Anyone visited IWM North?

[Knitter99]

Fancied taking the kids to the Imperial War Museum in London during the February half term but finding it difficult to book train tickets. So I'm wondering instead about the one in Manchester, has anyone been?

They're really keen to visit the one in London so if Manchester is a poor second they'd probably rather wait till we can get to London.

Does it fill a full day or is it more a couple of hours kind of thing?

I spent an hour there and saw pretty much everything. I was in a bit of a rush so probably could have stretched it out to two hours but no more. There are lots of other interesting things around the area (media city etc) so you could still have a good day out, but if their focus is on IWM I would go to London.

Would a megabus/national express be an option rather than train? MB is grim but nat express is quite nice and often not that much longer than trains. Or drive part way, park and then get train/tube in?

I like the Manchester. You can spend as long as you want wandering - We spent 2 hours ish. Didn't spend much long in the London one.
Across the Bridge is media city - how old are they as there are various tours that can be done from CBeebies to the I'm a Celeb jungle challenge. The Van Gogh exhibition is on at the moment and that is lovely