A Weekend in Manchester

If you have a hankering for handbags, a fetish for footwear or a passion for purchasing then Manchester city centre is an absolute must for you! It has everything from huge department stores to niche little shops, from high end designers to bargain basement stores and everything in between. You could easily spend weeks upon weeks shopping in Manchester and you still won’t have covered it all, however here’s a rundown of the key places for any shopaholic:

1. The Arndale Centre

With over 240 shops and cafes, the Arndale Centre is the biggest city centre shopping arcade in the UK. It is located (as you would imagine) right in the centre and is just a 3-5 minute walk from Victoria train station. There’s also a multi-storey car park that can accommodate almost 1500 cars.

A full list store directory can be found at their website and on maps located around the centre itself, but just a few of the big names you’ll find here are The Disney Store, Next, Accessorize, River Island and Phones for you. There’s something for everyone and when you’re tired of shopping there’s plenty of coffee shops, bars and cafes located around the centre. For convenience, there’s also the Food Chain, which is a food hall offering, amongst others, McDonalds, Spud-U-Like and KFC.

The centre is open until 8pm during the week, 7pm on Saturdays and 6pm on Sundays, although individual store opening times can vary.

2. Outside the Arndale Centre

Just outside the Arndale Centre is the fairly recently opened huge versions of Marks and Spencer and Selfridges. They are back to back and are perfect for any fan of either. Both are laid out in a department store style, with floors for clothing, home and leisure, food etc and you’ll find all your favourite items in either.

Also located nearby is a row of individual stores including Harvey Nichols, Ted Baker and Lacoste – definitely the place to be for your high-end and designer fashions and accessories.

3. Deansgate

Deansgate is most popular for its mouth-watering selection of restaurant and bars, although intrepid shoppers will also find plenty to tickle their taste buds here. Travel shops, hairdressers, florists and jewellers all reside on Deansgate. There’s also a Starbucks for a quick pick-me-up between shops!

4. Department Stores

In this area again, you won’t find Manchester lacking with all the big (and I mean BIG) department stores featured within walking distance of the centre. Your options include Debenhams, Primark, John Lewis, Habitat and my personal favourite – House of Fraser. Like I said, these are all huge stores and have all the facilities you would expect to see along side the shops – cafes, toilets, lifts and so on.

5. Alleys and Side Streets

As with all cities, it’s a great idea just to wander up and down the streets of Manchester’s city centre where you’ll find some real gems; the Vivienne Westwood store is in a nondescript little building down one the of the side-streets. You’ll also find great gift stores and cute little shopping arcades.

So, as you can see there is plenty to go at and this is just the tip of the iceberg. But, this is probably why Manchester has got to be one of the top shopping destinations in the UK!

Introduction

I remember going to the Imperial War Museum in London when I was a child and having a great time, so when I discovered there was one here in the North, I decided to pay a visit.

The Imperial War Museum North is housed in an obscure, but interesting, looking building and is basically made up of two floors:

The ground floor is the entrance and includes the gift shop, a dining room (where you can eat your packed lunch, if you've brought one), a cloak room, learning studio and the elevator to the Air Shard (which is a 29 metre high viewing platform, from which you can see most of Manchester).

The second floor is where the exhibition rooms are. There are two; the Main Exhibition Space which contains the permanent display of war artefacts and the Special Exhibitions gallery which contains the temporary exhibitions. When I visited the temporary exhibition was a display of female war artists' work, which was well worth the visit alone.

The Main Exhibition Space is also where they present the award-winning Big Picture Show, which is a 360 degree audio-visual experience showing different aspects of the war in approximately 15 minute shows, every hour.

My Opinion

The museum is fantastic, in my opinion. It's really well laid out and easy to work your way around. There is an even balance of visual, emotional and informative display items that makes it suitable for the whole family.

The Museum is presented in a big open space, that is easy to wander round in a logical order, following the timeline that runs around the edge of the room covering 1914 to the present day in digestible periods - World War I, The inter-war period, World War II, After the war until 1990 and 1990 to the present day. This is particularly good because you generally think of the World Wars when you consider wars in general, but it gives a interesting and thought-provoking look at the wars of this generation, which are often over-looked (by me anyway).

