Things to do · Manchester · United Kingdom
16 best things to do in Manchester
16 sights and experiences ranked for a first visit, with honest notes on time, cost and crowds.
Updated By the AMZBooking editorial team
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Quick answer
The essential sights in Manchester are Science and Industry Museum, Old Trafford stadium tour and John Rylands Library. Of the 16 picks below, 13 are free, 14 work on a rainy day and 7 suit children. Allow about 3 days to see the highlights without rushing.
Key facts
- Top sight
- Science and Industry Museum
- Free sights
- 13
- Good on a rainy day
- Science and Industry Museum
- Time to see the highlights
- 3 days
At a glance
| Sight | Area | Time needed | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Science and Industry Museum | Castlefield | 2–3 hours | Free |
| Old Trafford stadium tour | Trafford | 2 hours | Mid-priced |
| John Rylands Library | Deansgate | 1 hour | Free |
| Manchester Museum | University | 2 hours | Free |
| Manchester Art Gallery | City Centre | 1.5 hours | Free |
| The Whitworth | University | 1.5 hours | Free |
| Etihad Stadium tour | Eastlands | 1.5 hours | Mid-priced |
| National Football Museum | City Centre | 2 hours | Mid-priced |
| Manchester Cathedral | City Centre | 45 minutes | Free |
| People's History Museum | Spinningfields | 1.5 hours | Free |
| Afflecks | Northern Quarter | 1 hour | Free |
| Castlefield canals and Roman fort | Castlefield | 1 hour | Free |
| IWM North | Salford Quays | 2 hours | Free |
| The Lowry | Salford Quays | 1–2 hours | Free |
| Manchester Central Library | City Centre | 30–45 minutes | Free |
| Heaton Park | North Manchester | Half a day | Free |
The 16 best things to do
Museum · Castlefield
1.Science and Industry Museum
Spread across the buildings of Liverpool Road station, the terminus of the 1830 Liverpool and Manchester Railway and the oldest surviving passenger railway station in the world, the museum tells the story of the city's textile mills, engineering and computing, including working cotton machinery demonstrations. Parts of the site have been under long-running restoration, so which galleries are open varies.
Check which buildings are open before you go, and time your visit for one of the cotton machinery demonstrations.
- Time needed
- 2–3 hours
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- History
- Kids
- Rainy day
- Iconic
Experience · Trafford
2.Old Trafford stadium tour
Manchester United's stadium, nicknamed the Theatre of Dreams, holds about 74,000 fans. The museum and stadium tour takes in the dressing rooms, the players' tunnel and pitch-side dugouts, and the trophy displays. The stadium is a short walk from the Old Trafford and Exchange Quay tram stops.
Tours are not available on match days and are limited the day before, so check the fixture list first.
- Time needed
- 2 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Book ahead
- Book stadium tours online in advance, especially during school holidays.
- Iconic
- Kids
- Rainy day
Architecture · Deansgate
3.John Rylands Library
Enriqueta Rylands built this neo-Gothic library in memory of her husband, the cotton magnate John Rylands, and it opened in 1900. The vaulted Historic Reading Room looks more like a cathedral than a library, and the University of Manchester's special collections on display include medieval manuscripts and a fragment of St John's Gospel among the earliest surviving New Testament texts.
Head straight upstairs to the Historic Reading Room, then look for the current exhibition in the modern wing.
- Time needed
- 1 hour
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- Architecture
- History
- Rainy day
- Photo spot
Museum · University
4.Manchester Museum
The University of Manchester's museum reopened in 2023 after a major expansion. Its collections range from a cast of the Tyrannosaurus rex known as Stan and ancient Egyptian mummies to a vivarium of frogs and lizards, and new galleries include a South Asia Gallery and a Chinese culture gallery.
Combine it with the Whitworth, a 10-minute walk south along Oxford Road.
- Time needed
- 2 hours
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- Kids
- Rainy day
- History
- Nature
Gallery · City Centre
5.Manchester Art Gallery
Behind a Greek Revival portico on Mosley Street, the city gallery is known for its Pre-Raphaelite paintings by Rossetti, Holman Hunt and Ford Madox Brown, along with decorative arts and changing contemporary exhibitions. It has a family-friendly Clore Art Studio for young children.
Look for Ford Madox Brown's Work, one of the most famous Victorian paintings of everyday labour.
- Time needed
- 1.5 hours
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- Art
- Rainy day
- Kids
Gallery · University
6.The Whitworth
The University of Manchester's art gallery opens onto Whitworth Park through a glass-walled extension. It is known for one of Britain's largest collections of historic wallpapers and textiles, alongside works on paper by Turner, Blake and modern artists, and a café that looks out into the trees.
Have lunch in the glass-walled café overlooking the park, then explore the textile galleries.
- Time needed
- 1.5 hours
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- Art
- Rainy day
- Architecture
Experience · Eastlands
7.Etihad Stadium tour
Manchester City's stadium in east Manchester was built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and is part of the Etihad Campus sports complex. Tours visit the dressing room, the tunnel and the pitch-side area, and the club's trophies are on display.
Take the Metrolink to Etihad Campus; the stop is right beside the stadium.
- Time needed
- 1.5 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Book ahead
- Book online in advance; tours do not run on match days.
