Manchester Piccadilly is pretty central... what sort of stuff are you wanting to do??

ATB,J.

somewhere good to eat not too expensive, nice bars, husband likes art, galleries etc, bit of shopping

Piccadilly station is as central as could be expected - but it's a liitle bit south of Piccadilly. The walking route to Picadilly Gardens is about 5 minutes. Just to keep the misnaming up there aren't many flowers in the Gardens but over the next couple of months you may find a very busy ice rink.

Art and shopping is just about the best combination for a break in the city. The city shopping centre has all the usual names in "could be anywhere" style buildings plus a number of more interesting offerings in the area between the very big M&S and the town hall, that area is also where the Christmas market will be in December.

Galleries include the Whitworth, part of Manchester University and a few minutes bus ride south of the centre - the route is so freqent it's more like a conveyor belt. Slightly further out is the Lowry Arts Centre at Salford Quays. http://www.thelowry.com also ahs links to all the other galleries and museums in Manchester and they are all still free admission. The Museum of Science and Industry is in the city centre and very good.

The Lowry also has a shopping area with an "outlet village". Salford Quays has a frequent tram service from Piccadilly station and city centre, it's also the new home of Blue Peter and various other BBC departments so you never know who else might be on the tram! And a bit further out is the Trafford Centre for shopping - which is huge and also could be anywhere.

I'm only around in the daytime so never eat there but celebrity chef Michael Caines has a franchised restaurant in the Abode hotel between the station and Gardens and the prices don't seem too excessive, especially the Early Diner menu (not Saturday/Sunday) http://www.michaelcaines.com/restaurants/manchester . For chinese there's a choice in China Town right in the centre and for curry the Rusholme "curry mile" (10 minute taxi ride) actually has it's own Wikipedia entry! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry_Mile

But it's a good job you've already had your sunshine break.....

We're going to Manchester for a 2 night break in November, but we're staying in Altrincham as it's cheaper. We'll be using the Metrolink to get around as we're planning to visit the Imperial War Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry. Can anyone tell me if you can get a day pass for the Metrolink or whether we need to just buy single tickets for each leg of our journey? Their website is not very helpful!

Mmmm, having had a look at their website http://www.metrolink.co.uk/ it appears that it is only daily Single, Return or Season tickets you can get

Corinne

if my memory is coprrect Metrolink is now on it's third franchise operator and none have ever been any good at explaining tickets!

As a basis of comparison the Off peak (after 09:30 Mon-Fridays, anytime weekend) return from Altrincham to City centre is £4 (£6 peak).

There are off peak day passes in various combinations but they are marketed by Transport for Greater Manchester under the System One brand name. The "Daysaver bus and tram" at £6.30 would probably be what you are looking for. http://www.systemonetravelcards.co.uk/travelcards/details/daysaver-bus-tram

The MSI is in the city centre near to the Deansgate-Castlefield stop (which used to be called G-Mex) so that would be covered by a return ticket. The IWM is at Salford Quays (Media city or Harbour City stops) and you can get there by changing at Cornbrook which avoids the city zone - so the off peak return is only £3.60 even though it's a longer journey!

In both cases the Daysaver is only a saving if you do something else as well. In the case of the MSI day, if you were also going to visit something in the city centre the free Metro-shuttle buses will probably fill the gap so you'd just need to buy an off peak return for the tram rides, work out the furthest stop in the city you'll be using (probably Victoria) and buy ticket to there.

See http://www.tfgm.com/journey_planning/maps.cfm and get the Metrolink and Metroshuttle maps

Thanks for the info

Have you considered Chancellors Hotel and Conference Centre just south of the centre, part of the University? Very clean and comfy with delicious food, a secure car park and only 10 mins by bus from the centre (VERY frequent route which also serves Piccadilly Station). There are restaurants nearby, a Sainsbury's, chemist's, post office ... so easy to buy anything you've forgotten to pack!

Thanks for the info Steve - we're only going to be in the City Centre for one of the days so we're going to have to try and squeeze both museums in that day. Am I right in thinking we'll be better off with a Daysaver then?

Corinne

yes, if you do IWM and MoSI in one day on a triangular journey then get the Daysaver (Bus &Tram version) - but remember you can't start the day before 09:30 on Monday -Friday. The ticket machines I've encountered didn't like notes but I think they take cards now.

Do you know if you can use senior citizen bus passes on the trams

Nobody seems to have mentioned the Royal Exchange Theatre - definitely worth investigating to see what performances might be on when in the city. It's the best 'theatre-in-the-round I've ever been to and seen some great productions in the past when I used to live in the greater Manchester area.

SM

bejay

only senior bus passes issued by an authority within the Transport for Greater Manchester area are valid on the trams but those issued by any English authority are valid on the buses. Passes are only valid off peak, so before 09:30 Monday-Friday you have to pay full fare.

You could spend a day just walking round manchester taking in its different areas.doing some shopping and looking at arcitecture - pity you will not see much if you are cramming in the 2 museums in one day,My wife has just been to MOSI with a friend visiting from Cambridge and spent 4 hours there and saw only half of it.

I wouldn't be surprised if we don't get time to do both - but I'd rather have too much planned than not enough as we can always go back another time. If it was summer then I'm sure we'd be more than happy just wandering around the town for a bit but I doubt we'll get good enough weather for that in November, plus the shops will be heaving with the pre-Christmas rush so we'll be giving them a miss too. Will report back on how we get on!