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Manchester yet again grabs coveted spot in top 10 places for a city break in 2022

A total of 13 of the country’s cities have been singled out for praise on Condé Nast Traveller's annual list.

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 5th January 2022

Condé Nast Traveller has revealed its top 10 list of UK city breaks for 2022, and Manchester has once again made the cut.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to make itself known, many of us seem keen more than ever to explore everything the British Isles has to offer, instead of further afield, and so, the team of editors at the travel arm of the renowned media company have joined forces to give their opinions on the best UK cities to hit up in 2022.

This year, a total of 13 of the country’s cities have been singled out for praise in the list, with Manchester proudly taking the sixth spot.

Last year, Manchester nabbed the fifth spot – but we’ll take it.

Each of the cities have been given a tagline that encapsulates the best they have to offer, and Manchester has been named “the foodie city” after being said to have upped its culinary game over the past few years.

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Explaining why Manchester has been awarded sixth place on the list, Rick Jordan – from the team of editors at Condé Nast Traveller – said: “Recent openings include Dishoom, the four-storey Ivy Spinningfields, with a rare rooftop bar and separate Asian restaurant, and Mana, from ex-Noma chef Simon Martin, with reindeer moss and bark on the menu.”

Nearby Stockport was also given a bit of praise, thanks to The Produce Hall in its Victorian market and for the “wonderful, tasting-menu-only” When The Light Gets In.

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Manchester has been named “the foodie city” after being said to have upped its culinary game over the past few years / Credit: Unsplash (Josh Taylor | Chris Curry)

As well as shouting out the region’s extensive selection of eateries, a number of the city centre’s finest hotels and accommodation options have also been highlighted too.

“The city’s recent biggest openings include the Dakota Manchester hotel, dressed in designer black near Piccadilly, with a seriously grown-up bar and restaurant and terrace views of the canal, and Ducie Street Warehouse, on the edge of the Northern Quarter – a former goods warehouse that’s also home to Native Manchester hotel,” Rick Jordan added.

While it’s always great to hear that people love Manchester as much as we do, where should Mancunians be heading for their city staycations this year then?

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The “wide-awake city” of Glasgow, with its wide-open outdoor spaces, architecture and full-throttle nightlife singled out to “steal your heart”, has this year been knocked off its top spot and moved down second place in favour of the Scottish capital of Edinburgh.

After almost two years of muted activity, Condé Nast Traveller said it’s heartening to see that the pandemic hasn’t affected Edinburgh’s “ability to wow visitors”.

Read more: Manchester ranks THIRD in TimeOut’s 37 best cities in the world

The “screen-favourite city” of Belfast takes the third spot, while “the independent city” of Bristol, and “the architectural city” of Cambridge take the fourth and fifth spots to round out the top five.

Fellow northern cities Newcastle and Liverpool also proudly feature in the top 10.

Featured Image – Unsplash

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Met Office launches nationwide search for new storm names and wants YOU to pick

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant Thunderstorm sky

Is your grandma a force of nature? Does your best friend cause an impact wherever they go? Now you can give them the recognition they deserve…

By naming a storm after them, of course.

We know all the talk is about heatwaves at the moment, especially after weather forecasters have recently predicted that the UK is in for a ‘hotter than average’ summer this year, but let’s turn our eye to the upcoming storm season for a second, shall we?

That’s right – the Met Office is inviting the public to submit their suggestions for storm names for the upcoming 2025/26 season.

Now in its eleventh year, the Met Office works with Met Éireann in Ireland and KNMI in the Netherlands to compile the list every time the season rolls around, and this headline-grabbing naming initiative helps the media and the public communicate about the impacts of severe weather events more easily and effectively.

As part of the naming process, each of the three meteorological organisations will get to name storms using selected letters, with the aim being to reflect the diversity of the three countries, and in-keeping with usual storm naming conventions, names will be picked for every letter of the alphabet except for Q, U, X, Y and Z.

According to the Met Office, a number of factors are considered for a name to be on the list – including how difficult it might be to pronounce, if the name has different meanings in different countries, and if it could be considered controversial in some way.

Once the list of names is decided upon, it will be formally announced by the Met Office in September when storm season begins.

