Old Trafford (Manchester United) - Manchester

Hopefully everyone knows Manchester United, one of the greatest football clubs in the world. In my opinion it should be a dream of every true Red fan, but still it is a great place to visit for everyone, because the stadium is really awesome. First of all the location of the stadium is like 2 miles from the center, so it is a great argument to see Manchester and especially the surroundings near Old Trafford (I am sure everyone will like it before any football game). So if you plan to see Manchester, I advise you to see this place, it is a really great place to admire...

This post is very specific to those who love the football team Manchester United and would like to one day catch a live game at the famous Old Trafford like I just recently have.

The tickets is somewhat tricky to get, however I believe that I've found the best deal for the strong British pounds. I would not suggest you sign up to be a member of the the club’s official site and wait for the tickets that way, as chances are, the tickets are already taken by those who are at a higher tier of the membership. They will ask you if you would like to be added to the waiting list, in which they will communicate with you once there are more openings for the ticket - I would not wait for this. I did get a follow up email about a week later (about three weeks before the match) that there were no more tickets. You could try this, obviously this depends on what games you’d like to watch and against who.

What I would recommend, is to get on Thomas Cook Sports website, and find a match day package from there. I would recommend this site because you are guaranteed to get your hands on official tickets, as well as getting an accommodation at the same time. I went to the Boxing Day game between Manchester United and Newcastle United, in which all tickets from the official Manchester United site were taken. I found packages from Thomas Cook which also includes a hotel stay, starting from just 99 pounds. This was a bargain compared to other deals you could see on the internet.

We chose the cheapest option which led us to Premier Inn Bury for one night. The hotel was excellent, the quality of the bed was up there with five-star hotels - and trust me, I have worked for three five-star hotels myself. We also had breakfast included. We assumed that it would be one of those hotel breakfasts where you get some bread, butter, jam, and a cup of filtered coffee or bagged tea. The morning I went for breakfast, I was met by a very pleasant surprise. The breakfasts consisted of freshly cooked eggs (sunny side up, but you could also ask for them to be poached or boiled), bacon, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, baked beans, hash browns, etc. There was also a section with pastries, croissants, breads, yogurts and fruit salads. This was one of the best breakfast deals I've ever had, ever. The best part of the breakfast was the sausage and mushroom combo. The sausages were delicious - I really can’t explain them in details. And the mushrooms, huge. Halved, but still huge, beautifully soaked in the olive oil and butter. Absolutely delicious.

If I could fault the accommodation though, I would point at the location. By tram, the hotel is about 30-40 minutes away from the heart of Manchester. In saying that, the tram is literally five minutes from the hotel, which was very convenient. Another thing would be the wifi access. You get 30 minutes of free Wi-Fi, with extra time from then onwards chargeable. This was not exactly a flaw, since we paid about 6 pounds more to get Wi-Fi for the next 24 hours. The speed and connection were great.

If you plan on going to see a game at the Theater of Dreams, I would highly recommend browsing through Thomas Cook Sports. Although I picked the cheapest option in Premier Inn Bury, there are options of hotels closer to the city, with various star ratings.

You may also be interested in just staying at the hotel from the package for one night - just to get a room for the night before the match and the hard-fought tickets - then move to a hotel or backpackers in the city. This is exactly what we did since we calculated the difference in staying at our original hotel for an extra night versus moving to a place in the city centre. This was a great choice by us, and for our second night in Manchester, we stayed at Hatts Hostel Newton Street. The rate we paid was super cheap, but this depends on what kind of accommodation you are looking for. They have various options from 4 beds a room to about 12 in one room, which was what we had opted for. If you're traveling with at least one other friend, sharing a room with 10 other people is not a massive deal. They also have complimentary Wi-Fi in the lobby area and a small room to store large bags either during or after you check out (they are not liable for anything that may happen). If you have a smaller bag, you could opt for the locker option.