Perfect weekend in Manchester

What’s better than a delicious brunch in a lovely café to start a great weekend? Our itinerary starts in the Northern Quarter of Manchester in a gorgeous café called Sugar Junction. The atmosphere is very inviting in this nicely decorated café and their mochaccino is just to die for (also the cups are huge!). This café is open everyday from 9 AM to 7 PM.

Another option for a good brunch or just a coffee in the same area is Evelyn’s café. 

Next, we strolled in the Northern Quarter for a little while, enjoying all the independent shops, bohemian pubs and street art this vibrant district has to offer, before going to the John Ryland's library.

The John Ryland Library has quickly become our favorite place in Manchester. Stepping inside this timeless place is like entering the world of Harry Potter, which I love. The history of the library and its creation by Enriqueta Rylands is explained in details inside the library. This neo-Gothic style building houses several exhibitions, a souvenir shop and the famous library. We easily spent two hours there. The access to the library is free, so make sure you don’t miss this out! Just make sure you go there on a Saturday, as the library is closed from Sunday to Tuesday.

The itinerary continues towards Manchester's Albert’s square to see the Town Hall. Unfortunately it was under renovation and therefore covered with scaffolding when we visited. Luckily, I have been to Manchester before and saw how beautiful the town hall is. Next we continued to the Central library on St Peter's square.

After walking for about two hours, it was time for a break! For that we went to one of Manchester's oldest pubs, The Britons' protection. This pub, which is over 200 years old, has long been a recruiting centre for the English army and its interior has looked almost identical since the 1930s. The pub now serves nearly 360 different Whiskeys! We sat down in one of its six lounges (with a pint of course) where we chatted with a father and his son, both from Manchester, who had just returned from Australia. They kindly gave us some tips for our stay in their city.

After this lovely break, we resumed our expedition to the Beetham tower, one of the world's thinnest skyscrapers, then along the canal toward the Merchant's bridge. We were told that scenes from the Peaky Blinders series were filmed in this area.

From there we walked along the canal in the beaming sunshine along the canal towards Deansgate, a district that gets very busy at night thanks to its pubs, nightclubs and Comedy clubs. Then we headed towards the Gay Village, with a small detour towards the Alan Turing monument located in Sackville garden.

We decided to stop once again for a break, this time in a different but rather original pub, the Peveril of the peak. This pub takes its name from one of Sir Walter Scott's novels and is considered one of the finest pubs in Manchester. The pub is bright green and yellow which is pretty hard to miss! Fun fact, this pub is a former brothel and its owner is a woman. She has owned it for over 50 years now! The pub manager chatted with us for a little while, asking where we were from, and what brought us to Manchester. We were more than happy to answer his questions and chat with him. He happened to know Ireland and its lakes very well and we had a long chat about it before playing pool. We were alone in the pub that day apart from a few locals which made us feel like we had the pub all to ourselves!

We ended the day on the rooftop of The Old Nags Head pub. Another typical pub with a charming terrace. One of the walls represents internationally known English people (even if we did not manage to recognize them all).

For this second day, we decided to go see one of the great institutions and sources of pride for the city, the Old Trafford stadium where the Manchester United play. When asking one of the employees of the Manchester public transport company to confirm the direction to Old Trafford, he tried to redirect us to the other stadium, the one of Manchester city. We quickly guessed he was a fan of Manchester city, which he confirmed.

After checking out the stadium, we went for a walk in the Chinatown district, then in the medieval quarter where we went to see the Manchester Cathedral and The Old Wellington pub & restaurant.

Manchester is a city with a rich industrial past that allows you to travel through time and different cultures in just a few minutes' walk. By the way, feel free to include a visit to the Museum of Science and Industry in this itinerary. The museum is not very big, so we found that an hour was enough to visit it. The museum offers a lot of information about Manchester’s history and industrial glory. Admission is free.

In the middle of the afternoon, we went back to Sugar Junction. We love this café so much that we decided that this time, we would go back to enjoy afternoon tea. 

Afternoon tea often includes small savoury sandwiches, verrines and a variety of cakes to go with tea or coffee.It is so typically English! Everything is served on an elegant,multi-tiered platter.

Several cafes and tea places offer afternoon tea in Manchester, however, we found some of them to be rather expensive. Sugar Junction Afternoon Tea is reasonably priced (£23 per person) and the portions are very generous. Vegetarian options are also possible.

We ended our weekend in Manchester by exploring the New Islington district. It is mainly a residential area but has a few shops built at the water's edge. We had a very pleasant walk along the water before finally leaving for Manchester Piccadilly station, from which we took the train to Manchester airport.