Want to take the misses to the UK for her birthday, and the other day she mentioned she would love to see Manchester or London . Which city should I pick and why? Any tips on where I should go?( I also wouldn't mind a bit of shopping for my self)
Hmmm difficult one imo, both decent for different reasons, would say for a day Manchester, for the weekend London, A day in london aint long enough, too stressful, nice to take your time and venture into different parts aside from usual places, Soho, Cambden, Shoreditch, then also hit the sights. Tons of places and things to do, its nice to just sit in quirky places and watch the world go by, Manchester always find it much better midweek for me, quieter and easiy to navigate, Northern Quarter is where its at Oldham St, and the city centre all nearby, some lovely little bars tucked away in back streets, also venture out to Chorlton, nice for a bevvy, shops you know the ones, all within a fair distance and good mix of both independent and high fashion (Selfridges) etc. Variety of people has to be London, whereas Manchester for me on my latest visit felt every man and his dog was dressed the same. Where you travelling from???? Its sometimes nice to just bob off to somewhere not as well known and make your own adventure, discoveries, even if just a charity or vintage shop find, The amount of times I have took my missus to Manchester and she gets the huff cause my obsession kicks in and she just ends up following me rounds clothes/record shops, very hard one my man,
clothes wise london will have everything manchester has ,probably with more options,also sightseeing has to be london,depends what youre looking for,as said manchester ok for a day but london better for a break
Manchester is a nice city, but only in the same way somewhere like Bristol and Glasgow is IMO (although it does have better shops) whereas London is a truly international city. It's a bit more expensive but would make a far better holiday destination - more museums, more bars, much better sights etc
[quote="OFFHand"]Hmmm difficult one imo, both decent for different reasons, would say for a day Manchester, for the weekend London, A day in london aint long enough, too stressful, nice to take your time and venture into different parts aside from usual places, Soho, Cambden, Shoreditch, then also hit the sights. Tons of places and things to do, its nice to just sit in quirky places and watch the world go by, Manchester always find it much better midweek for me, quieter and easiy to navigate, Northern Quarter is where its at Oldham St, and the city centre all nearby, some lovely little bars tucked away in back streets, also venture out to Chorlton, nice for a bevvy, shops you know the ones, all within a fair distance and good mix of both independent and high fashion (Selfridges) etc. Variety of people has to be London, whereas Manchester for me on my latest visit felt every man and his dog was dressed the same. Where you travelling from???? Its sometimes nice to just bob off to somewhere not as well known and make your own adventure, discoveries, even if just a charity or vintage shop find, The amount of times I have took my missus to Manchester and she gets the huff cause my obsession kicks in and she just ends up following me rounds clothes/record shops, very hard one my man, [/quote]
Travelling from Amsterdam mate. Great post , thanks for all the tips. For some reason i would prefer Manchester to go by myself, but just as the other lads said think London is probably better for a holiday trip. Will definitely keep Manchester in mind tho
London, I'm from Manchester and I don't mind admitting it's not that great, The town has been taken over by big companies and chains and there's not much to see.
London, although there's two weeks worth of stuff to see there rather than two days. You could comprehensively do Manchester in two days and work in the Imperial War museum plus take in the shops. In many ways I actually find Manchester better shopping than London because it has several independents and everything is within a few minutes walking distance. London has lots more shops and on the whole is miles better but it's a trek trying to fit it all in. I tend to get down there 3 or 4 times a year and that'll increase this year to 5 or 6. I'd sack Camden off completely and head to Notting Hill/Portobello Market (Garbstore) and have a big old wander around Covent Garden and Soho. Beak Street is good for Albam, CP/SI, Hideout and Liberty isn't far off either. Shoreditch and Brick Lane is worth a look too although it gets a bit hammered full of wallies in Dame Edna glasses from what I've seen. Vibrant though I suppose.
But in answer to your question, London as long as you tailor your trip to suit you and make use of the tube. It'd be easy to get sidetracked and end up wasting time doing stuff just because it's there.
