Travel To Manchester, England - EuropeTrip Part 1

TRAVEL TRIP (AUGUST 2011)

From Edinburgh to Nottingham I decided to stop at Manchester and spent my whole day there. I departure from Edinburgh at night, and after another almost a 10-hours journey, I woke up in the morning and found myself arrived at Manchester bus station.



TRANSPORTATION

1. From Malaysia
If you are travelling from Malaysia, usually you will departure from KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport). KL or Kuala Lumpur is the federal capital with lots of city attractions.

There is no direct flight to Manchester (check for latest update). You may choose any airlines that fly out from KL with transit before continue to Manchester for example KLM and Etihad Airways. Duration of the journey depends on your airlines transit country, layover period and amount of transit. My advice is too study the world map. Choose an airline that transit somewhere in the middle of the journey. For instance if you pick Cathay Pacific Airways, the fare might be cheaper but the route to Hong Kong for transit is diverting from going straight to England.

You can also do as what I did. Fly to London for a visit and take a bus/train to Manchester. MAS will lands in Heathrow Airport while AirAsia in Stansted Airport, London (check for update information).

2. From Edinburgh
By Road:
You may travel by car/bus/taxi to Manchester. Journey is about 9 hours. By car the distance should be shorter without stops along the way. The National Express coach is very reliable. National Express is an intercity coach operator providing services throughout England, Scotland and Wales.

You can check this website for more information on UK National Express: www.nationalexpress.com.
You can check these websites for car rental: www.avis.com.my, www.europcar.com.my, www.thrifty.co.uk, www.hertz.co.uk, www.enterprise.co.uk.

By Rail:

If you want to travel by train, please check this website www.thetrainline.com or www.raileurope.com. The journey will also takes about 3 to 4 hours. Train to Manchester will departure from Edinburgh Waverley Station and arrive in Manchester Piccadilly Station.

ACCOMMODATION

Before deciding on places to stay in Manchester, you need to choose which area is your preference. There are 5 favorite neighborhoods with its own characteristic that may help you to decide:

1. Piccadilly and the Northern Quarter
The redbrick Piccadilly area pinpoints the middle of Manchester city center. Just across the canal the aisles of the Arndale Centre shopping center stock high street brands while vintage boutiques can be found in bohemian High Street and Tib Street in the Northern Quarter. South of Piccadilly, dragons and phoenixes guard the elaborate oriental archway to Chinatown, where eastern kitchens have taken over the Industrial Revolution’s old cotton mills.

2. Salford Quays
West of the city center, the Salford Quays development now fills expanses left by once-prosperous warehouses along the Manchester Ship Canal. Contemporary architecture reigns over the waterfront, the silvery fronts of the Imperial War Museum North and The Lowry arts center reflect each other over the footbridge. Families flock to the Lowry Mall for factory outlet bargains and films at the Manchester Lowry multiplex cinema.

3. Millennium Quarter
To the north of Piccadilly, the Manchester Evening News Arena plays host to huge-scale pop concerts. Wander down Victoria Street to see 19th-century restoration on medieval foundations at the Manchester Cathedral. Urbis, the state of the art exhibition center, looks over the serene Cathedral Gardens here in the city’s Millennium Quarter. Catch a graffiti, pop culture or photography display on the floors of this structure made of 200 glass panes. Next door Printworks once a newspaper publishers, houses avenues of bars, restaurants and the only IMAX cinema in the North West.

4. Deansgate & Castlefield
Stretching south from Manchester Cathedral, the mile-long main road Deansgate is lined with restaurants. High-end shoppers turn on to King Street for Armani, Boss and DKNY, or pop into posh concessions at Harvey Nichols at the northern end. Deansgate Locks at the south of Deansgate attracts discerning drinkers to its exclusive string of archway bars. Across the locks from Deansgate, cobbled Castlefield is a canal village within a city with its quaint lock-side pubs.

5. Old Trafford
Just to the south of Salford Quays, Manchester flaunts its sporting prowess at Manchester United’s Old Trafford ground. Nearby Lancashire Cricket Club’s oval pitch hosts international matches at Old Trafford. The Alps come to north-west England near the M60 motorway real snow is pumped on to the slopes all year at the Chill Factor snow dome.
Source: http://www.hotels.com/articles/ar000047/where-to-stay-in-manchester-a-travel-guide-to-manchester-s-neighbourhoods/

PLACES OF INTEREST

To be honest, there was nothing much to see when I was in Manchester. Among all cities that I visited in UK, I think this is so far the most boring. Thank God I bought my ticket to Nottingham on the same day, or I might not know what to do there more than a day.

The only reason I came here because I am sort-of a Manchester United fan. I used the word 'sort-of' because I don't follow football match that much. But when I do, I always root for MU! In Manchester, the only memorable place in my head was the football club. That's all. That's it.



Even I was walking around the city, I did asked few locals about the interesting places for me to visit in here, and their respond were almost the same. They might put their comments in different words or sentences, but at the end of the day, it means YOU HAVE NOTHING MUCH TO SEE IN HERE.

These were some of the comments:
“Well I am sorry lad, guess that's it”.
"You can go the mall too"
"Have you seen the football's club?"
"Besides MU club, I have no idea where to suggest for you"
"Museum? But we also have few only"

I guess it is because Manchester is an urban city that was recently developed. Even to compare with Liverpool that is just nearby, the buildings in here seem more modern. The older buildings that can be found in Manchester too, they were not as exotic as the ones I encountered in other places.

Another thing that I might want to highlight in here too is a feeling that I didn't like when I was there. As I walked around the city, I got this 'dodgy' kind of feeling about this place. I saw graffiti spray paint almost everywhere. I saw three backstreet fights in just that few hours of walking. A man suddenly punched his fist to a bus stop glass panel and it broke when I was walking nearby. He was angry while talking in phone. When I was walking, a lot of people stared. It was awkward. I didn't got this treatment when I was in other England cities/towns. At night especially, I didn't feel safe at all.

The good thing that I feel one might enjoy in here is the social life. I guess Manchester is well-known for its nightlife and fun activity. Before took off my night bus to Nottingham, there was a small fiesta for Gay and Lesbian just around the corner at the bus station. It seems that people are cool and very open about it in here.

-Alvy-