Of course there are hundreds, if not thousands of Manchester venues and organisations on Twitter that you can ‘follow’.  ManchesterWide.com has its own Twitter stream on Twitter.com/ManchesterWide

We thought you might appreciate a few more links to help you keep on top of all the great  things
that are going on in our great city.

Lets start with the 10 Greater Manchester councils – everything from bins advice to ‘whats on’ advice …….

Bolton Council http://twitter.com/boltoncouncil
Salford Council http://twitter.com/SalfordCouncil
Wigan Council http://twitter.com/WiganCouncil
Trafford Council http://twitter.com/TraffordCouncil
Stockport Council http://twitter.com/StockportMBC
Tameside Council http://twitter.com/TamesideCouncil
Rochdale Council http://twitter.com/rochdalecouncil
Bury Council http://twitter.com/BuryCouncil
Manchester City Council http://twitter.com/ManCityCouncil
Oldham Council – Not Found

If you plan to visit Manchester, or you are looking for something special to go to, then follow
http://twitter.com/visit_mcr, the place on Twitter for Visit Manchester, the official tourist board for Greater Manchester.

Here is a selection of some of the many other great Manchester related venues/ organisations you can follow on Twitter.com…….

BBC Radio Manchester
http://twitter.com/bbcradiomanc

Royal Exchange Theatre
http://twitter.com/rxtheatre

Band On The Wall, Swan Street,
http://twitter.com/bandonthewall

Palace Theatre and Opera House Manchester
http://twitter.com/PalaceAndOpera

Oldham Coliseum Theatre
http://twitter.com/oldhamcoliseum

Library theater, Manchester
http://twitter.com/librarytheatre

The Met theatre, Bury
http://twitter.com/themet

The Lowry Art & Entertainment Centre, Salford
http://twitter.com/The_Lowry

Cornerhouse arts centre, Manchester
http://twitter.com/CornerhouseMcr

Greenroom Theatre, Mancherster
http://twitter.com/greenroommcr

The Whitworth art Gallery
http://twitter.com/WhitworthArt

Museum of Science and industry
http://twitter.com/voiceofmosi

Manchester Airport
http://twitter.com/Manairport

Creative Tourist
http://twitter.com/creativetourist/

Did you find this list useful. Would you like a longer list? Tell me what you think, and add your favourite

Manchester related Twitter streams in the space below – No adult, political or bad taste stuff, though…….  )

As I won’t be blogging much this week I thought I would share with you a selection of Manchester related blogs that I have enjoyed reading – hope you like them…………

In no particular order:-

Hyde Daily Photo –
Every day one new photo of Hyde, occasionally two.

Travels with my baby –
“Travels with my baby charts the days and sleepless nights of a Mancunian baby, Milo.”

Mancubist -
Quality Manchester blogging

The Manchester Zedders –
The Zedders visit randomly selected squares from the Manchester A to Z and blog about it. Good stuff!

Parklover –
Er, its about parks, but its also more quality Manchester blogging!

All of these come highly recommended by the Manchester Wide editorial team (ok, its just me, but…..) so visit, enjoy and leave encouraging comments if you can!

Manchester is well served with travel connections. Visitors to Manchester have many alternative ways of arriving and getting around the area.

Manchester visitors can use public transport, taxis or hired car to make the most of their time in the City and to explore the great things Greater Manchester has to offer.

Getting to Manchester

By air

Manchester’s nearest airport, simply called Manchester Airport, is a world class airport located about 20 minutes drive from central Manchester, in the south of the Greater Manchester area. Liverpool John Lennon Airport is about 50 minutes away.

By rail

There is a regular rail service to many if not most of the UK’s principal cities, including regular services to and from London.

Manchester has two main railway stations – Manchester Piccadilly Station and Manchester Victoria Station.

By car

There is a well developed road and motorway network in the UK. However, road congestion on some parts of the motorway network can be a problem and may increase journey times. Depending on the speed and type of car you are driving, and the number of breaks you take, it should take between 5 and 7 hours to drive from London to Manchester.

By coach

Coach and bus services run frequently between most towns and cities in the country including London and Manchester. They are clean, reliable, frequent and are relatively inexpensive.

