You can pack a lot into a weekend, especially when you’re in a city with as much to offer as Manchester.
From the indie bars of the Northern Quarter, to traditional shopping arcades Deansgate, the high-end luxury of New Cathedral Street and beyond, Manchester has loads going on – but where should you begin?
The Manc’s got your back.
With these unmissable highlights and local insights, you’re sure to have an unforgettable weekend in Manchester.
From the best brunch spots and late-night hangouts, to art galleries, and top shopping destinations, here’s our guide for making sure you get the absolute most out of your 48 hours in Manchester city centre.
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Where To Stay?
Native Manchester: Found in the Grade II listed Ducie Street Warehouse, Native aparthotel is a stone’s throw from Piccadilly train station and offers the best of inner-city luxury.
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It was the winner of The Sunday Times Best Hotel, North of England 2019, and boasts 162 luxury serviced apartments. Go on, treat yourself.
Prices from £131 per night.
Manchester South Hotel: Staying a little further out from the city centre can bring you big savings. Manchester South Hotel in Fallowfield is just 15 minutes from the city centre by car and less than half an hour by public transport.
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It offers guests light and airy rooms, free WiFi, and easy access to the rest of Manchester. With a bus stop just outside the hotel, it makes a great base for 48 hours of exploring.
Prices from £54 per night.
Friday Evening
Start your weekend right in Manchester’s lively Northern Quarter.
This vibrant neighbourhood has long been recognised as one of the city’s coolest hangouts – and you’ll see it at its best on a Friday night.
Grab a pre-dinner drink at El Capo, a buzzing South American bar and cantina that’s sure to get the party started with its amazing selection of 70 different types of tequila.
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If it’s a cocktail you’re after, we recommend the ‘Mezcal Mule’ (Montelobos Mezcal, agave, lemon, and ginger beer) for an innovative twist on a classic.
Work up an appetite by taking a stroll to spot some of the neighbourhood’s famous street art.
The art in the Northern Quarter is always changing, but the enormous blue tit mural on the side of a building in Newton Street is an iconic long-term fixture.
Credit: BAB | Unsplash (Louis Hansel)
When dinner calls, head over to BAB – a unique independent restaurant on Little Lever Street that offers mezze and “kebabs worth sitting down for” – think fresh flatbreads, moreish small plates, homemade marinades, and a serious commitment to big flavours.
In more of a pizza mood? We’ve got you covered.
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PLY lies in the heart of the Northern Quarter and serves some of Manchester’s best sourdough pizzas, along with a regularly refreshed range of craft beer, quality wine, and twists on classic cocktails.
When you’re fed and watered, head along to Matt and Phred’s – a jazz club and live music venue on Tib Street to dance the night away to their live jazz, funk and soul acts, or sip on a cocktail in the laid-back basement bar.
Not ready to call it a night? Then head down to Dusk ‘til Pawn – a nearby speakeasy bar with an enormous range of drinks on offer and open till 2am.
Fuel up for the day (and chase away any thoughts of a hangover) with a proper breakfast from one of the Northern Quarter’s best cafes.
We love Federal, Fig + Sparrow, and Foundation Coffee House for their French toast, granola pots, and vegan options, but if you’re after a hearty full-English, you can’t go wrong with Koffee Pot.
Spend the rest of the morning browsing some of the city’s best independent shops.
Find vintage treasures in Cow, Blue Rinse, and Pop Boutique, before popping into Oklahoma – an artsy boutique bursting at the seams with handmade jewellery, eclectic homeware, and unique gifts.
Continue your shopping spree with a quick tour of some of Manchester’s beloved record shops, as vinyl havens such as Piccadilly Records, Vinyl Exchange, and Eastern Bloc are essential stop-offs for any music junkie.
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If you feel yourself flagging, Eastern Bloc has a great coffee counter where you can get re-caffeinated ready for the rest of the day.
For lunch, head to Pollen, an airy bakery and cafe overlooking New Islington marina that has recently won Best Food and Drink Retailer at the Manchester Food and Drink Awards to indulge in one of the signature pastries for dessert.
If you’re in the mood for something a bit more hearty, neighbouring Sugo Pasta Kitchen offers amazing spreads of Southern Italian pasta dishes.
Continue your afternoon at Manchester Craft and Design Centre – a creative hub located in a Victorian former fish and poultry market building – where you can uncover hidden gems in the artists’ studios and purchase contemporary jewellery, ceramics, art, and more.
A must-see for bookworms, architecture enthusiasts and Harry Potter fans alike, the library was built in the 1890s and has been called “a real-life Hogwarts”, and the gift shop is well worth a visit too.
Credit: Sugo Pasta Kitchen | Unsplash (Chris Curry)
This impressive Grade II listed building received a £50m refurbishment in 2010 and is home to a huge collection of rare books.
Tick off another iconic Manchester building by finishing your afternoon in the shops of The Royal Exchange. From luxury boutiques to some of the world’s favourite high-street brands, the historic arcade has over 30 shops to choose from, as well as tempting coffee shops and tearooms.
