Queer travel expert Jack Kenworthy turns 250+ city adventures into your guide for safe, vibrant, and inclusively fabulous global journeys.
An ex-industrial city in the north-western part of England, the Manchester of the modern age is a constantly changing and developing metropolis and a place that lends itself extremely well to our never-ending search for the best gay hotels in the world. Manchester is a place of great energy and worth taking a leaf out of your travel book to visit.
We’ve all heard of the football league Manchester United, and while it is true that the city stays true to its famous namesake in having a strong passion for sports and casual British culture, that isn’t to say that there aren’t areas of the city that feed more into the general interests of queer travelers who aren’t the kind for football.
We mentioned earlier that Manchester is an ex-industrial city, but it remains to be said that it was the first of its kind in the entire world, which means that there is an impressive amount of heritage and culture to be drawn from the advent of production and teamwork that the city stands for.
Aside from that, Manchester also harbors an incredible amount of period architecture, some of which breaks remarkably away from the working class image of the city into the gothic design and medieval luxury. If there’s one thing that the city has to offer the most, it’s a sense of surprise and unexpected joy at its potential.
But how do LGBTQ rights shape up in Manchester and the UK? Like many British cities including London, Birmingham, and Blackpool, Manchester experienced a massive surge in queer culture during the eighties and nineties, and although that cultural renaissance has been over for some time now as the post-Stonewall climate of the gay experience settled down somewhat, one can still see the evidence of the city’s queer building blocks to this day.
Gay clubs and bars are very easily found, and around them flourishes a booming social network that is more than used to travelers and newcomers taking an interest. Britain as a whole is famous for having many areas and ‘gay villages’ that can be described in similar ways, all results of that same cultural transformation that rocked both the country’s relationship with its people and its government.
Obviously, in most cases, there aren’t going to be many gay hotels in Manchester out there marketed exclusively toward gay people or queer people in general. We know that, and therefore we’d like to note that the hotels on this list follow the same logic. Most of them have been listed as accommodating, friendly, and unjudgmental to, for, and by queer people in general, as well as being highly rated in general.
So, if you’re ready to jet off to the heart of the English-speaking old world and discover a new kind of fun and exploration, get your bags back and prepare for some fun. It’s time to check out Manchester’s top eight best gay hotels, and what a journey it’s looking to be!
In this article we will cover...
Hotel Gotham
For our first gay hotel in the wonderful city of Manchester, we have the five-star establishment Hotel Gotham – built up within the walls of a former bank and just as glorious and boutique as that business was back in the day. If you’re looking for a place that is easy to access from public transport and can give you a metaphorical key to the city, then you’ve hit Manchester’s jackpot here.
Not only that, but as five-star hotels go, the Hotel Gotham isn’t all that expensive either, especially considering the sheer number of opportunities and services it offers. Suppose you’re looking to sample British cuisine.
In that case, The Hotel Gotham – much like many of the other hotels on this list – is sure to come through with its included dinner, breakfast, and lunch room service, as well as the dedicated restaurant and bar ensemble that guests can find on the hotel’s ground floor.
With that said, if the English food fare isn’t for you, there are more than enough other options in the adjacent Central Retail District, which is – rather predictably – a wonderful place to do one’s shopping and explore what buyable options the city offers.
The Central Retail District – or the CRD – of Manchester is known as one of the city’s best areas for tourists and is also one of the most friendly towards queer travelers and recently arrived foreigners in general.
What does the Hotel Gotham have to offer explicitly? Allow us to explain! As well as an incredibly chic appearance and well-kept rooms, the Gotham also provides its guests with a wheelchair-accessible luxury paradise – complete with comprehensive room service and meal delivery, daily breakfast, and a wide range of sitting areas for you to enjoy your time to the absolute max.
New Union
Many factors are focused upon in these lists – the quality of stay, the convenience of location, connection to public transport, and included services. While all of these things are incredibly important when it comes to normal hotels, this is a gay hotel in Manchester list, after all, and thus it would be an absolute crime to miss out on covering a place of accommodation as unique as the New Union.
If you’re looking for a truly queer experience, or if you’re looking for the best guarantee of being able to relax and be yourself, then the New Union is the hotel for you. The rooms are clean, the vibes are most certainly there, and the service is everything that guests can expect from an orderly, well-maintained suite building in a trendy part of town.
The New Union is one of the only three hotels on this list to be explicitly marked as gay-friendly, and this fact is quite clearly apparent thanks to the massive rainbow painted over the entrances and the mural of Batman and Superman kissing on the opposite wall.
One needs only to look at the hotel’s surroundings to understand that queer travelers are the New Union’s target group, which is sure to be both a benefit and a relief for our readers.