Travelling throughout Greater Manchester

Road

Getting around Manchester by road is easy and the whole of the Greater Manchester area is well served by a comprehensive road and motorway network. Car hire is a great option and there are numerous car hire firms in the area.

Taxis

There are two types of taxis and the difference is important.

Britain’s distinctively shaped ‘black cabs’ are recognised world wide and you will see them all over Manchester. If they are available for hire they will have their amber rooflight illuminated. Black cabs can be hailed from the street, or can be ordered by telephone.

Minicabs are a popular alternative to black cabs. They are simply every day saloon cars and so come in all shapes and colours. Only licenced taxis are allowed to operate so look for the Local Authorty licence plate on the back of the car. One important difference between black cabs and minicabs are that minicabs are not allowed to pick up people from the street and can only be ordered by telephone.

Tram – Metrolink

There is an extensive light rail network (officially called the Metrolink and known locally as trams) covering many parts of the city. Although they can be more expensive than bus travel, trams are efficient and reliable. However, one of the main drawbacks to the Metrolink service is that many parts of the city are far from a Metrolink station.

Bus service

Bus services are relatively cheap and are great for short distances or for travellers on a budget.

Sport is thriving in Manchester, with numerous sporting venues around the Greater Manchester area. Venues like Old Trafford and Sportcity are famous regionally, nationally and internationally. Here is a quick round up of some of the more well known sporting teams and venues throughout the Greater Manchester area.

Manchester Football Teams

Bolton Wanderers (The Trotters), Reebok Stadium, Bolton
Bury FC (Shakers), Gigg Lane, Bury
Manchester City FC (The Blues), City of Manchester Stadium, SportCity
Manchester United FC (The Devils), Old Trafford, Trafford
Oldham Athletic FC (The Latics), Boundary Park, Oldham
Rochdale FC (The Dale), Spotland, Rochdale
Stockport County FC, (County or Hatters), Edgeley Park, Hardcastle Road, Stockport
Wigan
Athletic FC, (The Latics), JJB Stadium, Robin Park, Newtown, Wigan

Cricket

Lancashire County Cricket Club, Old Trafford

Ice Hockey

Manchester Phoenix, Altrincham

Rugby (Union)

Sale Sharks, Edgeley Park, Stockport

American football

Manchester Titans, Broughton Park Rugby Club, Mauldeth Road West,Chorlton

Motorcycle Speedway

Belle Vue Aces, Greyhound Stadium, Kirkmanshulme Lane, Gorton, Manchester

Basketball

Manchester Magic and Manchester Mystics, The Amaechi Basketball Centre, Whalley Range, Manchester M16 8GW

Manchester TV

Channel M is Greater Manchester’s only TV station devoted to Manchester. However, the BBC does include a very limited number of local interest programmes in its schedules as well as a daily news programme for the North West of England.

Manchester Radio

New radio stations are emerging all the time while others stop broadcasting or change their broadcasting frequency. The following details are reasonably up to date. BBC Radio Manchester (95.1 & 104.6 FM) has high quality programming with a local flavour. Other stations based in the Greater Manchester area have a rock/pop/discussion format and include, Smooth FM (100.4 FM), Picadilly Magic (1152 MW), Key 103 (103 FM), XFM Manchester (97.7 FM), Galaxy 102 (102 FM), Wigan based WISH FM (102.4 FM), (Bolton and Bury) Tower FM (107.4) and Revolution (96.2 FM)

Manchester Newspapers

The largest circulation daily (6 days, not Sundays) in Greater Manchester is the Manchester Evening News. A variety of smaller circulation dailies and weeklies are available in different parts of Greater Manchester. These include:-

Bolton newspapers

Bolton News

Bury newspapers

Bury Times, Radcliffe Times

Rochdale newspapers

Rochdale Observer, Heywood Advertiser, Middleton Guardian

Manchester newspapers

Manchester Evening News, North East Manchester Advertiser, Prestwich Advertiser, South Manchester Reporter, The South Manchester Reporter

Oldham newspapers

Oldham Advertiser, Oldham Chronicle

Salford newspapers

Salford Advertiser

Stockport newspapers

Stockport Express, Wilmslow Express

Trafford newspapers

Stretford and Urmston Messenger, Trafford Messenger, Urmston Messenger

Tameside newspapers

Tameside Advertiser

Wigan newspapers

Wigan Evening Post, Wigan Observer, Wigan Reporter

In addition, the Asian News provides new to the Asian communities in Greater Manchester.

