Shopping/hotels in manchester

emay

Will be traveling to Manchester next year to see Bon Jovi and need a hotel...anyone know any decent ones, easy to find, in the city centre (not too expensive)

Also, how decent is the Trafford centre? Does the tram go there or is it better to drive?

Cheers

blackwidowz

Try the travelodge in the town, (central i think) its very nice, cheap and spitting distance from the hight street.
Don't know about trams i drove.

melancholly

http://www.traffordcentre.co.uk/gettinghere/busandtrain/
it would be quite a long bus journey all the way on the 250 (not used it personally, but it is quite a distance). i'd drive it rather than a tram/bus combination (and let's be honest, there's a high chance of rain anyway!).

depending on what shops you want, you may find the arndale centre in the city centre all you need - it has a nice new extension that was recently openned - http://www.manchesterarndale.com/
there is also a huge M&S, selfridges and harvey nichols in the city centre, or for something completely diffrent, try affleck's palace http://www.afflecks-palace.co.uk/

Grace_

Hi Emay,

There are a number of hotels in Manchester City centre ( Novotel, brittania, Jarvis, Macdonald, Days Hotel) I would advise shopping around on laterooms for a good deal.

Will you be driving down to Manchester? Parking is quite difficult in the city centre, and the central hotels that have parking do so on a first come first served basis, so it will be useful to look at any nearby NCP carparks to the hotel you choose.

From the City centre, you can get the 250 Stagecoach bus to the Trafford centre, but it wont be cheap (around £2.50-3.00 per person) I would advise you get a "£3 Day Rider" if you choose to go on the bus, as you can use this all day, on any stagecoach/magic bus. However the Trafford Centre is infamous for its extensive parking, and to save time and hassle it may be best to just take your car! Try to avoid travelling to the trafford centre between the hours and 4pm-6pm as these are the busiest hours traffic wise.

As the other posters said, there are a lot of shops in Central Manchester, and it will be worth having a look around there too (you can find some great buys that may be a little cheaper than those at the Trafford Centre) especially from the smaller retailers, and independent shops such as afflecks.

Enjoy your stay in Manchester! :-)
I hope that was of some use to you, if you need any further assistance, don't hesistate to ask.

emay

thanks for the help everyone...will def be going to afflecks, love the place, but never shopped anywhere else in manchester. I think the britannia was were we stayed last time (is it near afflecks?) and had a load of trouble with them, and I always pick the worst places when I book so at least i've got you lot to blame this time !!!;)