There are some great 'large objects' which break up the educational bits nicely. The most impressive is the Harrier Jump-jet hanging in the entrance. Also on display are a Trabant estate car and a T34 Russian tank. You obviously can't climb on the objects, but you can get a good look at the insides of them and there are descriptions of them and quotes from people who've used them.

There are also a number of small rooms (called Silos) which each display a different aspect of war, such as Women and War (which has souvenirs that notable women from each war have collected) and Experience of War (which is laid out like a living room and contains games, newspapers and foods from the various wars).

The museum is very child-friendly, with plenty of opportunities for children to learn whilst having fun at the action stations. These include learning how to crack codes and dressing up in camouflage. Whilst we were there, there were many children wandering round with smiles on their faces as they explored the various exhibits and enjoyed the object handling sessions hosted by the museum staff.

By far and away the best bit of the museum though was the Big Picture display. Every hour, the main room goes dark and images and sounds of the war are displayed on the walls, giving you a very real experience of the war through the eyes of the people who experienced it first-hand. The presentation we watched was 'Children and War', which gave the accounts of children from all the countries that have been involved in wars throughout the last century. It was a very moving account and I found it very interesting to see how war affects the people involved.

Overall, I would definitely say that the museum is worth a visit and a donation. It is suitable for people of all ages and gives a thought-provoking and moving account of events that are happening around the world even now.

Other information

The museum is located on the riverside at The Quays in Salford and is easily accessible by road, car and train.

The museum itself is free to enter, although you do have to visit the entry desk to 'check in' where a member of staff politely enquires whether you'd 'like to help the museum to expand and improve by making a valuable donation of £3.95' (for which price you get an all-singing, all-dancing guide book!). We gave the guide book a miss, saying that we'd make our own donation. There are plenty of donation boxes around the museum and, to be honest, you don't need a guide book, as the museum is quite small and the exhibits well-labelled.

There is a great gift shop where you can buy from an extensive range of war literature, museum souvenirs and war-inspired items such as ration cook-books and foods.

The museum is open seven days a week from 10am until 6pm (March to September) and 10am until 5pm (November to February). Last admission is 30 minutes prior to closing.

Whilst it probably only takes a couple of hours to explore the museum, it's easy to make it part of a day out, as there is an outlet mall, theatre and plenty of restaurants close by, as well as Old Trafford (if you're that way inclined, which I'm definitely not!).

I went to Manchester recently for a concert and we decided to make an evening of it and get some food first. So, armed with my 50% off food voucher courtesy of moneysavingexpert.com (don't judge me - there's a credit crunch going on people!), we headed to Las Tasca on Deansgate.

-The Restaurant Itself-

First of all, there's an outdoor eating area in front of the restaurant with about five tables - although there are two reasons why I wouldn't eat there. Firstly, the great British weather doesn't exactly lend itself to dining Al Fresco and, secondly, I'm not sure I'd like the people walking past staring at me stuffing myself anymore than I'd like to alternate mouthfuls of food with mouthfuls of exhaust fumes from the busy road.

Going through the main doors, there is a sort of corridor which is lined with bar tables for waiting for a table. We visited at 5 o'clock on a Monday night and when we left just under two hours later, all the tables were occupied (which for a small town girl like me is unheard of!).
The restaurant is large, but manages to be cosy at the same time and the walls are adorned with 'authentic' Spanish works of art and random items, which is nice - it's always good to have something to look at!

There were a couple of problems with the restaurant. First of all, it was unbelievably dark inside, which meant that I had to squint to even see the menu in the flickering candle light. Also, the tables were extremely close together. They are angled so that you don't feel like you're sharing a table with other diners, but when you want to leave the table it becomes difficult. Believe me, there is nothing more embarrassing than knocking someone's food off their fork with your bum!

