Manchester or York?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and nightlife with your weighting.
Wins on good for families and museums & heritage with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Manchester if you want the wider choice of places to eat and the busier late-night scene, with more notable places within walking distance of the centre and 10 beaches within reach.
Choose York if you are travelling with children, or want museums and attractions clustered tightly enough to cover on foot, with 3 theme parks within reach and drier spring weeks.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Manchester leads by 28 points.28
| Manchester | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 28 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 10 | 2 |
| Coast distance | 27 km | 50 km |
| Water distance | 27 km | — |
Places to eat. Manchester leads by 14 points.14
| Manchester | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 54 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 853 | 361 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 35 | 31 |
Museums & heritage. York leads by 4 points.4
| Manchester | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 42 | 46 |
| Museums within 10 km | 23 | 18 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 11 | 16 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 48 | 89 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 2 |
Nightlife. Manchester leads by 19 points.19
| Manchester | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 43 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,029 | 450 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 792 | 353 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 77 | 78 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 82 | 14 |
Nature & day trips. Manchester leads by 3 points.3
| Manchester | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 33 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 17 | 17 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 17 | 16 |
| Land share of disc % | 99 | 95 |
| Park area within 2 km | 63 hectares | 42 hectares |
Good for families. York leads by 11 points.11
| Manchester | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 43 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 5 | 13 |
| Park area within 2 km | 63 hectares | 42 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Manchester leads by 9 points.9
| Manchester | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 48 | 39 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 61 | 37 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Manchester and York are level on 54.
| Manchester | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 54 |
| Price level global | 84.9 | 84.9 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. York leads by 2 points.2
| Manchester | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 56 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7.2 °C to 20.8 °C | 6.7 °C to 20.9 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 51 mm to 95 mm | 39 mm to 66 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 1 |
Where they differ
Manchester has about twice as many restaurants near the centre, and about twice as many places to drink, with many times more nightclubs, most of them central. Twice as many notable places sit within walking distance of the centre, and there are 10 beaches nearby against York's 2.
York is the stronger choice with children: about three times as many tourist attractions near the centre and 3 theme parks within reach. Its museums are fewer but sit more tightly around the centre, so more of them fall into a single walk.
Where they are alike
The weather is close to identical: both run daytime highs of about 7-21°C across the year, with similar annual sunshine. York is marginally the drier of the two, with one month at 40mm of rain or less where Manchester has none.
They are also close on countryside and heritage. 17% of the land around each is protected, and both have 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, so what you can reach on a day out is comparable in scale.
Which traveller are you?
A group after food and a night out should take Manchester: about twice as many restaurants and places to drink, many times more nightclubs, and nearly all of it close enough to walk between.
Families with children are better served in York, with about three times as many attractions near the centre and 3 theme parks within reach, though Manchester holds about twice as much park space centrally.
A weekend visitor on foot faces a trade. Manchester packs about twice as many notable places into walking distance, while York's smaller set of museums sits tighter together, so one day covers more of them.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information. It rests on a national price level, identical for two cities in the same country, and there is no daily budget figure for either, so nothing here tells you which trip costs more. Price accommodation and meals yourself before booking.
Manchester's 10 nearby beaches also need reading carefully: neither city has a month with sea at 21°C or more, and the water peaks at 17°C, so this is coast for walking rather than swimming. Both cities come good in the same short summer weeks, so demand lands at the same time.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Manchester: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (14.8 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Leeming (47.9 km from centre).
Manchester is at its best in July and August, with highs of 21°C and the sea at its warmest, 17°C. Autumn shuts the window fast: 95mm in October, and nothing dry follows before winter.
York suits an earlier trip. Spring is its driest stretch, 39mm in March against markedly wetter weeks in Manchester, and highs of 16°C in May keep long walks comfortable. High summer is effectively a tie, so the spring difference is what separates them.
Getting there
| Flying from | Manchester | York |
|---|---|---|
| MalagaAGP | 2 h 50 m no fares MAN · 15 km | 2 h 55 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| BridgetownBGI | 8 h 35 m no fares MAN · 15 km | 8 h 35 m no fares MAN · 104 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 2 h 15 m no fares MAN · 15 km | 2 h 20 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| Puerto del RosarioFUE | 4 h 5 m no fares MAN · 15 km | 4 h 10 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| TenerifeTFS, TFN | 4 h 15 m no fares MAN · 15 km | 4 h 20 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 30 m no fares MAN · 15 km | 2 h 35 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| ChaniaCHQ | 4 h 0 m no fares MAN · 15 km | 4 h 0 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| AgadirAGA | 3 h 45 m no fares MAN · 15 km | 3 h 50 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 7 h 10 m no fares MAN · 15 km | 7 h 10 m no fares MAN · 104 km |
| BeijingPEK, PKX | 10 h 10 m no fares MAN · 15 km | 10 h 10 m no fares MAN · 104 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it.
Before you go
| Measure | Manchester | York |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | English | English |
| Currency | Pound Sterling (GBP) | Pound Sterling (GBP) |
| Sockets | G230 V, 50 Hz | G230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Left |
| Time zone | UTC, UTC+1 in summer | UTC, UTC+1 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 or 999 | 112 or 999 |
| Elevation | 38 m | 25 m |
| Main airport | Manchester Airport (MAN)15 km from centre210 non-stop destinations | Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre73 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 8 days | 8 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Manchester | York |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 547,627 | 208,400 |
| People per km² | 4,737 | 766 |
| Museums within 10 km | 28 | 24 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 63 | 54 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Manchester or York somewhere new.