Is Manchester Safe for Solo Female Travelers?

Solo travel experience

Manchester during the holidays was a lot of fun! Great and safe public transport options that got me from the airport to the city center quickly. Great museums and Christmas markets. As with any big city, you have to be aware of your surroundings, but I didn’t feel like I had to worry about safety while I was there. The Christmas markets had a lot of great food that wasn’t too expensive. Tons of fun!

Manchester city centre is quite safe during the daytime, but there are some areas to avoid at night. Piccadilly Gardens is locally joked to be unsafe, although I've never personally experienced anything there. The Gay Village takes safety very seriously, and there's a safety team there on Friday and Saturday nights. Theft is quite common, but mostly opportunistic not violent. The trams sometimes have security staff at night, and there are Safe Havens in the city centre on party nights. People are usually friendly though, and it's quite common to look out for other women on nights out. There is a knife crime problem in the city, and some areas are known for gun violence, but it's incredibly rare that a tourist will cross paths with it. It's not an active worry for me living there. Sexual harassment in the street is relatively common, but it's improved since I moved here 10 years ago. You're usually ok if you just ignore it and keep walking. If you're in a straight club/bar it's not abnormal for someone to grope you. The Gay Village is relatively safer but still has predators. Manchester has a very big housing issue and is failing to adequately help its homeless population, so it's also extremely common to be approached for money or to buy someone a drink. Most people are entirely safe and it's easy to quickly buy them a drink or sandwich, or refuse and keep walking, but it could be shocking if you're coming from a place that doesn't have a big homeless population. A common request/scheme is to ask you to take money out of an ATM because they only have £7 and need £20 for a hostel, and they offer you the £7 so it's only £13, but then you take out £20 and they ask to keep the £7 too. I'm a tall, white-passing, visibly queer woman, and usually feel safe as I can walk quite quickly to remove myself from any unsafe areas, and I think my height is intimidating to people. But my petite, black and asian and hijabi friends have talked to me about feeling more unsafe at times. Having said that, it's still a very diverse major city and there's an inherent safety in that. I don't feel actively unsafe here, but I can't pretend that it's as safe as the small town I came from, or some other major cities I've visited (e.g. Singapore, Copenhagen). I mostly walk alone at night and it's ok when you know where you're going, but I'd be careful walking around with your phone out looking lost. The city centre is very well monitored, as is the student area down Oxford Road, so you should be safe at night there, but some areas further out aren't as safe.

Manchester is a typical city in England and you will be very safe when walking around solo on account of many people being out and about at pretty much all hours of the day. Stick to main streets and you'll be pretty worry free, although, as most major cities go, there will be rough sleepers and nefarious people. I have yet to personally encounter a bad experience whilst living here, though this does happen. It would help to keep a rough idea of where you are walking to late at night, rather than stopping to look at maps on your phone every few seconds. Throughout the day, I doubt you would experience any problems. People here are very friendly, and nipping into a shop and asking for help behind the counter will be your first call if any problems arise (getting lost, advice on local areas, etc). Most people are very friendly and happy to help!

Group travel experience

Stayed in Manchester with a few mates for a New Year’s black tie event was absolutely amazing, but it’s quite expensive to stay in Manchester, but would strongly recommend as it was a great experience