Alcohol-free nights out in Manchester that are actually a night out

A lot of Manchester's nightlife is built around drinking, which leaves a lot of people out: people who do not drink for faith, for health, because they are driving, or because they simply do not want to. Here are nine nights out where nobody has to explain themselves, and where the night is still a night.

1. A private suite at FOMO Lounge

The whole venue is alcohol-free, not a corner of a bar that tolerates you. A suite is your own room with a big screen, PS5, pool or snooker, darts and table tennis in the large suites, and smash burgers, mocktails, shakes and desserts ordered from the room. Small suites for two to six from £18.75 an hour on weekdays, large suites with twelve included, open until midnight Monday to Thursday and 1am at weekends. Book a suite.

2. A dessert bar crawl

Manchester has more late dessert places than almost any city in the country: waffles, cookie dough, Turkish and Arabic sweets, gelato. Rusholme and the Northern Quarter each have three within a short walk, and most are open past eleven.

3. The late cafés

Ancoats and the Northern Quarter have coffee and tea houses open into the evening, with the sort of seating that keeps a group talking for three hours. Mint tea and a board game is a plan.

4. Cinema and a meal

The independent cinemas in the city centre and Didsbury show more than the multiplexes, and a booth meal afterwards on the Curry Mile is a proper end to it.

5. Bowling and arcades

Every retail park in Greater Manchester has one, most stay open late, and a lane for six is cheap per head. Bring change for the machines.

6. A canal walk and a dessert

Free, and better than it sounds. Piccadilly to Castlefield along the water, then back into the Northern Quarter for something sweet.

7. The match, without the pub

Watching the football usually means a pub. In a private suite the game is on a big screen with your own sound and nobody spilling anything. From £7.50 a head, and the Match Day Pass makes every fifth match free.

8. Ramadan and Eid nights

Manchester after iftar is its own city. Late food, late desserts, and venues like FOMO that stay busy until close with families and groups. Book ahead for Eid weekend; it fills.

9. A pool or snooker night

The old snooker halls are alcohol-heavy. A table in a private suite is not: the frame is yours, the room is yours, the mocktails come to the door. See the pool and snooker page.

Why the room matters

The difference between a night out and an evening in is other people, music, food and somewhere that is not your sofa. None of that requires a bar. It requires a room, and a room you do not have to share is better still.

Read next:12 things to do in Manchester with friends · family get-togethers in a private suite · the all-inclusive package, £20 a head