Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.
Independent restaurant, cafe, baker, and deli in the Lake District.
Step into the majestic Blackpool Tower Ballroom for an experience like no other. With stunning architecture, live music and treats galore, Afternoon Tea here is highly recommended.
From £60.00
Come face to face with SEA LIFE Blackpool’s hungriest resident. This unique experience gives you the chance to feed Phoenix the green sea turtle and learn about this endangered species.
From £75.00
Three sisters, one bitter-sweet reunion – grief, whisky and buried truths collide in a sharply funny Northern family reckoning.
From £15.00
Mrs Claus needs your help with a festive Bake-Off like no other in this interactive children’s theatre show at The Octagon.
From £11.00
A heartwarming festive treat for all ages, this brand-new musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol brings Bolton’s stage to life with music, magic and Dickensian spirit.
From £15.00
Bringing music, laughter and a welcome dose of festive cheer, a brand-new adaptation of the Dickensian classic is the perfect festive treat for families this Christmas.
From £15.00
Discover Rochdale’s rich history on this guided tour, featuring the newly restored Town Hall, St Chad’s Church, and the Pioneers Museum.
From £20.00
The guided tour offers a behind-the-scenes look at the brewhouse and state-of-the-art packaging plant, giving visitors a full sense of what “real Yorkshire beer” means today.
From £15.00
At low tide, the exposed bed of the Irish Sea connects the Lancashire coast with the Cumbrian hills across Morecambe Bay, allowing crossings over the sands.
Sister restaurant to Simon Rogan’s two Michellin starred L’Enclume – more low key but just as tasty.
One of Cumbria’s finest historical sites, Holker Hall and Garden offers a gloriously asymmetrical pile of rambling galleries and green spaces.
The Gaskell Hall was opened in 1931 and is named after Elizabeth Gaskell, the novelist who regularly stayed in the village.
Famous collection of Gillow furniture and objets d’art, plus gardens and woodland walks. Educational ‘bee corner’, ‘woodland hotel’ and ‘caterpillar maze’ for children.
The Swan Hotel in Newby Bridge is a boutique hotel with quirky rooms and cottages, based at the tip of Lake Windermere in the Lake District.
A beautiful Elizabethan manor house, featuring the oldest surviving example of a topiary garden – a joy to wander in.
Carnforth Station is the famous setting of the film Brief Encounter. As you stand on Platform 1 with its vintage suitcases and railway posters, you can almost imagine the era when steam trains frequently passed through.
The Westmorland County Show is a traditional county fair dating back to 1799, where tourists and shoppers mix with agricultural professionals and chefs.
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.
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.
Winter brings a huge haul of seasonal shows, as well as productions that resolutely veer away from the fairy lights.
Step away from the usual. Tours and activities that spark curiosity, inspire creativity and offer something refreshingly different.
Whether you’re after storybook theatre, museum wanderings or illusion-bending play spaces, there’s plenty to keep curiosity ticking through winter and beyond.
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.
Hear ye, hear ye. Take some eating-out tips from our wintertime guide to food and drink in Manchester and the North.