- Kids
- Rainy day
Museum · City Centre
8.National Football Museum
Inside the sloping glass Urbis building beside Cathedral Gardens, England's national football museum covers the game's history from medieval village matches to the modern Premier League, with shirts, trophies and interactive penalty and skills challenges.
Allow time for the interactive Football Plus zone if you have children with you.
- Time needed
- 2 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Kids
- Rainy day
- History
Religious site · City Centre
1.Manchester Cathedral
The medieval collegiate church became a cathedral in 1847. Inside, the 15th-century carved oak choir stalls have misericords decorated with animals and scenes from everyday life, and modern stained-glass windows replace those lost in Second World War bombing.
Look under the choir-stall seats for the carved misericords, including a rabbit cooking a hunter.
- Time needed
- 45 minutes
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- History
- Architecture
- Rainy day
Museum · Spinningfields
2.People's History Museum
Britain's national museum of democracy, in a former Edwardian pumping station on the Irwell, tells the story of the fight for votes, workers' rights and protest through banners, posters and objects from the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 to modern campaigns.
Don't miss the textile conservation studio, where banners are restored in view of visitors.
- Time needed
- 1.5 hours
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- History
- Rainy day
Market · Northern Quarter
3.Afflecks
A former department store on the corner of Church Street and Tib Street packed over several floors with independent stalls selling vintage clothes, records, comics, alternative fashion, tattoos and curiosities. It has been a fixture of the city's alternative scene since the early 1980s.
Walk the surrounding streets afterwards to find the Northern Quarter's murals and record shops.
- Time needed
- 1 hour
- Cost
- Free
- Shopping
- Free
- Rainy day
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Historic site · Castlefield
4.Castlefield canals and Roman fort
Canal basins where the Bridgewater Canal met the city are crossed by iron railway viaducts, with towpaths, pubs and a reconstructed gateway and walls of the Roman fort of Mamucium, from which the city's name derives.
Walk the towpaths at dusk, then have a drink at one of the canal-side pubs.
- Time needed
- 1 hour
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- History
- Outdoors
- Couples
- Photo spot
Museum · Salford Quays
5.IWM North
Daniel Libeskind designed this branch of the Imperial War Museum as three interlocking shards representing a world shattered by conflict. Inside, the main exhibition space and hourly immersive projections cover war and conflict from 1914 to the present.
Walk across the footbridge to The Lowry afterwards for a combined day at Salford Quays.
- Time needed
- 2 hours
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- History
- Architecture
- Rainy day
Gallery · Salford Quays
6.The Lowry
The steel-clad arts centre on Salford Quays has theatres and a free gallery devoted to L. S. Lowry, the Salford painter of 'matchstick men' in industrial streets, as well as changing exhibitions. Its waterfront terraces look across to MediaCityUK.
See the Lowry gallery in the morning, then catch a matinee or have lunch by the water.
- Time needed
- 1–2 hours
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- Art
- Rainy day
Architecture · City Centre
7.Manchester Central Library
The rotunda library on St Peter's Square, opened in 1934, has a domed Wolfson Reading Room modelled loosely on the Pantheon in Rome. It is free to walk in, and the ground floor has exhibitions, a café and a media lounge.
Sit quietly in the Wolfson Reading Room upstairs to appreciate the dome's unusual acoustics.
- Time needed
- 30–45 minutes
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- Architecture
- Rainy day
- Off the beaten path
Park · North Manchester
8.Heaton Park
One of the largest municipal parks in Europe, Heaton Park covers about 240 hectares north of the centre, with the Georgian Heaton Hall, a boating lake, an animal centre, woodland walks and a hilltop temple viewpoint over the city. It also hosts large summer concerts.
Take the Metrolink to Heaton Park stop and bring a picnic on a fine day.
- Time needed
- Half a day
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- Kids
- Outdoors
- Nature
Pick by interest
| Interest | Best picks |
|---|---|
| Art and museums | Science and Industry Museum, Manchester Museum, Manchester Art Gallery and The Whitworth |
| History | Science and Industry Museum, John Rylands Library, Manchester Museum and National Football Museum |
| Outdoors and nature | Manchester Museum, Castlefield canals and Roman fort and Heaton Park |
| Food and markets | Afflecks |
| With children | Science and Industry Museum, Manchester Museum, Manchester Art Gallery and Old Trafford stadium tour |
| On a rainy day | Science and Industry Museum, John Rylands Library, Manchester Museum and Manchester Art Gallery |
What to book ahead
- Old Trafford stadium tour: Book stadium tours online in advance, especially during school holidays.
- Etihad Stadium tour: Book online in advance; tours do not run on match days.
Plan the rest of your trip
Questions travellers ask
+What is the number one thing to do in Manchester?
Science and Industry Museum. Spread across the buildings of Liverpool Road station, the terminus of the 1830 Liverpool and Manchester Railway and the oldest surviving passenger railway station in the world, the museum tells the story of the city's textile mills, engineering and computing, including working cotton machinery demonstrations.
+What can you do for free in Manchester?
Science and Industry Museum, John Rylands Library, Manchester Museum, Manchester Art Gallery and The Whitworth. More free things to do.
+What is there to do in Manchester when it rains?
Head indoors to Science and Industry Museum, John Rylands Library, Manchester Museum and Manchester Art Gallery.