Tourist information
Our tips for finding the best tourist and visitor information about Manchester
There really is only one place to go to for tourist and travel information in Manchester – Visit Manchester. If you want the low-down on the city’s travel, hotels, shops and pretty much anything else (including the best offers and deals on accommodation), go to Visit Manchester or read their lively travel and things-to-do-in-Manchester blog.
The tourist ‘experience’ in the city itself got a boost recently with the opening of an all-new Visitor Information Centre at Piccadilly Plaza, Portland Street, Manchester M1 4BT (open Mon-Sat 9.30am-5.30pm, Sun & Bank Hols. 10.30am-4.30pm). Instead of rows of dusty racks stuffed with yellowing brochures, here you can expect interactive maps, touch screen panels and live Twitter feeds. There’s a nice range of merchandise, too – well, a Guy Garvey quote has been repeated across bags, mugs and postcards and for that alone the centre gets our vote (you can see radio DJ Mark Radcliffe’s version, right, which reckons Manchester is ‘a city that thinks tables are for dancing on’). If you can’t make it to the centre in person, you can also email staff there at touristinformation@visitmanchester.com or call 0871 222 8223. In the video clip below, Andrew Stokes, Chief Executive of Marketing Manchester, talks about the new visitor centre, and gives a demonstration of its new interactive maps…
Looking for places to stay and great deals on hotels? We give our recommendations for the top hotels in Manchester here, or check the Visit Manchester website for the latest offers on accommodation.
After travel information? Try the GMPTE travel site for information on local buses and trams, or read our travel tips and advice on getting to Manchester.
For anything else – such as shopping, the best bars and restaurants and, of course, what’s on in Manchester’s museums and galleries, explore the rest of our guide using the side-bars to your right. Start here, with our feature on the People’s History Museum, then explore what else there is to do close by, in Spinningfields.
Image: The Civil Justice Centre, Spinningfields (top) and merchandise in the Visitor Information Centre, Susie Stubbs
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Go Out & Play. Tatton Park Biennial.
Think Manchester and the mental images you scroll through are likely to run thus: mills, rain, football, shopping (and Joy Division if you went to art school)... More -
Romans vs. Spacemen at MOSI
If you like your outdoors a little more urban, make for Castlefield... More -
Al Fresco (& Family Friendly) Film
If your idea of the great outdoors only occurs so long as shops, cafes, bars and galleries remain within scrambling distance, may we point you towards the Family Friendly Film Festival... More -
Honey, I lost the kids. The War Museum and The Lowry.
Daniel Libeskind’s Imperial War Museum North is a thing of beauty: a shimmering aluminium building that defies architectural norms, perching proudly on the edge of the Manchester Ship Canal... More -
Wallpaper wildcard at The Whitworth
Don’t climb the walls during the holidays. Watch them, courtesy of The Whitworth Art Gallery, which hosts the summer’s most talked about show: Walls Are Talking... More -
Democracy is fun. The People’s History Museum.
Earlier this year, after a £12.5m redevelopment that included the construction of an entirely new wing and the overhaul of the Grade II listed Pump House, the People’s History Museum re-opened for business... More
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