Man walking in rain
The Met Office has launched a nationwide search for new storm names and wants you to pick / Credit: Wikimedia Commons

“The storm naming system has helped us communicate weather to help people stay safe,” commented Will Lang, who is the Chief Meteorologist at the Met Office, “and wow we need the UK public to help us compile a new list.

“Whether you want to honour a weather-lover in your family, remember a family pet, or get a friend’s name in the headlines, we welcome submissions from the public to help us pull together next year’s list of storm names.”

People can only submit their names online via the submissions page here, where there’s also the option of adding a reason for the suggestion, and must not be submitted via social media as they will not be counted.

Read more:

You have until 3 July 2025 to make your submissions, and the new list will be revealed in early September.

Featured Image – Johannes Plenio (via Unsplash)

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First Look: Fitzpatrick’s – Stockport’s new Irish Bar gets off to a stunning start

Danny Jones Danny Jones Fitzpatrick's new Irish bar and grill opening Stockport

Stockport has a brand new Irish bar as the growing Greater Manchester trend continues, with Fitzpatrick’s officially debuting to the public on Thursday, 19 June.

Taking over the former Bask site just outside the train station, Fitzpatrick’s is the borough’s answer to American sports bar meets an Irish pub and grill, with live music, a wide array of food and more.

Founded by the man who now shares his name with the already lively boozer, John Fitzpatrick – a.k.a. local producer, musician and DJ, Jon Fitz – the venue has big shoes to fill following its predecessor, but is already off to a very strong start.

We had the privilege of walking in on opening day, and the place was absolutely packed to the rafters from the off, and we didn’t even stay until the end. More fool us…

As you can see, it hasn’t taken them any time at all to get an atmosphere going; good weather on their inaugural day, but the free-flowing beer, classic pub food flying out of the kitchen, and musicians reeling off classic Irish folk music did most of the heavy lifting.

Plus, that beer garden and covered outdoor terrace area are pretty perfect in any weather, to be fair.

The scran on their maiden evening mainly consisted of pizza, chips and other easy-to-serve-up plates as they gradually ease into the first week or so of service, but with a full menu of burgers, pies, breakfasts and even Sunday roasts to come, we’re very excited to try the full gamut.

Regardless, the staff were pulling pints like pros, John himself had plenty of involvement greeting people and getting behind the bar, and the atmosphere was buzzing from minute one.

ln fact, that was arguably the best part about it all: there was that genuine feeling of a new community cornerstone being born, with the well-known Stopfordian reeling off names and recognising what seemed like almost every face that walked through the door.

You don’t get that everywhere.

A lay of the land at Fitzpatrick’s Stockport. (Credit: The Manc Eats)

Although this was their first proper day of trading, they had already gauged the kind of crowds they could expect by soft launching with friends and family last week.

That being said, as mentioned, there was a real tight-knit, community feel to the place, full of County kits, young families and older couples alike, all of whom seemed to be dovetailing together as if the pub had always been around.

SK is often dubbed one of those places where everyone kind of knows everyone, even despite how big the town is as a whole, and this definitely felt like proof of that perception.

There was even close-up magic from Stockport’s famous ‘Fingerless Magician’, Dean Lahan, who famously featured on Britain’s Got Talent and even featured for Team GB’s Para Ice Hockey squad.

Of course, there is some familiarity with the space having previously been Bask, but the location of the stage, a newly decked out bar and the large jumbo-tron style TV set-up for live sport in the centre of the room (providing prime viewing from virtually all angles) have made a big difference.

Based solely on the hordes of people that piled into the place the second the doors opened, we can’t wait to see what the gaff is like once it’s in so-called ‘full swing’. John and his team might just be on to something big here.

Speaking to The Manc, he said: “As a local lad, I wanted to put something into the space that reflects a lot of my history and culture. Music, food, sport and a great atmosphere are all things I love, so I wanted to reflect that in this gorgeous space.”

Open 4-11 from Tuesday to Thursday, 2pm until late on Fridays, and the same only from 1pm at weekends, we can imagine Stockport punters are about to be spending a lot of time in Fitzpatrick’s.

(Credit: The Manc Group)

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Featured Images – The Manc Group

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