24 little hours.

You’ve just arrived in Manchester. It’s Friday night at Piccadilly Station and you’ve no idea where your hotel is, let alone what you’re going to do for the next 24 hours. You’re starting to think that your weekend trip was a Very Bad Idea. Luckily, we’re full of good ideas at creativetourist.com. And we’ve squeezed a load of them into a handy guide to 24 hours in the city…

7pm: the hotel

Plenty to choose from: boutique (Great John Street); flash (Malmaison); good value (Crowne Plaza); five star (The Lowry). But for the sake of convenience, we’ve booked you in at Abode, a rather lovely hotel that’s the shortest of strolls from Piccadilly. You can find offers on all these hotels and more, by the way, here.

8pm: the restaurant

We’re going to make this easy: we’ve booked you a table at the Michael Caines restaurant at Abode. Not because we’re lazy but because it’s really rather good. But don’t take our word for it. Food critic Andrew Shanahan reviews it here. If fine dining isn’t your thing, head to the rather more casual surrounds of the Northern Quarter. Here, along Thomas and High Street, you’ll find a cluster of curry houses, pizzerias and pubs-with-grub that is suitably laid-back.

10pm: drinks

The Northern Quarter is our hot tip for early doors drinks. It’s here you’ll find Common, one of the oldest independents in the area and one that serves up killer cocktails, DJs and a good selection of on-tap beers. Close by is Odd, a bar that, as the name suggests, has a rather eclectic interior; Walrus, which channels a bug-eyed 60s vibe; the Bay Horse; Manchester independent chain, Trof; and Cord, a bar that’s always been too-cool-for-school but is friendly with it.

Midnight: party

Manchester knows how to throw a good party. The Warehouse Project mixes top name DJs (Richie Hawtin, Aphex Twin and Chibuku Shake Shake) with a warehouse vibe (60,000 punters in a ‘secret’ location along with a state of the art sound system). Add in the fact that it’s a limited edition affair and you’ve got a clubbing formula that’s so successful that tickets sell out within hours (seriously – if you want to go, book now). Best of all is the fact that when you stagger out at 5am, it’s a five-minute stroll to your hotel (the club’s home is a disused bomb shelter beneath Piccadilly Station).

11am: cultural breakfast

Time to get up (sorry). Forsake hotel fare and instead go to The Social at Urbis, a museum of urban culture that’s slap bang in the city centre. Its café is above average: we had sesame haloumi with fat chips and several buckets of coffee last weekend: possibly the best hangover cure we’ve ever tried. While you’re at Urbis, check out Videogame Nation, a rip-roaring ride through 30 years of videogames (where else could you get the chance to play Jet Set Willy, Grand Theft Auto and Sensible Soccer?).

This year’s Best of Manchester Awards, also at Urbis, throws a spotlight on the city’s young artists, designers and musicians: it’s well worth a punt (check out shortlisted BOMA entrant, Natalie Curtis, here).

1pm: medieval Manchester

Urbis was built at the site of medieval Manchester. It is here that the rivers Irwell and Irk meet, on whose banks a settlement first arose. Opposite Urbis are remnants of old Manchester: Chetham’s School of Music (which has the most atmospheric library we’ve ever seen – where Karl Marx penned the Communist Manifesto), Manchester Cathedral and Hanging Ditch (not so-called because they used to hang miscreants by their necks here, but where textile workers hung out their cloths to dry). Urbis is also close to Selfridges and Harvey Nichols if you prefer culture of the retail variety.

1.30pm: bookish Manchester

You know how we said Chetham’s was the most atmospheric library in the city? We lied. It’s the John Rylands Library on Deansgate. This neo-Gothic building speaks volumes about Manchester’s grand industrial past – inside, it’s all intricate stonework, stained glass, ornate bookcases and a cavernous reading room. Best of all are the Library’s collections – which include the Wicked Bible (printed in 1631, it famously left out the word ‘not’ from the seventh commandment. It reads ‘Thou shalt commit adultery’).

2.30pm: late lunch

The John Rylands is on the edge of Spinningfields, an area of the city rising by the River Irwell that, come this November, will be the home to the People’s History Museum (re-opening after a £12m redevelopment). Check out the Museum’s Corten steel exterior (easy to spot – it’s a rusty red) and the Civil Justice Centre, a building known locally as ‘the filing cabinet’. Both buildings have amenable neighbours: Giraffe, Carluccio’s, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Shimla Pinks and Wagamama – reliably good rather than gastronomically exciting, but worth a punt.

4pm: afternoon cake (and culture)

We can’t in all honesty drag you all over the city (not if you’ve been out all night). So instead we give you a choice: coffee and cake at MOSI (industrial heritage displays that include a working steam train – set among the cobbles of Castlefield); people watching and art at Cornerhouse (Jeremy Deller’s Procession is still on, while its café is highly recommended); or more of the same at Manchester Art Gallery (wonderful neo-Classic building whose Goya show is terrifyingly good. Its café isn’t bad either).

5pm: vintage and vinyl

Are you still raring to go? Blimey. Your last stop of the day is back where it all began, in the Northern Quarter. Buy vintage threads at Rags to Bitches (or any number of second hand stores nearby); vinyl at Piccadilly Records; kitsch china, posters and Mr. Scruff tea at Cup; locally-designed jewellery at the Craft Centre (formerly a Victorian fish market, but don’t let that put you off); art books, bags and posters at Magma; and artist-made goodies at the Chinese Arts Centre.

And that’s it. The best 24 little hours you’ll have had for quite some time. You can sleep on the train.

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