Manchester’s Gay Village – also known as Canal Street, the avenue upon which the New Union finds its home – is well known as an amazing visiting destination for new arrivals in the city.
Not only will you be treated to an absolute bonanza of queer culture and gay hangout hotspots that radiate fun and adventure (especially during Manchester Pride March), but there’s also a lot of other wonderful, interesting businesses in the area to explore, shop at, and spend time absorbing the atmosphere.
Velvet
Allowing us to go straight from one powerfully and colorfully cultured hotel to another, to think of the Velvet as just a place of accommodation, would be a true crime. Better is the hotel’s full name and its other advantages – the Velvet Hotel, Bar & Brasserie.
Located on the same Canal Street that houses the unofficial gay village surrounding the New Union and the REM Hotel later on in this list, the Velvet Hotel fuses the culture of the nearby queer establishments and colorful night culture into a whole new experience – taking its guests on a journey through wonderful food, quirky, well-designed rooms, and amazingly creative common spaces.
Obviously, given that a good part of Velvet’s marketing spotlight focuses on food and lounging culture, one would be right to expect the fare served there and the different varieties of culinary delights available to be amazing.
This expectation would be justified, too. Not only is the service in the restaurant and bar parts of the hotel as equivocally excellent as that offered upstairs in the hotel but the sheer effort and presentation put into the food make the Velvet feel more like a place you would visit for the food alone rather than a place where you can stay full-time.
If you’re a foodie who likes enjoying a lively cultural area simultaneously, the Velvet Hotel, Bar, and Brasserie is the perfect place for you.
Not only does the location of the Velvet put it into a great realm for queer travelers looking to immerse themselves in Manchester’s gay night scene, but its slight distance from the center of Canal Street allows it to hook up closer to public transport in the form of the Piccadilly Station and its array of cafes.
ABode Hotel
Although it’s a four-star accommodation that is just as luxurious and well-maintained as the rest of the gay hotels in Manchester on this list, if you’re looking for an affordable stay, then the Abode Hotel is the place for you.
Located at the cutting edge of the city’s center and only a five-minute walk away from the central Piccadilly train station, the ABode Hotel is the perfect blend between affordability, convenience, and providing a safe place to say, allowing every cent to count, and every step to achieving a lovely holiday or a fruitful business stay to be an easy and efficient one.
That’s not to say that the ABode isn’t an incredibly stylish place of accommodation, though, and also not to insinuate that it is a place that exists purely for ease. To the contrary, really. The ABode’s building is wonderful thanks to the quality of the workmanship that transformed it from a warehouse into a chic hotel, and every room inside it has much of the same effect.
Stylish design choices are complimented perfectly by a wonderful, open service ethic that will make even queer travelers feel like a part of the hotel’s trusted family of guests upon arrival. There’s a restaurant, a bar, and many comfortable sitting areas on the hotel’s bottom floor, and Market Street nearby provides all of the street food and shopping particulars that guests could need.
Although certain hotels on this list lean harder into over-the-top inclusive services and luxury amenities, the ABode is certainly the best gay hotel on this list to couple practical and pleasure visits so well. No matter what you want from Manchester, the ABode is ready to go the extra mile.
The Ascott
Another four-star hotel, and another establishment that comes in at a middling price, The Ascott, is different from the ABode both in the fact that its building is a lot more quaint and peaceful and the fact that it is much more targeted to the grassroots, hands-on tourist.
While the other hotels on this list lean somewhat towards balancing accessibility to public areas and business purposes, The Ascott is truly a hotel for those who love gentle scenery and feel as though they will get to see the real side of a city. As such, the hotel is built within an old Victorian townhouse rather than a warehouse like the ABode Hotel just before it and is situated in a more classical part of the city.
Some guests might complain that one doesn’t feel as much as they are staying in Manchester’s heart while at the Ascott, but criticism may very well be a selling point for some. That isn’t to say it’s isolated from Manchester’s excitement, however.
The Ascott has good access to public transport thanks to the nearby Eccles (Manchester) train station, but it keeps a good enough distance to allow guests to immerse themselves and enjoy the tree-lined suburban streets.
On paper, The Ascott is greatly commended for its dining in the hotel’s dedicated restaurant and bar and the great breakfasts provided by room service and food delivery.
When it comes to the rooms, reviews speak up as loud for this hotel as for any of the others on this list when it comes to praising the comprehensiveness of cleanliness and the feeling of comfort, and one only needs to look at photos of the hotel’s rooms to understand why.
REM Hotel
Another hotel that finds itself in the same neighborhood and, in fact, the same street as the earlier New Union, the REM Hotel, is just as queer-orientated and perfectly positioned for gay travelers as that earlier entry on this list.
In summary, the REM Hotel is affordable, located directly in Manchester’s gay heart, and backed up by a strong review rating from previous guests. That’s a good start if there ever was one!