-The Food-

The food at La Tasca is Spanish, with a choice of tapas and paella dishes. They have some great offers - such as lunch for two for £10 and all you can eat for £10 midweek evenings, both of which are from a limited selection. They also have tapas menus to give you a selection of dishes, if you aren't sure what to order.

Since there were three of us, we decided to go for one of the set menus for two and added three extra dishes, giving us ten in total - which is about what they recommend. We had paella, chicken wings, ribs, chorizo sausage, meatballs, fried potatoes in tomato sauce, gambas pil-pil (king prawns in garlic oil), garlic mushrooms and Spanish omelette. I thought these were all quite tasty, although you could tell that they were all warmed up dishes. The other dish we had was chicken croquettes, which were absolutely vile! They were like deep fried balls of chicken mush - steer well clear, if you decide to visit!

All the dishes were between four and six pounds, so with 50% off were pretty good value, although if I'd paid full price, I think I'd have felt a little short changed.

I recommend that you get some bread to go with your tapas, as most of the dishes came in sauces that needed something to 'mop them up' with!

There is also a selection of dishes that are suitable for vegetarians, although it does say on the menu that they don't have a dedicated are for preparing vegetarian food. They also label the dishes that are gluten free and the ones that don't contain garlic.

For dessert, we had the chocolate fondue that was served with apple pieces, strawberries and 'crispy' donut twists. The donut pieces were soggy and very greasy and, at £5.95, it wasn't worth the money - even though the melted chocolate was really nice!

-Drinks-

The drinks, as always in restaurants, are what pushed our bill up - expect to pay over £3 for a pint of beer and between £13 and £30 for a bottle of wine. They have soft drinks, coffees, liqueurs, champagne and sangria, but again, it isn't cheap.

-Service-

The waiting staff were friendly enough, although not overly efficient - things seemed to come as and when they were ready and not when you ordered them. This may have just been because they were busy, but then I get the impression that it's always busy, so you think they'd be used to it.

-Overall Opinion-

The food was nice enough, but it is a chain and so, it is what you'd expect - pre-prepared food at fairly inflated prices. If we'd have paid full price for the food, it would have been around £15 a head for the food alone. I think this would have been a bit too much considering what you could get elsewhere for the price.

We had a good evening and I would recommend it, but not for a romantic evening. I imagine it'd be a great place to have a birthday or works party, especially as they do set party menus for large groups.

-Introduction-

It's been so long since my partner and I went to Manchester that, when we got tickets to see The Killers (woohoo!) at the MEN Arena last week, we decided to make a trip of it and stay over, so we could do some shopping and - more importantly - sample the local food and drink!
Anyone who has booked concert tickets recently will know that, by the time you've added all the 'hidden costs' on, you've spent a fortune, so we were looking for somewhere cheap and conveniently located and I have to say, we definitely found that.

- How did we find it?-

After trawling through all the usual hotel websites, I stumbled across an advert offering rooms for £19 at Travelodge. This isn't the price we paid for the room (it was actually £35), but it certainly got my attention. After heading to www.travelodge.co.uk and searching for hotels in Manchester, I was given a series of suitable options. There are a couple of options in the city centre but we finally settled on this one because it suited our needs best (close to the MEN, close to the Arndale centre and the nightlife on Deansgate and cheap parking).
The website is easy to navigate and tells you everything you need to know about the hotel you've chosen, its facilities and what's close-by.

-Getting there-

*By car - the directions we printed off the internet couldn't have been easier to follow; head for the M60 Ring Road (North and East), leave at J17 and follow the A56 all the way into the city centre (passing the MEN Arena and The Lowry Centre) and then turn right onto Blackfriars Street et voila! It's the big, grey, imposing building on the right hand side! It was a painless trip considering what it can be like travelling into Manchester.

*By Train - According to the website, Victoria Station is a quarter of a mile away and Piccadilly is half a mile away. Victoria Station is obviously the better choice and is about three minutes walk, even for a slow-coach like me!

