Not to miss

Lowry

Directly across the canal from the war museum is a futuristic ship in permanent dock. No, not really, but the Lowry looks a bit like one. It caused quite a stir when it opened in 2000, but has proved an unqualified success, attracting more than a million visitors a year. The complex is named after one of England's favourite artists, LS Lowry, who is mostly noted for his industrial landscapes and impressions of northern towns. The Lowry contains more than 300 of his paintings and drawings. It also encapsulates two theatres, galleries, shops, restaurants and bars.

Museum of Science and Industry

The city's largest museum is spread about two huge warehouses and the world's oldest passenger railway terminal. If there's anything you want to know about the Industrial Revolution and Manchester's key role in it, you'll find it among this collection of steam engines and locomotives, factory machinery from the mills and exhibitions.

With over a dozen permanent exhibits, you could spend a whole day poking about the place, testing early electric-shock machines here and trying out a printing press there. A unifying theme - besides the fact that science and industry were pretty handy to the development of society - is that Manchester and Mancunians had a key role to play.

Urbis

The stunning glass triangle that is Urbis is a museum about how a city works and - often - doesn't work. The walls of the three floors are covered in compelling photographs, interesting statistics and informative timelines, but the best parts are the interactive videos, each of which tell stories about real people from radically different backgrounds and how they fare in Manchester.

It's all well and good to theorise, but there's nothing like a real story to hammer home the truth. Homelessness, rootlessness and dislocation are major themes of urban living, and Urbis doesn't shy away from encouraging visitors to consider what it's like to sleep on a park bench.