Don’t be fooled by the price tag attached to a night at the REM Hotel, however, nor by the fact that that hotel has only secured two stars.
Vibe, safety, and convenience are the most important factors when it comes to finding quality accommodation in the center of Manchester’s cityscape, and that is where the REM Hotel goes above and beyond. Not only are the hotel’s rooms more than satisfactory, with good cleaning quality, good access to the hotel’s amenities, and
The REM Hotel is extremely queer-friendly and allows pets to stay with guests, with this former factor being thanks to the fact that the hotel finds itself in the same Canal Street gay neighborhood as both the Velvet and the New Union hotels came before it.
One could even say that the REM Hotel and the bar scene directly surrounding it are fundamental parts of the entire area’s colorful reputation and energy, which is more than believable with how bright the REM Hotel’s exterior is, decked in purple neon and décor.
It suffices to say that if you’re looking for a good blend of affordability with the gay community and style, then the REM Hotel is the place for you – both if you’re visiting Manchester for business purposes or if you’re merely there for the wonderful experience of exploring a new place.
Britannia Hotel Manchester
We’ve talked about cheap, affordable rooms before, but it is undoubtedly true that none of the other hotels on this list do as little damage to the wallet as Britannia.
Thanks to the fact that the price tag associated with staying at the Britannia Hotel Manchester is a good half of that for many of the other gay hotels on this list, one may be quite surprised to learn that the rooms aren’t that shabby at all, and neither is the service.
Decked out with excellent room service, a dedicated bar and restaurant, breakfast dining areas, and free Wi-Fi, the Britannia is everything one needs to enjoy their time in Manchester and much more.
Set about the hotel’s beautiful central staircase, the Britannic’s clean and classically designed rooms aren’t just functional – they’re quite beautiful.
The reviews of many queer travelers have rated it almost as highly in queer-friendliness as the dedicated gay hotels earlier on this list, which – coupled with the benefits of low costs – means that it’s a sound choice for those that aren’t looking to stay in a queer neighborhood but are still interesting in feeling comfortable while holidaying or doing what you need to get done.
Not everyone is comfortable with stepping down on the price ladder when it comes to hotels, even when it’s easier on the wallet, as it takes a bit of faith in our world – where the price is often tied to quality – to accept that something can still be worth its while when it is cheaper than its competitors, but one thing is sure when it comes to the Britannia – sometimes faith pays off, and when it comes to this hotel, in particular, this is the case.
Roomzzz Manchester City
Known in full as the Roomzzz Aparthotel, Roomzzz Manchester City is a snazzy, well-kept suite building that focuses just as much on practicality and ease of access as on comprehensive service and refined edges. Roomzzz is well known as a popular couples’ retreat, and it also has more than enough facilities to meet up to any event or business needs that visitors could have.
Roomzzz is also one of the few hotels on this list to offer free breakfasts every morning, which is yet another factor towards saving your wallet that staying there provides. And it’s a great breakfast, too, if you are inclined to believe the mass of reviews saying so.
There are also kitchens in most rooms, meaning that you can bring in your food from the many supermarkets nearby and save a little more if you’re not interested in checking out any of the local restaurants.
But what is the local area, and what surprises does it hold? Well – the Rams Manchester has an interesting angle on Manchester thanks to the fact that it’s located at the edge of the city’s Chinatown district, meaning that you have both a taste of regional culture and the rest of Manchester’s public scene.
This dual nature sets Roomzzz Manchester City quite a bit away from the rest of the hotels on this list and allows guests to sample even more diversity abroad. If you’re traveling for business, however, Roomzzz has more than enough to offer to make your time equally worth its while.
As well as its business amenities, each room has access to a Mac mini-computer and high speed fully free Wi-fi, which means you can work at full pace as though you were at home while staying at Roomzzz.
Gay Hotel Map Of Manchester
Feeling a bit lost while planning your journey to Manchester? No worries, darling! Our detailed LGBTQ+ tailored map is here to guide you. We’ve pinpointed all the vibrant gay-friendly bars, exhilarating clubs, extravagant parties, cozy hotels, relaxing saunas, and soothing massage parlors to ensure you find the perfect spot.
And these aren’t just any spots; we’re talking about the creme de la creme of locations in the heart of the city’s vibrant gay scene. Think panoramic views, easy access to nightlife, and all the amenities to make your stay as comfortable and enjoyable as possible.
But hold on to your feather boas! These hot spots are so fabulous they vanish quicker than a drag queen’s five o’clock shadow. Don’t delay; book now to secure the best deals and locations. Remember, the early bird catches the best deals in Manchester! So, pack your rainbow flag, and get ready to experience the ultimate gay-friendly holiday in Manchester.
