From Manchester Airport in Manchester, the surrounding region opens up quickly, with the Peak District, Liverpool, and historic Chester within easy reach. Manchester is a city of music, football, and reinvented red-brick mills, with a confident northern attitude and a food scene that has grown fast. The worker bee, the city's symbol, shows up on everything from mosaics to tattoos.

Standout experiences around Manchester: - Explore the independent shops, record stores, and bars of the Northern Quarter - Tour Old Trafford or the Etihad Stadium, home to two of the biggest clubs in football - Visit the Science and Industry Museum in the world's first passenger railway station - Step into the John Rylands Library, a neo-Gothic gem that looks like a cathedral - Eat your way through Ancoats, the former mill district turned restaurant hub - Walk the canals around Castlefield and its Roman fort remains - Catch live music at a small venue in the city that gave the world Oasis and The Smiths - Browse Chetham's Library, the oldest public library in the English-speaking world - Hike or cycle in the Peak District, an hour from the city centre - Spend a day in Liverpool for the Beatles sites and the waterfront

Manchester also makes an easy launch point for the north of England. Chester's medieval walls and Tudor streets are about 40 minutes away, the market town of Buxton sits in the hills of the Peak District, and the southern edge of the Lake District is reachable in around 90 minutes. Bring a jacket for the rain and plan a long lunch when it arrives.