Why Manchester Is the Best Place to Be This Year

With a growing constellation of Michelin stars, a revamped city museum, and one historic warehouse after another reborn as a trendy bar, art gallery or hotel, Manchester is the most exciting city in the UK right now. Of course, has always had the music, the football and the swagger – and it now also boasts the polish of truly world-class restaurants and cultural hubs. Catch it in 2026, with the city’s buzz at an all time high.

What’s on in 2026

Manchester’s vibrant, always-on culture means there’s always something for everyone to enjoy (Photo: Getty Images)

The city’s busy calendar speaks to its vibrancy. In spring 2026, the cutting-edge new arena Co-op Live brings the BRIT Awards and MOBO Awards to the city – both for the first time in their history – with a range of fringe music events being held across the city. March’s Manchester Film Festival, meanwhile, sees the world’s most exciting indie and arthouse films come to the city’s cinemas, and the city’s finest gastronomic gathering, the South Manchester Food Festival, arrives in Wythenshawe Park in May. 

Beer fans will revel in the city’s Oktoberfest celebrations in September and October, and when winter comes, the country’s most famous festive markets bring mulled wine, sweet treats and Christmas cosiness to the city centre.

Spark your cultural curiosity

The John Rylands Library is a breathtaking example of late Victorian Gothic architecture in Manchester (Photo: Marriott International)

Along with Co-op Live, the headline addition to Manchester’s cultural scene in recent years has been Aviva Studios, a modern, polygonal venue home to arts organisation Factory International, hosting a range of events from multimedia visual arts exhibitions by the likes of David Hockney, to family-friendly Shaun the Sheep circus shows.

For a quieter cultural experience, head to the John Rylands Library on Deansgate. One of the most beautiful libraries in the country, this red sandstone Victorian edifice looks more like a church. Among its historic treasures are some of the oldest Biblical fragments in existence. After a day’s scholarship at the library, the nearby Moxy Manchester City is a fun place to stay – not least as check-in is accompanied by a complimentary drink.

Here in Manchester, the first passenger trains ran, the atom was split, and graphene was invented – and the world’s first industrial city continues to be a home for pioneering innovation. Find out about all these breakthroughs and more at the Science and Industry Museum in Castlefield, partly housed in the world’s first passenger railway station. Close by is Manchester Marriott Victoria & Albert Hotel, a beautiful place to stay in a Grade II-listed building which retains period features like red bricks and wooden beams.

Those with refined musical tastes will love Hallé St Peters, housed in a former church in the trendy ex-industrial neighbourhood of Ancoats, in the city centre’s northeast corner. It’s a beautiful venue for candlelit performances of film scores, classical compositions, and jazz. 

Neighbouring Ancoats is the Northern Quarter, the city centre’s original hipster district, and still a hotbed of vintage shops and art galleries. This is also where you’ll find the Manchester Craft and Design Centre, home to artists’ workshops where you can browse for one-of-a-kind jewellery and prints, or try your hand at some ceramic making. A short walk away, HOME is the city’s premier venue for arthouse films.

Also in the city centre is the People’s History Museum, which tells the story of Britain’s working people through the ages and Manchester’s role in social history.

South of the city centre is Elizabeth Gaskell’s House, once home to the 19th-century writer of the same name, and reconstructed to look just as she would have known it. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the life of a Victorian writer.

Savour the city’s culinary flair

Manchester is a serious gastronomic destination, with an array of dining options to match any occasion (Photo: Marriott International)

Manchester has become a serious gastronomic destination, with a bevy of fantastic new restaurants opening in recent years, including a couple that are Michelin-starred.

Basque-inspired open-flame cooking has come to Manchester in the form of Stow, which harnesses the finest local produce to delicious effect – the roasted celeriac, monkfish tail, and smoked cream tart are rightly celebrated. The city’s newest Michelin-starred restaurant, meanwhile, is Skof, helmed by Tom Barnes. Garnering rave reviews for serving its rarefied cuisine in a relaxed atmosphere, the menu includes gorgeous British dishes like cured mackerel in horseradish, and roasted duck.

Housed within the Stock Exchange Hotel, Manchester, Autograph Collection, Tender by Niall Keating is well worth seeking out for its glorious fusion of British, Asian and French cuisine – try the venison with roasted fig or the exceptional Sunday Roast. For a postprandial drink, there’s nowhere more stylish in the city than Sterling, which sits under the same hotel. All dark wood and leather booths, the bar will take you right back to the Jazz Age. 

The Ancoats neighbourhood is home to some of Manchester’s finest restaurants, including Erst, where seasonal British dishes like Porthilly oysters are paired with natural wines. For a cosy drink afterwards (or a hearty roast on a Sunday), you can’t beat the nearby Edinburgh Castle, an atmospheric pub in a historic, typically Mancunian redbrick building.

There’s also a real cosmopolitan thread to the city’s eating and drinking scene nowadays. Take The Spärrows, for instance, a glorious mixture of Tyrolean and Austrian cuisine – the spätzle (egg pasta) is the signature dish. New Wave Ramen, meanwhile, is one of Manchester’s finest Japanese restaurants, serving indulgent bowls of noodles from a stylish space in the Northern Quarter.

Enjoy front-row entertainment

As well as its voguish restaurants and bars, Ancoats is home to the fantastic Hope Mill Theatre, which puts on award-winning comedy, musical and drama shows. On the edge of the Northern Quarter, Frog & Bucket Comedy Club is the best place to catch a mixture of established and up-and-coming comedians, while the Royal Exchange Theatre hosts world-class touring productions, including Shakespearean plays. The Lowry, meanwhile, is the place to catch the biggest touring names in comedy and entertainment.

Get into the swing of things

Old Trafford is one of the UK's most impressive football stadiums, boasting almost 75,000 seats (Photo: Marriott International)

On the sporting front, the sport of padel has been sweeping the UK, and the craze has well and truly arrived in Manchester. Club de Padel is the city’s finest place to play, with four courts in a city-centre location on the busy Deansgate road; it also hosts a bar, a sports apparel shop, and wood-fired sauna. Not far away, Courts Club offers tennis in a similarly trendy new setting, while fantastic golf courses can be found in the city’s greener suburbs, at Northenden Golf Club and Worsley Golf Club.

If spectating is more your thing, experience something quintessentially English with a day at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground, watching Lancashire or the national team. Stay close to the action at Hotel Football, Old Trafford, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel, which is also handy for the eponymous stadium, home of the legendary Manchester United.

Manchester’s charms warrant a long weekend at the very least. The city has always enjoyed cast-iron confidence and homegrown flair – visitors in 2026 will discover that it has now added real substance to its inimitable style.

Published: January 12, 2026