12 things to do in Manchester with friends that are not the pub

A night out in Manchester does not have to mean a round, a queue and a taxi home at two. Here are twelve things to do with friends across the city and Greater Manchester, from the ones that cost nothing to the ones where the room is yours for the afternoon. Several are alcohol-free by design, which matters if your group includes people who do not drink, are driving, or just want to remember the night.

1. Your own private suite

Book a suite at FOMO Lounge in the Green Quarter, two minutes from Victoria, and the room is yours: a big screen with Sky Sports, TNT, Netflix and a PS5, a pool or snooker table, darts and table tennis in the large suites, and food and drinks ordered from the room and brought to the door. Small suites are for two to six, large ones include twelve, and the whole venue is alcohol-free. Prices start at £18.75 an hour Monday to Thursday, about £3 a head with a full room. Check a date.

2. Snooker or pool without waiting for a table

Manchester's snooker halls are a proper night, but on a Friday you wait for a table and share the room. The alternative is a table inside a private suite, where the frame is yours for the session and nobody is leaning on the cushion. The Prestige and Matrix suites at FOMO have full-size snooker; every suite has American pool.

3. A food crawl in the Northern Quarter

Start at Stevenson Square and work outward: bakeries, ramen, tacos, smash burgers, a dessert bar to finish. Go at six on a weeknight and you will get tables without booking. The point is to move, so order small and keep walking.

4. The Curry Mile

Wilmslow Road in Rusholme is still the easiest big-group meal in the city. Most places take walk-ins for eight or more, most are alcohol-free, and the bill splits easily. Finish with a dessert house on the same road.

5. Heaton Park

Six hundred acres in north Manchester, with a boating lake, a tram stop at the gate and enough room for a game of anything. Free, and the right answer on the first warm Saturday of the year.

6. The Science and Industry Museum

Free, in Castlefield, and better with friends than you remember from a school trip. The engine hall alone is worth an hour. Combine it with number seven.

7. A canal walk to Castlefield

Pick up the Rochdale Canal towpath near Piccadilly and follow it west through Deansgate Locks to the Castlefield basin. It takes about forty minutes, it is flat, and it ends among the viaducts, which look better at dusk.

8. Manchester Art Gallery

Free, on Mosley Street, and open late on Thursdays. If your group does not agree on art, agree on the café.

9. A stadium tour

Old Trafford and the Etihad both run tours most days. Book ahead for match weeks. If the tour leaves you wanting the game itself, the match in a private suite is the next entry.

10. The match, in your own room

For the derby or a Champions League night, a suite with the game on and your own sound beats a pub where you cannot get a seat. From £7.50 a head for six in a small suite, and the Match Day Pass gives you every fifth match free if your group goes every week.

11. A board game café

Manchester has several, with hundreds of games on the shelves and staff who will teach you the rules. Good for six people who want to talk, cheap by the hour, and usually bookable online.

12. The Trafford Centre when it rains

Not for the shops. For the cinema, the bowling, the indoor mini golf and the food hall under one roof, with parking that is free and a tram that runs late. Manchester rains, and this is the plan for that.

The easy plan

If organising eight people is the hard part, the All-Inclusive at FOMO is one price that covers everything: three hours in a private suite, a main, a side, a soft drink and a dessert each, £20 a person for groups of three or more. One booking, nothing to split. Book it here.