Suggested Private Tours

Quoting on Oxford Road
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Significant City
A walking tour across Manchester’s spectacular city centre including the business and shopping areas, Chinatown, the bohemian Northern Quarter, and much more. Buildings visited include the Town Hall, the Royal Exchange, the Cathedral and the delightful Chetham’s Library, the oldest public library in the world. The commentary is informative and entertaining, underlining Manchester’s innovative past (it has a string of ‘firsts’ to its name), it’s prosperous present and it’s exciting future.
Panoramic coach tour of the city
This tour doesn’t only take in the many highlights of the city centre but shows off the best of the rest of Manchester too. Visits include the Quays area of the city at the headwaters of Manchester Ship Canal which has been described as ‘as a European centre of monumental modern architecture,’ with the steel Lowry arts centre and the aluminium Imperial War Museum North. We will also pass Manchester United, the University and even the house where the Bee Gees were brought up. At Sportscity guests will see the host venues of the Commonwealth Games 2002 including the City of Manchester Stadium, now the home of Manchester City. Commentary thoughout will be lively, humorous and full of fascinating fact. There’ll even be brief bursts of music from forty years of Manchester groups and even a little bit of Hallé Orchestra too. To conclude there’ll be a short quiz with local specialities as prizes.
Other tours
Traditional city centre tours: across the city, around the world – a general tour of Manchester
Developing City: Tour around the city revealing the remarkable changes that have taken place in the last decade
What’s in a face? Manchester Art Gallery’s prints and paintings explored.
Built-in brilliance: The story of Manchester in its architecture.
Down deep: tunnels under city streets
Victorian Underworld: the extraordinary tale of nineteenth century crime (a bit like the Jack the Ripper walk in London but less deathly serious)
Friedrich Engels in Manchester: Engels lived for 22 years in Manchester, this tour examines his life in Manchester and his work with Karl Marx here. See this page also Engels Day
Manchester: Rock Capital City, a tour looking at the bands that have made the sounds that have made the city the topdog in British music. From the Hollies to Delphic via 10cc, the Buzzcocks, New Order, the Smiths, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, Simply Red, Oasis, Take That, Elbow and Doves.
Cottonopolis: The story of Manchester's industrial rise and fall as depicted on city streets
Peterloo Massacre: a tour around the Peterloo site explaining the background and the importance of this
The Pub Walks: The classic evening excursion around some of Manchester's lovely traditional pubs. We visit three or four pubs, have a drink and learn about the crazy drinking history of the city and the country. The tour concludes with a pub quiz in which anything can happen, but local speciality prizes are guaranteed.
Ghost Tours: These include some guaranteed manifestations
Walk the menu: Take a starter, main and dessert in three different high quality restaurants. Finish off for drinks in a fashionable watering hole
Cocktail crawls: with a demonstration on how to prepare the perfect mix
Coffee crawl: bizarrely I’ve been asked to do a tour of clever coffee bars on several occasions
Wine tastings: in the form of a crawl between vinous centres of excellence
Whisky tastings: in the form of a crawl between spiritual centres of excellence
Talks: Amusing talks about the city – after dinner speaking in otherwords. For groups with limited time, or limited mobility, talks are a good way of getting to know the place in a short time. A good thirty minute talk can set the scene at a conference location (during the first dinner of a convention) better than any pack of collated leaflets. For those of a more serious bent, the subjects can look at academic or specific subjects
Itineraries within Greater Manchester
Smithills and the West Pennine Moors including Rivington
Bramall Hall and Alderley EdgeLyme Park and the High Peak Tatton and Knutsford
Beyond the boundaries
Classic excursions include Chester, Liverpool, Chatsworth and Eyam, Stoneyhurst and Pendle Hill, Conwy and Llandudno and the Lake District
Significant City
A walking tour across Manchester’s spectacular city centre including the business and shopping areas, Chinatown, the bohemian Northern Quarter, and much more. Buildings visited include the Town Hall, the Royal Exchange, the Cathedral and the delightful Chetham’s Library, the oldest public library in the world. The commentary is informative and entertaining, underlining Manchester’s innovative past (it has a string of ‘firsts’ to its name), it’s prosperous present and it’s exciting future.
Panoramic coach tour of the city
This tour doesn’t only take in the many highlights of the city centre but shows off the best of the rest of Manchester too. Visits include the Quays area of the city at the headwaters of Manchester Ship Canal which has been described as ‘as a European centre of monumental modern architecture,’ with the steel Lowry arts centre and the aluminium Imperial War Museum North. We will also pass Manchester United, the University and even the house where the Bee Gees were brought up. At Sportscity guests will see the host venues of the Commonwealth Games 2002 including the City of Manchester Stadium, now the home of Manchester City. Commentary thoughout will be lively, humorous and full of fascinating fact. There’ll even be brief bursts of music from forty years of Manchester groups and even a little bit of Hallé Orchestra too. To conclude there’ll be a short quiz with local specialities as prizes.
Other tours
Traditional city centre tours: across the city, around the world – a general tour of Manchester
Developing City: Tour around the city revealing the remarkable changes that have taken place in the last decade
What’s in a face? Manchester Art Gallery’s prints and paintings explored.
Built-in brilliance: The story of Manchester in its architecture.
Down deep: tunnels under city streets
Victorian Underworld: the extraordinary tale of nineteenth century crime (a bit like the Jack the Ripper walk in London but less deathly serious)
Friedrich Engels in Manchester: Engels lived for 22 years in Manchester, this tour examines his life in Manchester and his work with Karl Marx here. See this page also Engels Day
Manchester: Rock Capital City, a tour looking at the bands that have made the sounds that have made the city the topdog in British music. From the Hollies to Delphic via 10cc, the Buzzcocks, New Order, the Smiths, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, Simply Red, Oasis, Take That, Elbow and Doves.
Cottonopolis: The story of Manchester's industrial rise and fall as depicted on city streets
Peterloo Massacre: a tour around the Peterloo site explaining the background and the importance of this
The Pub Walks: The classic evening excursion around some of Manchester's lovely traditional pubs. We visit three or four pubs, have a drink and learn about the crazy drinking history of the city and the country. The tour concludes with a pub quiz in which anything can happen, but local speciality prizes are guaranteed.
Ghost Tours: These include some guaranteed manifestations
Walk the menu: Take a starter, main and dessert in three different high quality restaurants. Finish off for drinks in a fashionable watering hole
Cocktail crawls: with a demonstration on how to prepare the perfect mix
Coffee crawl: bizarrely I’ve been asked to do a tour of clever coffee bars on several occasions
Wine tastings: in the form of a crawl between vinous centres of excellence
Whisky tastings: in the form of a crawl between spiritual centres of excellence
Talks: Amusing talks about the city – after dinner speaking in otherwords. For groups with limited time, or limited mobility, talks are a good way of getting to know the place in a short time. A good thirty minute talk can set the scene at a conference location (during the first dinner of a convention) better than any pack of collated leaflets. For those of a more serious bent, the subjects can look at academic or specific subjects
Itineraries within Greater Manchester
Smithills and the West Pennine Moors including Rivington
Bramall Hall and Alderley EdgeLyme Park and the High Peak Tatton and Knutsford
Beyond the boundaries
Classic excursions include Chester, Liverpool, Chatsworth and Eyam, Stoneyhurst and Pendle Hill, Conwy and Llandudno and the Lake District