-Parking-

This is one of the main reasons we chose this hotel over the others. It has an underground car-park that is run on behalf of the hotel by an external company. It has about 50 (very badly marked out) spaces, although we were advised to get there at 3pm on the dot to guarantee a space, which turned out to be good advice. If you arrive after 3pm, you get 24hrs parking for £7.50, or it's about £1.50 per hour.
If there are no spaces available here, there is a NCP car-park next door that is about £15 for 24 hours.

-Where is it?-

As the name of the hotel suggests, it is very centrally located. It is more or less on the crossroads of Deansgate (where you'll find copious amounts of restaurants and bars) and St Mary's St (which is where you'll find the main shopping street including the Arndale Centre).
It took us about five minutes to walk to the MEN Arena and the Palace and Royal Exchange Theatres and the G-Mex are all within walking distance. The Museum of Science and Industry is about half a mile from the hotel

-What do you get for the price?-

The truthful answer is not a lot, but the Travelodge make no pretence about this being the reason why their prices are so low. They give you a room from 3pm to midday the following day and you can pay for any extras you want, including earlier check-in (£10), later check-out (£10), breakfast (£5.99 online or £7.50 at check-in, per person). We didn't take any of these options, so can't comment on the value for money, but considering there are so many places to eat in the vicinity; I would think you could get a better deal elsewhere.

-The rooms-

The rooms are basic, but contain everything you need. They have a double bed, en-suite bathroom, dressing table, coffee making facilities, a TV and wardrobe and shelf space. They are spacious, clean and comfortable.

The beds are extremely soft and bouncy, which sounds nice but actually makes sleeping quite difficult - every movement makes you wake up feeling a little sea-sick! My other half (who admittedly is a light sleeper) spent most of the night awake as a result.

The showers are super powerful, which makes a nice change in a hotel.

The TV has a selection of English TV and radio channels, including news, sport and entertainment (ITV I think).

There are a couple of things to bear in mind though. Like I said, the Travelodge keeps their prices low by removing all the 'frills', so don't expect to find toiletries (other than one mini bar of soap), a hair-dryer, an iron or even a phone! We were also only supplied with one hand towel and one bath towel, so I would recommend asking for another at reception when you check-in to avoid problems when you get out of the shower and find nothing to dry yourself with!

You can ask at reception as well for a hair-dryer, iron, and extra pillows (which you'll probably need).

-Other facilities-

*24-hour reception with efficient and friendly staff.
*2 lifts that go to all floors, although very sporadically!
*Wi-Fi - you need to buy a voucher (which can be purchased on-line when booking), which is valid for twelve months. Prices are £5 for an hour, £10 for a day, £20 for a week and £30 for a month.
*ATM machine on the wall outside.
*A bar cafe serving evening meals (Brewers Fayre sort of standard by the looks of the menu) and drinks.
*Vending machines, offering hot and cold drinks, snacks, ice-creams and travel essentials.
*Meeting rooms.
*Lounge area.

-My opinion-

Overall, I would say that we definitely got what we paid for and, for the price, you couldn't ask for a better location. I would recommend the Travelodge to anyone, although that recommendation would come with a warning attached; don't expect luxury and bring everything you'll need!

The Trafford Centre is a huge shopping complex just outside Manchester with every shop and eatery you can imagine, with a 16 screen cinema and games arcade and bowling alley thrown into the mix.

*Directions*

By car:
Straight off the M60 at either junction 9 or 10. Coming from Lancashire, we usually come off at junction 9, but sometimes when it's super busy, the overhead signs on the motorway direct you to come off at junction 10 to ease traffic. You can actually see it from the motorway, so you don't need the million-and-one directional signs once you get off the motorway, although they are there anyway! There are 1000's of parking spaces across a number of carparks all on the Trafford Centre complex. Parking is free.

By bus:
There is a bus station actually on the complex, connecting the Trafford Centre to Manchester city centre frequently (at least every 15 minutes).

By Train:
After getting a train to Piccadilly, you need to get a tram to Stretford, where you can get a shuttle bus directly to the Trafford Centre. I don't know how much this is though, sorry.

