Where to stay in Manchester: the best neighbourhoods and hotels

Deansgate runs the length of the city centre like a spine, from the cathedral down to Castlefield's canals. Halfway along, Spinningfields is the business district that learned to enjoy itself after work, and King Street, just east, is where Manchester does designer shopping. If your idea of a city break involves a tasting menu and a good martini, start here.

The Rex, at 100 King Street, occupies the former Midland Bank, one of the city's most distinguished buildings. Manchester Deansgate has floor-to-ceiling windows and Cloud 23, its sky bar on the 23rd floor. The Lowry Hotel sits on the banks of the River Irwell with a terrace over Chapel Wharf, and the Stock Exchange Hotel has just 40 individually decorated rooms, a short walk from the Arndale.

St Peter's Square is Manchester at its most stately: the round Central Library, the Town Hall behind it and trams gliding through the middle. The Bridgewater Hall, the convention centre and Chinatown are a few minutes' walk, and Oxford Road leads south past the Palace Theatre towards the universities and their museums.

The hotels here are part of the history. The Midland has been the city's grand railway hotel for more than a century. The Edwardian Manchester sits inside the Grade II*-listed Free Trade Hall, with a spa and pool beneath its colonnade. Kimpton Clocktower, steps from the Palace Theatre, hides behind a great Victorian terracotta façade, and Wilde's studios and apartments put you right on the square.

The Northern Quarter is Manchester's creative heart: a grid of old textile warehouses now stuffed with record shops, vintage stores, coffee roasters and some of the best small bars in the north. To its west, around Victoria station, sit the cathedral, the Corn Exchange and the arena. Light sleepers should ask for a room off the street at weekends.

Hotel Indigo stands at the gateway to the Northern Quarter beside Victoria station, and the Crowne Plaza is in the thick of it, an easy walk from both main stations. Roomzzz has 114 serviced apartments inside the Grade II-listed Corn Exchange, and the Maldron in the Cathedral Quarter is minutes on foot from the Arndale and the arena, which makes it a strong pick for gig nights.

Piccadilly is where most visitors arrive, and staying nearby makes sense if you are in town for a night or two. Canal Street and the Gay Village, the centre of one of the UK's best-known LGBTQ+ scenes, are five minutes away, Piccadilly Gardens and the shops are just up the hill, and the Etihad Stadium and Co-op Live are a short tram ride east.

Holiday Inn Manchester City Centre is a two-minute walk from the station. Leonardo Hotel Manchester Piccadilly is also a short walk away, with Ancoats and the Northern Quarter close by. DoubleTree by Hilton Piccadilly is a stylish all-rounder, and the Maldron on Charles Street is three minutes from the Palace Theatre and five from Canal Street.

A couple of miles west of the centre, the old docks of the Manchester Ship Canal have been rebuilt as Salford Quays: wide basins of water ringed by The Lowry arts centre, the Imperial War Museum North and the studios of MediaCityUK. Old Trafford, home of Manchester United, is just across the water. The city centre is a little over 20 minutes away by tram.

Hotel Football stands directly opposite the stadium, with Sky Sports in every room and complimentary retro sweets. Holiday Inn Manchester MediaCity is next to The Studios, the Copthorne is about a kilometre from MediaCityUK, and Holiday Inn Express Salford Quays is a 25-minute walk from Old Trafford. Closer to town, The Ainscow is a boutique hotel in a former red-brick mill beside Salford Central station.

Manchester Airport is the north's main international gateway, and its hotels are better than they need to be. Direct trains reach the city centre in about 20 minutes, so you can do a night at the airport and still have dinner in town.

Crowne Plaza Manchester Airport is a short walk from Terminals 1, 2 and 3. Holiday Inn Manchester Airport sits opposite Terminal 2, within easy walking distance of the airport station. TRIBE brings a younger, design-led feel with all-day dining, and the Radisson Blu has an indoor pool and sauna for shaking off a long flight.

South Manchester is where the city relaxes. Didsbury is a leafy suburb of Victorian villas and good restaurants, and Eleven Didsbury Park, a 20-room townhouse hotel with a garden and terrace, is its most charming place to stay. Village Hotel Manchester Cheadle, nearby, is about 20 minutes from the centre and four miles from the airport.

Keep going and you reach Cheshire's footballer belt. Fairmont Cheshire, The Mere is a five-star lakeside resort with a spa, a golf course and a Gordon Ramsay restaurant, and the Alderley Edge Hotel has 50 rooms and a hillside grill. Stockport, a seven-minute train ride from central Manchester, has simpler, cheaper rooms.