Lots of travellers book cheap flights to Manchester Airport to take connecting flights to other parts of the United Kingdom (London or Edinburgh for example), but the city has plenty of game of its own.
Soccer fans will know Manchester as the home of Manchester United, the world's most popular football club. Music fans will know it as the city that spawned The Smiths, Oasis and more. And history buffs will know it as the world's first industrialised city. Britain's first canal was dug here. It has the oldest orchestra in Britain (although this is disputed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra) and its streets are like an open-air museum of regal Victorian buildings.
Regeneration projects in recent years have added some stunning new architecture to Manchester's skyscape. These include the Urbis, an exhibition centre, and the Imperial War Museum North. The redeveloped Salford Docks are now known as Salford Quays, home to the Lowry Centre, where the "matchstick" paintings by Laurence Stephen Lowry are displayed.