*Layout*

The Trafford Centre is a sort of v-shaped building, with two long halls running off the centre, which is called the Orient. The Orient is where all the food halls and restaurants are and the shops are on two levels, with ornate staircases every couple of hundred feet and lift access at either end. Many of the shops span the two floors, so there are plenty of staircases and escalators within the shops to get you from one floor to the other.

There are information booths throughout the centre, where you can get advice on shops and services or just pick up a leaflet with a map on. There are directional signs all over pointing you to different parts of the centre and to the main shops.

*Shops*

Obviously the thing you are coming for is the shops and believe me, you won't be dissappointed. With over 230 shops, you'll get bored of shopping before you run out of places to look! The shops aren't laid out in any particular order or in sections, so if you want something specific, you're best bet is to pick up a map from one of the information stands.

At the Trafford Centre you will find everything you need from big department stores (John Lewis, Debenhams and Selfridges) to individual boutiques (including Calvin Klein, Vivienne Westwood and Armani) and from sportstores (JD Sports, Adidas and Puma) to high street stores (Burton, Topshop and Evans). Honestly they have everything!

My favourite is Selfridges, which is a luxury store selling everything from designer clothes to technology and they have a fantastic foodhall, which has all kinds of weird and wonderful things.

*Food*

After all that shopping, you'll need a nice sit down, perhaps with something to eat. Yet again, the Trafford Centre provides, with every kind of eating establishment imaginable. There is a huge food hall, with plenty of seating, designed to look like a cruise ship - complete with a ceiling painted like the sky that even has stars in the evening! Round the outside of this are all the fast food shops - including the big names (McDonalds, KFC etc) and some lesser known ones offering food from around the world, as well as British classics such as fish and chips and jacket potatoes.

There is also a good selection of dine in restaurants with Pizza Hut, Potters (offering traditional English fayre), Exchange Bar and Grill (American Diner), Nandos (chicken) and Las Iguanas (Mexican). There is also a mini china-town and a selection of indian restaurants.

If you are looking for a cheaper option (like most of us are these days) there are also plenty of places, both indoors and out, to eat your own food if you want to bring a packed lunch. Or there's plenty of places throughout the centre to get snacks like popcorn, cookies and ice creams.

*Entertainment*

Like I said there is a 16-screen cinema showing all the latest releases, matinees and the odd old-classic, as well as foreign language movies and Bollywood hits.

There is also a games arcade that is designed to look like an Aztec World. This area also includes an 18-lane ten pin bowling alley as well as dodgems and several pool tables.

There is also a laser quest next to the cinema, which caters particularly well for parties.

*Extras*

I don't have children myself, but I believe there is a creche and play centre suitable for all children. There is also a stand where you can get 'fun buggies' which are like little cars that you can push your children round in and it keeps them more entertained whilst you concentrate on shopping!

Like I said before, there is plenty of free parking and as you approach the Trafford Centre the signs directing you to the various carparks also tell you how many available spaces there are in each one.

There's always some celebrity or another signing a book or opening a store at the centre, so it's quite good for celeb-spotting. If you want to know who's there when, you can have a look at the website - www.traffordcentre.co.uk - where there's a diary of events. In fact the website is good if there's anything you want to know at all - it has a shop directory as well as menus for all the restaurants.

*Opening times*

Shops-

Monday - Friday 10am-10pm
Saturday 10am-8pm
Sunday 12noon-6pm (some stores open at 11am)

The Orient & The Great Hall Restaurants-

Monday - Thursday 10am-Midnight
Friday 10am-Midnight at least
Saturday 9am-Midnight at least
Sunday 11am-Midnight

ODEON Cinema-

Monday - Thursday 9.40am-1am
Friday 9.40am-3am
Saturday 9.40am-3am
Sunday 9.40am-1am

*My Opinion*

The Trafford Centre is perfect for a good shopping trip with your friends or a day out with the family as there really is something for everyone. The only thing to bear in mind is that it is really popular so it gets really busy!

Anyway, I think I've covered everything - but definitely go and see it for yourself and if you need any more information the website is well worth a visit!