book your own semi-private area with a dartboard where two to six of you can step up to the oche.

Food Sorcery Deansgate Square is an award-winning cookery school that runs classes on cuisines from all over the world, from Cambodian foodie sessions to dim sum masterclasses to pasta-making workshops.

Put down those phones, switch off your screens, and, er, stand in front of another one . . .  but this time in your own personal gamebox at Immersive Gamebox in Manchester Arndale.

This indoor inflatable playground is an excellent way to tire out hyperactive kids on a rainy day and for that we thank them. The other fab thing about it is that adults are welcome too. Inflata Nation Manchester believes all ages can have fun bounding around and burrowing through ball pools. We can’t disagree.

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.

Point Blank Shooting is an interactive virtual shooting range designed to test yours and your teammates quick-draw skills.

With its ten pin bowling, pool tables, beer pong, and shuffleboard, Roxy Ball Room Manchester Arndale will keep you entertained for hours. 

Seven Bro7hers in Salford at the Middlewood Locks development is the ideal place for some al fresco eating and drinking by the canal, it’s scenic in a gentrified industrial waterside way. The inside is done out well too – handsome and high-ceilinged but with board games and a cosiness that bely the concrete and brick finish. It’s the perfect distance from town too as it’s short enough to be a pleasant stroll (about 7 minutes from Chapel Street) but far enough that you feel like you deserve a pint and a burger when you get there.

Sixes Social Cricket opened in the Corn Exchange in August 2021, bringing a different kind of sporting experience to Manchester City Centre. Already a popular concept down south, Manchester might not be quite as bowled over with Cricket as it is with football, but don’t let that stop you.

TeamSport Go Karting: Trafford Park has 450 metres of adrenaline-fuelled GP circuit and a new fleet of Biz Evo3 adult karts so you can whizz round at speeds of up to 40mph.

If you’re looking for a fun way to get outside and get active, try Treetop Trek Manchester at Heaton Park. It’s a chance to feel the breeze on your face and face your fears on a high-rope aerial adventure in the woods.

Twenty Twenty Two is a Northern Quarter hangout with a difference. It has the metro tiles, basement decor and late night action typical of other bars in the area, but it also has table tennis and other games.

Urban Playground Manchester is the place to go for an adrenaline-fuelled, ultra-competitive night out. Located in Manchester Arndale, it brings together high-tech games with bars and big-name dining from gourmet burger brand The Butcher.

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.