Its official Manchester is a better place to live than London. No surprise to Mancunians, now we’re the top destination for weekend breaks in the UK after London. Yes many of us have lived in London and enjoyed it’s hospitality and shuddered in horror at the price of a pint or item in a shop (often prompting me to gasp - at least Dick Turpin wore a mask). As for living in London, its how deep are your pockets. I’ve paid through the nose to rent in leafy St John’s Wood, had a fantastic pad in Maida Vale even nearly bought a place down there, until the grasping estate agent told me the price and I told him I wouldn’t pay that for the whole street. I lived the highlife down there with plenty of money in my pocket – it was boring. The people were grumpy and miserable and everything seemed to shut early unless you could afford to pay an extortionate membership to drink in some poncey private members club. Londoners have to pay to park outside their own homes and pay a tenner to drive into the City centre and hardly anyone there speaks English any more. In London when people do talk to you the first question is ‘What do you do for a living’, a Mancunian would consider that a rude thing to ask a stranger as well as a bit dull and Londoners only ever seem to talk about work. Move to Manchester and it won’t be very long until you are comfortable in its warm cosmopolitan embrace. Manchester has a rich cultural history, Rolls Royce was started here, the Football League was founded here as was the chartist movement, women’s liberation (Emily Pankhurst), The university invented the worlds first programmable Computer, Rutherford split the atom (nuclear energy) and we had the world’s first railway line going all the way to Liverpool, we needed a port but were 35 miles from the sea, so we dug the Ship canal and became the third biggest trading port in Britain, even the iconic TV show Top Of The Pops came from Manchester; Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones spent 45 minutes with me in New York 15 years ago bemoaning the fact that they moved Top Of The Pops from Manchester to London and ruined it. In fact the only two British nightclubs to ever win the accolade best nightclub in the world in American Billboard magazine were Wigan Casino in 1978 and The Hacienda in 1989, both in Greater Manchester.
London offers high culture, buildings, museums, theatres etc, but if you’re a Londoner when was the last time you went to an art gallery or to see an opera, and we do offer all those things in Manchester too. When was the last time as a Londoner you walked into a pub and ordered a pint of bitter and got change of two quid or ordered a pub lunch and got change of a fiver. Well for me it was last week and there are drinks offers galore in Manchester every night of the week as it caters for the biggest student population in Western Europe and every night of the week there are clubs and bars with different sorts of music and live bands, from reggae to Northern Soul and the best home-grown talent in the world, and there’s always somewhere open as late as you want to stay out any night of the week. Musically we’re the music capital of Europe. Even back in 1965 Manchester Bands topped the USA billboard charts for six consecutive weeks with one week in April of that year seeing Manchester bands at occupy all three top positions on the USA chart and Herman’s Hermits outsold The Beatles, our music scene stretches way back. If you’re not into nightlife, great shopping and having friendly strangers talking to you, a 45 minute drive and you can be nestled in the wilds of the Peak District, 45 minutes north towards Burnley and you’ve got the beauty of the Lancashire countryside and Pendle Hill, an hour North East and it’s the Yorkshire Dales, an hour and a half northwards and you’re in the Lake District, an hour West and your in North Wales and Snowdonia. Oh and for weather buffs, statistically we get one inch of rain a year more than Brighton.
Manchester has the most famous football team in the world and the richest club who modestly reject success despite their untold wealth. Admittedly life might be tricky for our footballers as there aren’t that many 5 star hotels so they’re likely to be caught if they are playing away with some model – but then Mancunians are less likely to grass on you (very frowned upon up here). Manchester is maverick , modern and forward thinking .As Ian Brown of The Stone Roses said back in 1989 – the only way Manchester could be better is if it had a beach.
[quote="Vasque"]Terry Christains take on it........