Saturday Evening
Bundobust on Oxford Road is a great choice for dinner.
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This 150-seat restaurant is also home to Bundobust’s own brewery, able to produce 20,000 pints of beer a month, so you can sit under the huge glass ceiling and feast on the best Indian street food the city has to offer.
Kick off Saturday night at Albert’s Schloss – a Bavarian-style bar that bills itself as “a retreat from the modern world” – and expect impromptu live performances and tankards of Europe’s finest beer.
If you want to keep the party going, Deansgate Locks and Canal Street are two of Manchester’s best clubbing hotspots. From Lola Lo, a lively tiki bar on Deansgate Locks, to Via, one of Manchester’s favourite gay bars, there’s something on offer for every night owl.
If clubbing isn’t your thing, get a dose of culture at one of Manchester’s many theatres.
The Palace and the Opera House are two of the city’s main theatres, welcoming some of the biggest touring shows from the West End and beyond.
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Sunday Morning
Pick up a takeaway breakfast pastry from Trove bakery and stroll to Manchester Art Gallery for a morning exploring its collection of over 25,000 objects of fine art, sculpture and costume.
Not sure where to start?
The gallery is best known for its important Pre-Raphaelite collection, so ask one of the friendly staff members to point you in the right direction.
Sunday Afternoon
A Sunday afternoon in Manchester wouldn’t be complete without a great roast dinner, and the team at Trof have been cooking up a storm in the Northern Quarter for over ten years now, so they know what’s what when it comes to a great Sunday lunch.
Think free-range crispy pork belly, slow-roasted Lancashire beef, and some of the best roast potatoes around, and there’s great veggie options too.
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If you’ve got room for dessert, Trof’s sticky toffee pudding is the ultimate Sunday indulgence.
Credit: Trof / Lifestyle Commercial Photography / Sam Docker
The Science and Industry Museum traces the ideas and inventions that have shaped our world, from the Industrial Revolution to today and beyond, and the National Football Museum is the biggest football museum in the world, featuring iconic objects from sport history and exploring the importance of the beautiful game to the UK’s identity.
Review | The Lion, The Witch and The Beaver* – sorry, Wardrobe
The Manc
What an enchanting evening at The Lowry as we were transported to Narnia to review the live stage adaptation of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in Media City as the production began its festive run in Greater Manchester.
As we entered the playing space, the atmosphere was set with a pianist on stage, slowly drowning out the noise of the outside world and settling the audience in for a night of magic.
Launching ‘Act One’ with a touching rendition of the British wartime classic, ‘We’ll Meet Again’ by Vera Lynne, we meet the large ensemble, multi-instrumentalist cast.
This talented ensemble pivots around multiple roles throughout the performance, creating a shape-shifting atmosphere with some impressive seamless transitions, allowing us to “open our minds” and be absorbed into the mythical world of Narnia alongside The Pevensies.
Sweetly played by Joanna Adaran, Jesse Dunbar, Kudzai Mangombe and Bunmi Osadolor, they excel in exploring sibling dynamics such as rivalry, trust, but most of all, loyalty and love.
The most mind-blowing element of this performance, however, was the production; it truly is the unsung hero of the entire show, so we’ll so the singing on their behalf.
Set and costume (designed by Tom Paris), lighting (done by Jack Knowles), puppetry design and direction (by Max Humphries and Toby Olie), sound design (credit to Tom Marshall) and hair, make-up and wig designer (Susanna Perez).
All this carefully curated talent helped create a world where we had no choice but to believe in magic.
For us as an audience, it made things so much easier to immerse and delight in the world of C.S. Lewis’ imagination, as it is so wonderfully presented in front of us.
This was elevated once again by levitation and disappearing acts – the scene was set on the boards and in the air.
Huge credit goes to Gwen Hales (aerial director) and Chris Fisher (magic and illusions); it felt as if anything was possible, and we needed no convincing that we were in the presence of pure enchantment.
However, arguably the most magnificent moment of the show was the reveal of Aslan himself. As this grand puppet prowled onto the stage, you could hear gasps echo throughout the theatre.
Manoeuvred by three puppeteers, this skilful spectacle was a credit to bringing the story to life in live theatre. The seamless, lifelike movements of breath and king-like presence were both majestic and a credit to the production.
Accompanied by Stanton Wright, we had no doubt that this was the true hero of Narnia.
If you want us to sum up our review of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe at The Lowry, quite simply, this show is nothing short of a marvel.
Make sure to take home a cuddly lion toy, of course. (Credit: The Manc)
With constant playfulness and wit throughout – mainly brought to you from the broad Northern and oh-so lovable Mr Beaver (Ed Thorpe), and fellow believer in magic, ‘The Professor’ (Kraig Thornber).
It’s the lattermost that left us with a lasting thought, as he warmly reminds the audience that even when times feel dark, “the sun is always up there, we just have to look.”
