London steals all the headline, draws all the tourists and dominates the guidebooks. But there’s so much more to see across the UK, yet so few ever venture outside the admittedly beautiful Capital city. The public transport in the UK is excellent and you can be across the entire country in a matter of hours, jump on the train in St Pancras station, London and you can find yourself in Manchester in less than three hours. Impressive.

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But why would you want to do that? Why leave London? Well let me tell you five reasons why Manchester can be a better destination than the Big Smoke:

1) COST

It’s no secret that London is expensive. In fact, it’s in the top ten most expensive cities in the world to live in. Transport, food, drinks and activites all cost a bomb so be ready to blow your budget. However, northern English is much, much cheaper – in fact it can be up to half the price of London. Beers at three pounds instead of five, movies tickets at six pounds instead of twelve. If you fly from London to Manchester, you can see just how great value accommodation can be here at  AirportHotels.com too. You hard earned cash will go a lot, lot further.

2) PEOPLE

An unfortunate byproduct of famous, huge, wealthy cities is that the people become so focussed on business and money. That local ‘British’ culture is lost, people don’t say hello, you’re just another face in a crowd. Manchester is famous for it’s hospitality, and if you moan about how rude the Londoners are when you’re in Manchester, they’ll love you even more!!

3) SIGHTS

It’s true London has a lot of famous sites, but you have to share them with hundreds of thousands of people. Go sightseeing in Manchester and you can often have the place to yourself. Be sure to check out the impressive Catherdral and Town Hall, and of course Old Trafford, home to England’s second most successful club – Manchester United.

4) NIGHTLIFE

Manchester is a happening city, full of young beautiful bright things, it’s stylish, fun and ready to party. So make sure you bring your gladrags for a serious night on the town, and although it’s not dirt cheap, you won’t have to remortgage your house to have a few drinks in the way that you would in London. The key is to choose a great hotel first, and that wouldn’t be a problem with so many great  Manchester Airport hotels on offer, once you have that taken care of that,  there are a million of one places to party, but if you’re confused then head to Deansgate, there’s always things going on there.

5) SHOPPING

Contrary to popular opinion, London doesn’t hold all the keys when it comes to shopping in England, Manchester is hot on it’s heels. Manchester’s shopping district is arguably the most diverse on the island, and even better is that due to Manchester’s size, you don’t need to take transport to scour the whole place, you can walk from one end of the shopping area to the other in less than thirty minutes. So get ready to shop till you drop.

I hope this will encourage you guys to go further afield than the masses, and you won’t have to break the bank to visit.

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