Why Manchester is having a moment right now

So, Manchester. What comes to mind? Footballers? Rock 'n' roll stars? Bedsheets? Perhaps you imagine the gritty, rainy northern English city depicted in Coronation Street, the world's longest-running TV soap opera? Manchester has changed dramatically since that show was first broadcast in 1960. Reinventing itself after a post-industrial slump, the one-time "Cottonopolis" graces numerous 2023 travel lists (including for Lonely Planet, National Geographic and Conde Nast Traveller). Its mighty old textile mills and warehouses have evolved into trendy places in which to eat, drink and sleep, while crowds also flock to the city's modern temples of culture, music and sport. You'll find most spots of interest in and around Manchester's strollable central core - or "town" as the locals call it.

"A decade or so ago, this district was pretty run-down, but it's become one of Britain's hippest neighbourhoods," says Rob Kelly, as we wander the cobbled streets of Ancoats, a canal-hugging enclave peppered with apartments, bars and eateries - from artisan cafe-bakeries to Michelin-starred Mana, with its $350 tasting menus. Founder of Scranchester Tours ("scran" being a northern English term for food), Mancunian Rob is giving me a flavour of Ancoats' burgeoning culinary scene.

As cool kids pose for fashion shoots by converted red-brick mills and lunchtime joggers breeze by, we hit SUD Pasta, one of the area's popular Italian restaurants. Ordering the house speciality - orecchiette in a divine, slow-cooked medley of beef shin, pork shoulder and nduja ragu - Rob reveals that Ancoats is nicknamed "Little Italy" after the Italian immigrants who settled here, and introduced ice-cream to the city, in the late 1800s.

He shares historical nuggets throughout this satisfying tour, which also brings us to Erst, a natural wine bar serving refined British small plates, the Hip Hop Chip Shop, for a curry-tickled twist on classic fish and chips, and Rads, a family-run Caribbean takeaway where spiced patties and jerk dishes delight local office and construction workers. When the weather's good (that's possible, sometimes), picnickers gather a disc's throw away at Cotton Field Park, where swans, geese and ducks glide around a marina with rustic houseboats, and waterside terrace bars sell refreshing "bevvies", including gins and beers crafted in Manchester's railway arch breweries and distilleries.

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Southwest of Ancoats, the shabby-chic Northern Quarter (NQ) is good for ambling and browsing. Kaleidoscopic murals catch the eye alongside clothing boutiques, record shops, tattoo parlours, tile-clad old-school pubs, alfresco bars and happening food halls like Mackie Mayor, which occupies a heritage-listed Victorian market building.

On the walls of Afflecks, a vintage shopping emporium, I survey mosaics of Mancunian icons, from those rebellious ex-Manchester United players Eric Cantona and George Best to musicians The Smiths, Stone Roses and Oasis. Most evenings, live tunes throb at intimate neighbourhood venues like Night & Day Cafe and Disorder, a new joint named after an album by Joy Division, the Manchester band that morphed into New Order.

Some of the city's coolest sleeps are within walking (or stumbling) distance of here. Ducie Street Warehouse has 162 aparthotel rooms with exposed brick, plus bar-lounges with DJs, disco brunches and supper clubs. It's around the corner from Piccadilly Station, which has trains to London (two hours away) and trams to Manchester City's Etihad Stadium and Manchester United's Old Trafford. The latter, incidentally, is next to the cricketing arena where Australia play England in the fourth Men's Ashes Test (from July 19-23).

I stay at another stylish converted warehouse hotel, The Alan, which has 137 industrial-chic rooms and a leafy foyer-bar-restaurant excelling in full English breakfasts and seasonal sharing plates (think: oysters, rare-breed pork chop, cauliflower tikka). It's centrally located, opposite Chinatown and Manchester Art Gallery, whose diverse collection features local legend LS Lowry. His early-to-mid-20th-century cityscapes with matchstick men-like figures were immortalised by Oasis in the animated video for their song, The Masterplan.

Buses thread south from Chinatown into the sprawling university district, where the just-revamped neo-Gothic Manchester Museum displays dinosaur fossils and Egyptian mummies, plus immersive new galleries exploring Manchester's cultural links with south and east Asia. Hindi, Urdu and Cantonese are among the 200 languages spoken in this UNESCO City of Literature, which is laced with beautiful libraries - like the Hogwarts-esque John Rylands Library - and acclaimed playhouses, such as the Royal Exchange Theatre, set in a grand neoclassical building where cotton was once traded.

Bolstering the city's arts scene is Factory International, a funky space designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. It's the new hub of the biennial Manchester International Festival (June 29-July 16), and will stage cutting-edge drama, concerts and exhibitions year-round, with the psychedelic balloons of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama a highlight of its opening season.

I glimpse the Factory from Castlefield Viaduct, an elevated park inspired by New York City's High Line. From this steel Victorian railway bridge, you can peek out over canals, warehouses and relics of Mamucium, an ancient Roman fort. Glitzy Manhattan-esque high rises and cranes soar above. Trams and trains rumble past on adjacent viaducts. And in one apartment window I spy a poster of a bee. It's the enduring symbol of this industrious city, and one that feels apt, especially now, because once again there's definitely a buzz about Manchester.

Getting there: Manchester has good connections from Australia. Emirates flies there from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane via Dubai. See emirates.com

Staying there: Rooms at The Alan can be booked via thealanhotel.com; prices start at about $136 a night for a standard room.

Explore more: visitmanchester.com; visitbritain.com

Steve McKenna was a guest of The Alan and Visit Manchester.