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is running from The Lowry in Salford Quays all the way up until Sunday, 11 January 2026. Don’t miss the magic and grab your tickets HERE.
If you’re interested in finding out what else we’ve enjoyed at the theatre in Manchester recently, then look no further…
Featured Images — The Manc Group/Press shots (Brinkhoff/Moegenburg supplied via The Lowry)
Feature
Hazlett at Manchester Academy 3 – some of the best ‘sad and depressing songs’ you could ever ask for
Danny Jones
On Thursday evening, we finally got to see Hazlett in a small, tightly-packed room here in Manchester and have maybe never heard so many people sing so expertly quietly so as not to even remotely dullen the stunning voice of this rising solo artist.
For anyone who isn’t aware of Hazlett, he’s an Australian singer-songwriter who has been gradually growing in popularity over the last couple of years, but his journey to where he is dates back much further than that.
Noticing a few familiar faces in the crowd from his last visit to the city for a performance at The Deaf Institute just over a year ago – one we sadly missed and have been kicking ourselves ever since – he acknowledged that many may already know his story, but it’s nevertheless worth sharing with the class.
After self-deprecating (how oh-so British) about gigging in pubs when he was younger, and being told to stick to covers rather than try any of his own material, he moved to Sweden in 2019 and fell in love with not only a much more seasonal European but winter, specifically. No wonder he looked at home here.
Here’s our review of Hazlett at Manchester Academy 3, 4/12/2025. (Credit: Audio North)
Kicking off with one of his best-known tracks, ‘Please Don’t Be’, it immediately struck us how full and mournful it all felt in the flesh – arguably even more so than the studio version we’ve been playing in our headphones since 2023.
The atmospheric but not over-produced engineering is an aspect we’ve always admired about Hazlett‘s discography, and we were so relieved it came across on the night, with the Brisbane-born ex-pat crediting his talented live band with helping bring that same sound to life on stage.
It’s a regular trapping, we’ve found, when it comes to acoustic-led music; that instinct, perhaps, for an artist and/or a producer to use seemingly as many of the tools at their disposal as possible just because they’re available to them.
Sadly, this easy pitfall often ends up taking away from what makes those tunes so beautiful to begin with – but not in this case.
The rising solo star seemed to have an expert command not only of his vocals, but the second mic that added those subtle and yet stirring layers, and built those moving, almost ethereal effects on top of the words themselves.
Honestly, we were literally in awe of him just whistling…
Admittedly, it’s hard to put a finger on what exactly made this such a special show, but we think it is THAT same appreciation and embrace of colder months and how it’s inspired his music.
Just bear with us for a minute, it’ll make sense soon.
He actually said it was one of the things he loves the most about people in this country, and this specific part of the world, as well as other parts of Europe, such as his now beloved Sweden, where he says he found his creative spark.
It’s that feeling of the weather and the mood it brings so intensely that he says it helped him write ‘Bones Shake’, which was fittingly chilling as he played it to the spellbound, would-be choir, and could hear the soft sibilance of people gently repeating those S-sounds back to him.
There’s a genuine sense of being able to chart the slight sorrow in the passing of time through the seasons, and while some may not be afforded that same feeling from the sun-soaked shores of his homeland, it’s a concept he’s really run with – especially on his most recent LP.
Simply titled, last night you said you missed me, it’s almost something he kind of tried to resist, confessing that he wrote and finished the album in the space of about a month, fearing that it couldn’t be good enough/ready purely because it came together so quickly.
Given that two specific tracks from this record made a lady standing with us well up and eventually shed several tears (you know who you are), we’d say he absolutely nailed it.
Our only minor gripe was not getting to hear ‘Tell Me What You Dream About’. (Credit: The Manc)
He did joke that his set is filled with nothing but “a bunch of sad and depressing songs” and had a laugh at the idea of people being “dragged along” without any real idea of who he is or the kind of stuff he makes, but having now witnessed him play live, we can assure you it’s much more than that.
Bloom Mountain was an emotional, magical debut that found us in a particular place and time in our lives that we’ll always appreciate, but hearing him knit it together with his newest material confirmed to us that his music has to be more than listened to – it has to be felt.
Like the changing of the seasons. Like the winter. Like the cold.
We unfortunately didn’t manage to make it in time to watch the support act, Hans Williams, but judging by the reaction from the audience who did get in there early enough, the authentic but inventive stylings of the Americana, folk and soul-infused indie-pop artist, he definitely won over plenty of new fans.
As Mitchell Hazlett Lewis, to use his full name, he’s had our hearts since the very start and will continue to do so for however long he keeps bringing his relatable lyricism, delicate but impressive guitar-picking and gentle charm to Manchester.
Please check out his tour dates and see him the next time he’s in town. You can guarantee you’ll find
Please enjoy the song from his latest album that he says his mum likes best.
Rachel Kevern -
20th October 2021 
