The City of Manchester

Introduction
Cotton mills, Morrissey, Man U, the Mondays...ah, marvellous Manchester. Manchester is looking up. Gone are the Dickensian days of grinding poverty. Gone too the gloom'n'doom of the 1980s indie punk scene and its Joy Division pessimism: over the last 15 years the city has developed a champagne-for-breakfast insouciance and an almost giddy attitude toward fun.

Destination Facts
Time zone: GMT 0
Area: 1286
Coordinates: 18.033000946 latitude and -77.5 longitude
Population: 3200000
Area codes: 161

Getting There
April-September is the optimal period weather-wise to head up north, though bear in mind that July-August is peak tourist time. Visit at the end of August and you can join the 500,000 revellers kicking up their heels in Manchester's GayFest parade. The marginal months of March and October are worth considering; it can be cold and wet, but then again so can July. November-February is grim, cold and dark, and best left to its own devices.

Getting there and away
It's a decent sized city, so getting into Manchester is pretty easy. Flying in is a snap, considering the airport is the largest outside London. Its state-of-the-art facilities make getting to and from the airport pretty foolproof, with on-site trains and buses waiting to take you into town.Buses run practically every hour from Manchester's city centre to most major cities, and there are multiple trains to and from Manchester to the rest of the country. The majority use Piccadilly as its main station, with a couple using Victoria station.

Getting around
Compact Manchester is pretty foot-friendly, but if you're not pounding the pavements you can either catch one of the many buses or trams that weave across the city or one of the trains that skirt the inner city area. There are handy Day Saver tickets which will allow you to travel on all three modes of transport.

Weather
Like the rest of northwest England, Manchester has a generous yearly dose of clouds and drizzle. Relative to most of the country, winters and summers are both quite mild, with temperatures in winter ranging from 1-6 ° C (33-43 ° F) and summers of 12-19 ° C (53-66 ° F). The weather in any season is rarely severe and in summer can be particularly pleasant.