Things to do in Manchester

Neighborhood · City centre, north-east

Red-brick Victorian warehouses turned record shops, independent bars, vintage clothing and street art.

Local tip: Afflecks is four floors of independent stalls in a former department store and has been there since 1982. Go on a weekday — the Quarter is genuinely pleasant midweek and a scrum on Saturday night.

Landmark · South-west of the centre

The site of the Roman fort the city is named for, now canal basins, railway viaducts and the country's first urban heritage park.

Local tip: The Castlefield Viaduct has been turned into an elevated garden on a disused railway structure, free to visit but booked in slots. It is the single best view of how the industrial city was actually built.

Nature · 40 minutes east and south

England's first national park — gritstone edges, moorland and limestone dales, directly reachable by train from the city centre.

Local tip: Take the train to Edale or Hathersage rather than driving; both put you on the trail from the platform and the line through the Hope Valley is worth the fare on its own.

Culture · West, on the Manchester Ship Canal

The old docks rebuilt as a media campus, with the Lowry gallery and the Imperial War Museum North across the water.

Local tip: The Lowry's permanent collection of L.S. Lowry paintings is free, and IWM North's Daniel Libeskind building is worth the trip even if you skip the exhibits. Metrolink runs straight there.

Culture · Deansgate

A neo-Gothic cathedral of a reading room built in the 1890s, holding one of the world's great manuscript collections — and free to enter.

Local tip: Most visitors photograph the historic reading room and leave. The changing exhibitions in the side galleries are small, excellent and almost empty.

Nature · South Manchester

A chain of lakes, meadows and river path running west from Chorlton — the city's least-known green corridor.

Local tip: You can walk or cycle from Chorlton to Sale and on to Dunham Massey almost entirely off-road along the Mersey. Almost nobody who does not live in south Manchester knows the route exists.