The area is home to around 210,000 people. Unlike many other Boroughs in Greater Manchester, the Trafford Metropolitan area does not have a single town that dominates, although Altrincham, Sale, Stretford, Trafford Park and Urmston are perhaps the best known parts of Traford.

The river Mersey flows through the area dividing it in two. On the north side there are areas such as Cornbrook, Davyhulme, Firswood, Flixton, Gorse Hill, Lostock, Old Trafford, Stretford, Trafford Park and Urmston. On the south side of the river there many areas including Altrincham, Ashton-Upon-Mersey, Bowdon, Broadheath, Brooklands, Carrington, Dunham Massey, Hale, Hale Barns, Oldfield Brow, Partington, Sale, Sale Moor, Timperley, Warburton and West Timperley.

There is lots to see and do in Trafford.

Trafford is home to some of the most famous sports grounds in the world, with Manchester United F.C.’s home ground and the Lancashire County Cricket Club both located in Old Trafford. Manchester’s Ice Hockey team Manchester Phoenix, is located in Altrincham, formerly home to Sale Sharks, although their base is now in Stockport.

The Imperial War Museum North is located in Trafford Park, on the the south side of Salford Quays. The museum is housed in an award winning building designed by international architect Daniel Libeskind whose work includes the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada, the Felix Nussbaum Haus in Osnabruck, Germany and the Wohl Centre at the Bar-Ilan University in Ramat-Gan, Israel.

Trafford is home to the Trafford Centre, one of the United Kingdom’s largest shopping centres. It has in the region of 300 shops, cafes, fast food outlets and restaurants. Car parking is free and the centre is well connected by public transport. The Metrolink Shuttle Bus links Stretford Metrolink Station to The Trafford Centre.

Bolton is the name given to the Bolton metropolitan area as well as the town of Bolton itself. The Bolton metropolitan area is home to around 260,000 people. It is made up of at least eight distinct areas – Bolton, Horwich, Farnworth Kearsley, Blackrod, Westhoughton, South Turton and Little Lever. The area is a mix of dense urban areas as well as wonderful countryside to the north and west of the metropolitan area.

There are many interesting tourist attractions in the Bolton Metropolitan area and here are a small selection.

Smithills Hall is a fine example of a well preserved manor house set in its own gardens. In 2008 Smithills Hall was named as Small Visitor Attraction of the Year in the annual Manchester Tourism Awards.

Bolton has a vibrant theatre scene and the area is home to a number of theatres. There is The Octagon Theatre in Bolton town centre which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2008. The Albert Halls is located within Bolton Town Hall and offers a range of concerts and pantomimes. The Bolton Little Theatre, is located in Hanover Street, just outside the town centre. Further afield, Farnworth Little Theatre is located in Cross Street, Farnworth.

Horwich Heritage Centre is dedicated to preserving Horwich’s rich heritage and has a number of displays depicting different aspects of life in Horwich.

Bolton is home to football team Bolton Wanderers, who are based at the very impressive looking Reebok Stadium. This 28,000 seater venue is located in Middlebrook in Lostock, Horwich.

Hall i’th’ Wood is a 16th century restored wooden-framed Tudor manor house.

Bolton Museum, Art Gallery & Aquarium is located in Bolton town centre and is situated adjacent to Bolton Town Hall, on Le Mans Crescent. It is one of Bolton and Greater Manchester’s most popular attractions. The museum contains a range of items linked with Bolton’s industrial and social heritage. The museum includes a well respected Egyptology collection.

There are plenty of shopping opportunities in the area. There is a traditional indoor market which includes a food market. The Market Place indoor shopping centre is one of Bolton’s most exciting indoor shopping malls and Middlebrook Retail and Leisure Park offers more than 50 shops, restaurants, a cinema and bowling alley.

This is just a small sample of the many things Bolton has to offer visitors. There are loads and loads more great things that there is not enough space to mention. Bolton really does have something to offer everyone.