MANCHESTER IS BETTER THAN LONDON
Its official Manchester is a better place to live than London. No surprise to Mancunians, now we’re the top destination for weekend breaks in the UK after London. Yes many of us have lived in London and enjoyed it’s hospitality and shuddered in horror at the price of a pint or item in a shop (often prompting me to gasp - at least Dick Turpin wore a mask). As for living in London, its how deep are your pockets. I’ve paid through the nose to rent in leafy St John’s Wood, had a fantastic pad in Maida Vale even nearly bought a place down there, until the grasping estate agent told me the price and I told him I wouldn’t pay that for the whole street. I lived the highlife down there with plenty of money in my pocket – it was boring. The people were grumpy and miserable and everything seemed to shut early unless you could afford to pay an extortionate membership to drink in some poncey private members club. Londoners have to pay to park outside their own homes and pay a tenner to drive into the City centre and hardly anyone there speaks English any more. In London when people do talk to you the first question is ‘What do you do for a living’, a Mancunian would consider that a rude thing to ask a stranger as well as a bit dull and Londoners only ever seem to talk about work. Move to Manchester and it won’t be very long until you are comfortable in its warm cosmopolitan embrace. Manchester has a rich cultural history, Rolls Royce was started here, the Football League was founded here as was the chartist movement, women’s liberation (Emily Pankhurst), The university invented the worlds first programmable Computer, Rutherford split the atom (nuclear energy) and we had the world’s first railway line going all the way to Liverpool, we needed a port but were 35 miles from the sea, so we dug the Ship canal and became the third biggest trading port in Britain, even the iconic TV show Top Of The Pops came from Manchester; Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones spent 45 minutes with me in New York 15 years ago bemoaning the fact that they moved Top Of The Pops from Manchester to London and ruined it. In fact the only two British nightclubs to ever win the accolade best nightclub in the world in American Billboard magazine were Wigan Casino in 1978 and The Hacienda in 1989, both in Greater Manchester.
London offers high culture, buildings, museums, theatres etc, but if you’re a Londoner when was the last time you went to an art gallery or to see an opera, and we do offer all those things in Manchester too. When was the last time as a Londoner you walked into a pub and ordered a pint of bitter and got change of two quid or ordered a pub lunch and got change of a fiver. Well for me it was last week and there are drinks offers galore in Manchester every night of the week as it caters for the biggest student population in Western Europe and every night of the week there are clubs and bars with different sorts of music and live bands, from reggae to Northern Soul and the best home-grown talent in the world, and there’s always somewhere open as late as you want to stay out any night of the week. Musically we’re the music capital of Europe. Even back in 1965 Manchester Bands topped the USA billboard charts for six consecutive weeks with one week in April of that year seeing Manchester bands at occupy all three top positions on the USA chart and Herman’s Hermits outsold The Beatles, our music scene stretches way back. If you’re not into nightlife, great shopping and having friendly strangers talking to you, a 45 minute drive and you can be nestled in the wilds of the Peak District, 45 minutes north towards Burnley and you’ve got the beauty of the Lancashire countryside and Pendle Hill, an hour North East and it’s the Yorkshire Dales, an hour and a half northwards and you’re in the Lake District, an hour West and your in North Wales and Snowdonia. Oh and for weather buffs, statistically we get one inch of rain a year more than Brighton.
Manchester has the most famous football team in the world and the richest club who modestly reject success despite their untold wealth. Admittedly life might be tricky for our footballers as there aren’t that many 5 star hotels so they’re likely to be caught if they are playing away with some model – but then Mancunians are less likely to grass on you (very frowned upon up here). Manchester is maverick , modern and forward thinking .As Ian Brown of The Stone Roses said back in 1989 – the only way Manchester could be better is if it had a beach. [/quote]
Yeah all very good.................but they still haven't got a Harrods up there!
Dirty old river, must you keep rolling, Flowing into the night.......
[quote="Kenney036"]Haha, thanks for all the tips lads. The misses has just decided and London it is. I mentioned Rotherham, but she just frowned at me and ignored it.[/quote]
all good tips for London.............out of them all I do reccommend Portabello Road Market......get off at Notting Hill tube and start at the antiques market end, some good pubs and restaurants down there.
It does get VERY busy down there though
Dirty old river, must you keep rolling, Flowing into the night.......
OFF HAND
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Thu Feb 24, 2011 12:58 am (Last edited: Thu Feb 24, 2011 1:00 am)
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, ill take her to manchester. what about that ken ?
