Tourist office Manchester
Marketing Manchester, the official destination agency for Greater Manchester, runs its city-centre visitor information from 1 walk-in tourist office. The Manchester Visitor Information Centre sits inside the historic Central Library on St Peter's Square, and Manchester City Council calls it the city's leading tourist office. Its team hands out free city, region and transport maps, stocks complimentary leaflets on events, attractions and tours, gives advice on getting around by Metrolink, bus and train, and runs a small souvenir shop. A separate public transport ticket office, run by Transport for Greater Manchester, is listed below as an alternative.
Find the nearest tourist office
Manchester Visitor Information Centre
Location: Manchester Central Library, St Peters Square, Manchester M2 5PD, close to the St Peter's Square Metrolink stop
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday 09:00 to 17:00; no Sunday hours are published
Marketing Manchester lists it and the council hosts it in Central Library; free maps, leaflets and tour tickets are offered.
Information and Ticket Office at Shudehill
Location: Shudehill Interchange, Manchester M4 2AF, a short walk or free bus ride from the city centre
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday 07:00 to 18:00; Sunday 08:30 to 16:00, closed for lunch 13:15 to 14:00; bank holidays 08:00 to 17:00
Not run by Marketing Manchester: run by Transport for Greater Manchester, the region's public transport body, for travel tickets and passes rather than tourism.
Get to know Manchester in detail
Get to know Manchester in detail
The Manchester guide on Tourist Office gathers top things to see in Manchester in one place, from a one day route that runs through Manchester Cathedral, the Northern Quarter, St Ann's Square and the Royal Exchange to St Peter's Square and the Science and Industry Museum at Castlefield.
It also flags what costs nothing, among them the John Rylands Library, Manchester Art Gallery and the People's History Museum, and it looks out to Salford Quays, where The Lowry and Imperial War Museum North sit beside the water, with the events coming up across the city.
Public holidays in Manchester to plan around
Public holidays shift the rhythm of a visit more than many travellers expect. Banks and council offices close, several museums and attractions move to a holiday timetable, and Metrolink trams and buses often run a Sunday or reduced service, so a day built around one plan can fall flat. England and Wales share a single bank holiday calendar, and it sets 8 dates for 2026. Two of them fall together at the end of December, when transport timetables and attraction hours change the most.
National holidays in England and Wales 2026
- 1 January New Year's Day
- 3 April Good Friday
- 6 April Easter Monday
- 4 May Early May bank holiday
- 25 May Spring bank holiday
- 31 August Summer bank holiday
- 25 December Christmas Day
- 28 December Boxing Day (substitute day, as 26 December falls on a Saturday)
Local holidays in Manchester 2026
Manchester adds no local holidays to that calendar. The England and Wales list above is the only public holiday calendar that applies in the city, because the government publishes bank holidays by nation and sets none specifically for Manchester or Greater Manchester. The extra dates kept elsewhere in the United Kingdom, among them 2 January and Saint Andrew's Day in Scotland and Saint Patrick's Day and the Battle of the Boyne in Northern Ireland, are not holidays in Manchester.
The Manchester Visitor Information Centre publishes its opening hours on the official Visit Manchester page linked above, so it is worth checking them before a bank holiday weekend, when many museums, shops and transport services across the city change their times.