30 best team-building nights out in Manchester

Enjoy a night out watching live music. For the ultimate team-building experience upgrade to a premium package with food, drinks and your own private suite.

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

Arcade Club Bury is a gamer’s paradise. Set in a former mill, it is a vast celebration of the beat ‘em up, the shoot ‘em up and the platform game. Perfect for bonding over a shared appreciation for Mario Kart.

Archie’s Atomic is a neon pink roller rink from the local burger and shake supremos. With a giant glitterball and a colour scheme that would make even Barbie wince, it is very on-brand. The American diner goes disco.

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. take on your workmates in a much more entertaining version of your daily commute.

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. For a team-building activity, it’s a lot more chilled out than most.

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. For a work night out, it’s something different without being competitive.

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. It’s team-building but it’s also a lot of fun.

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, now you can enjoy competitive team-building in a classier environment.

Escape Hunt at the Corn Exchange places you in a locked room for 60 minutes just for laughs. Working out how to get out is actually a pretty effective bonding exercise. You’ll need to pool those brain cells to escape in time.

With its red velvet seats, waiter service, and ultra stylish bar and cafe, Everyman Manchester St John’s is a far cry from your local multiplex. Roll out the red carpet and organise your own private screening for your next team-building night out.

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 offers both competitive and collaborative team-building events. Stop fighting over the office microwave and start knocking up some seriously impressive street food instead.

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. It easily caters for big groups and there’s enough entertainment that of feels very different to a night at the pub.

Get away from work and computer screens, plan a night out and stand around in front of screens. The interactive games at Immersive Gamebox Manchester will keep everyone entertained. Hopefully, no-one will fall out and Angry Birds will just be one of the games.

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.

King Pins Manchester Arndale is ten-pin bowling royalty, and not just for the good customer service, clean, fresh decor and 12 full-size lanes. It’s the whole package with almost too many activities to list. If you’re hanging out with workmates, there’s plenty to keep everyone entertained.

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.

If your team-building night out is more of a corporate away-day, this should appeal to the MAMILs in the pack. Book a Velodrome Experience and get to grips with cycling, from speed laps to saddle soreness.

Point Blank Shooting is an interactive virtual shooting range designed to test your and your teammates quick-draw skills. Popular with stag dos, hen dos, corporate team-building and big nights out.

One of two Roxy Ball Room venues in Manchester, the Deansgate bar is an ideal “adult playground” perfect for parties. Get stuck into golf, pool, shuffleboard, karaoke and even ice-free curling.

Salut Wines has a great selection of wines both by the bottle and by the glass thanks to its Enomatic wine dispensers. For corporate team-building events, Salut offers private wine tasting sessions for groups of up to 20 guests.

Sixes Social Cricket is another chance for sporty show-offs to lord it over the rest of the office on a team-building jolly. If your batting average is bang average you can just enjoy the cocktails or go for pool or karaoke instead.

Looking for a cool team-building activity? Well, The Snow Centre is pretty cold. -3ºc to be precise. You can book a private ski or snowboarding lesson for up to 6 people.

TeamSport Go Karting: Manchester Victoria is a high-octane experience that’ll turn even the mildest contestant into a speed demon. Is this team bonding or competitive one-upmanship?

Total Ninja is part bouncy-castle on steroids, part warrior training ground. The venue is mainly divided into two parts: an inflatable park and a so-called Ninja Academy, both of which are included in the entry price. For team-building nights out, it’s adults only on the first and last Fridays of the month. Can anything stop you topping the time trials leaderboard? Probably, many things.

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.