The Magical Mystery Bike Tour

Johnny James, Managing Editor

Book now

The Magical Mystery Bike Tour

3 August 2025
Date
Time
Session Features
03 Aug 2025
10:00 am-1:00 pm

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Manchester Town Hall
Visit Britain
Book now

Join Jonathan Schofield Tours for a BYOB (bring your bike) tour around some fascinating areas of the city centre and its surroundings.

You’ll meet your guide at Central Library in St Peter’s Square before setting off for a three-hour bike tour. But where to? Well, that would be telling. Whether it’s north, south, east or west – you’ll have to find out on the day.

What we can tell you about this mystery tour is that it will encompass parts of the Manchester conurbation you’ve likely never visited before. And some of them will really surprise you.

Another certainty is that your tour guide will bring stories. Magical stories, entertaining stories, silly stories – the lot. There’ll also be many facts to enjoy as you stop at sites of interest along your meticulously planned-out route. A bit of entertainment, a bit of information. Perfect.

The tour is suitable for reasonably fit cyclists of all ages, with those information stops doubling up as breathers for those who haven’t put foot to pedal for a while. There’ll also be a refreshment break partway through the tour.

If you’re looking for a unique, eco-friendly and healthy way to explore the hidden gems and scenic routes of Manchester – often missed by traditional tours – then look no further.

Accessibility

  • accessible_toilet
  • baby_changing_facilities
  • family_friendly_venue
  • hearing_aid_loop
  • changing_places_facility

Where to go near The Magical Mystery Bike Tour

St Peters Square Manchester
City Centre
St Peter’s Square

St Peter’s Square is a public space in Manchester – home to the city’s iconic library, town hall, Pankhurst statue, art gallery and famous Midland Hotel.

Manchester Art Gallery. Photo by Andrew Brooks
City Centre
Gallery
Manchester Art Gallery

The Charles Barry-designed, Grade I-listed Manchester Art Gallery is one of the city’s leading galleries and is back open for visitors once more.

Manchester
Restaurant
Ban Di Bul

Ban Di Bul is a longstanding Korean restaurant in the very centre of Manchester.

Chinatown
Hotel
The Alan

This high-end city-centre restaurant has an excellent afternoon tea option that more than matches up to the superb main menu.

Salut Wines
Chinatown
Bar or Pub
Salut Wines

Salut wines pride themselves in offering “wider horizons beyond the safe choices.” With 42 wines by the glass and a regularly changing selection of bottles in their Enomatic wine preservation machines (or  “wine jukebox,” as they’re colloquially known), this is one of be best bars in Manchester for exploring new vintages.

Manchester
Restaurant
Friska

Latest branch of Friska, the independent healthy fast food chain.

Manchester
Restaurant
Don Giovanni

Traditional Italian restaurant, serving everything from pizza to steak. All this in a large modern venue with floor-to-ceiling windows.

Chinatown
Restaurant
Manchester Art Gallery Cafe

Summery bakes, seasonal salads and fresh light meals at Manchester Art Gallery’s in-house café, courtesy of highly-regarded Head Chef Matthew Taylor.

City Centre
Tourist Attraction
Manchester Town Hall

Re-opening in 2024, Manchester Town Hall is a monument to Victorian Manchester’s ambition, and one of the city’s most-loved landmarks.

City Centre
Tourist Attraction
Albert Square

A public square in the heart of Manchester which plays hosts to festivals and major events. Home to the Albert Memorial and statues of Bishop James Fraser, John Bright, Oliver Heywood and William Ewart Gladstone.

What's on: Tour

Until
Activity
The Medieval Quarter Walking Tour

Explore Manchester’s Medieval Quarter on an architect-led walking tour uncovering the city’s oldest streets, historic buildings and centuries of hidden history.

From £20.00
Love Lane Brewery Exterior
Until
TourBaltic Triangle
Love Lane & Higsons Brewery Tour Experience!

Every weekend in Liverpool’s buzzing Baltic Triangle, Love Lane Brewery invites visitors behind the scenes for an hour-long tour through its striking, industrial space. Housed in a converted rubber factory,

From £25.00
Get Outside with Bradford 2025: An image of a large man made pool with fountains in front of a historic building with a clock tower
Until
FestivalsBradford
Get Outside with Bradford 2025

Explore art in the moorlands, soundscapes through the glen and appreciate how the city has become totally transformed when you get outside with Bradford 2025.

Free entry
Foggy trees in Alexander Park, Hulme.
Walking TourManchester
Alexandra Park and Whalley Range Tour

Take a walking tour of both Alexandra Park and wider Whalley Range, uncovering the tales that lie within its mighty buildings, its churches and its people.

From £20.00
Truly Madly Brutal - Jonathan Schofield Tours
TourManchester
Truly Madly Brutal

Explore the fascinating history of Brutalism in Manchester, while also exploring the movement’s wider intentions and ideals.

From £20.00

Culture Guides

Music in the North

Manchester’s closing out the year – and looking to the new one – with a run of gigs from some of the country’s best underground exports.

A performer in a bright red costume sits on a snowy stage set, holding a large snowball between their legs with a surprised expression. The colourful winter backdrop features snowflakes, hills, a snowman, and a traffic light with glowing lights.
Family things to do in the North

Whether you’re after storybook theatre, museum wanderings or illusion-bending play spaces, there’s plenty to keep curiosity ticking through winter and beyond.

Sepia image of a courtroom with the words 'Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird’
Theatre in the North

Winter brings a huge haul of seasonal shows, as well as productions that resolutely veer away from the fairy lights.

Exhibitions in the North

This season, exhibitions across the North West feel attuned to the world beneath the world – the forces and stories shaping how we see, feel and imagine.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Cinema in the North

There's no shortage of great films out at the moment, whether you're looking for the latest blockbuster, that hot arthouse flick fresh from Cannes or a cosy classic.

Food and Drink in the North

Hear ye, hear ye. Take some eating-out tips from our wintertime guide to food and drink in Manchester and the North.