Manchester Airport Premier Inn to central Manchester?

[outwest]

On 4th December son needs to go to interview at Manchester University.

Will drive to the Manchester Airport Premier Inn where have booked rooms, but plan to leave car there rather than attempt to drive into centre (not used to city driving any more, parking is expensive, Premier Inn is cheap). Need to be at university by around 11:30am.

Then around 4pm need to get back from city centre to Premier Inn, and drive home from there. Can some kind person advise how best to do this?

Ok, I’d probably do the park & ride from Sale Water park tram and get the tram into town, it’s not far from where you’re staying, you can park there for free and not need to drive into the city centre or rely on shuttle buses or taxis.

>I’d probably do the park & ride from Sale Water park tram

Thank you, looks promising - easy drive from airport!

send him on his own on the train - the same way we all did our uni interviews.

I get where this suggestion comes from but it's not what happens anymore. The vast majority of open day prospective students come with parents or other family members. Anyone thinking parents didn't go in their day - times have changed and it is now absolutely standard.

>The vast majority of open day prospective students
>come with parents or other family members

This was the case at two open days we attended.
Everybody seemed to be with somebody.

I agree with this

Very easy, trams run regularly both ways- it’s the Airport line you need going back and the carpark is big, I’ve never struggled to get a space there.

>trams run regularly both ways- it’s the Airport line you need going back

Great, thanks, any advice on tickets? Seems to be zone 3 station. Does Manchester have something like London travelcards? Looked at:
https://tfgm.com/tickets-and-passes/tram-peak-single-ticket-adult
...but was unclear.

Which building is his interview in?

Just tap your bank card on the tram and it will calculate the best fare for you at the end of the day. It's like the Underground.

>Which building is his interview in?

Schuster. So decent walk across centre of Manchester, but we have time and would give us opportunity to see part of city.

Any chance the university is running shuttle buses from the airport on the open day?

The PI at the Trafford centre would be closer than the airport.

This, each person needs a separate bank card if you’re tapping in & out, or buy a ticket from the machine on the platform for the zones you need.

I took a bus from Manchester airport to the university several times to see my sister when she studied there. It was one bus, direct, but it went all around the houses so took about 40-45 minutes each time.

Last Christmas we visited Manchester and took the tram from our hotel at St. Peter’s Square to the airport; it was very simple and not at all expensive.

If you get the tram to St Peter’s Sq it’s straight down Oxford Rd towards the uni probably 20mins walk, or loads of buses run straight down that way.

Looking at map. The PI is just outside airport? Get train from airport to Piccadilly. Takes about 20 min.
Walk from there. About a 20 min walk

Trams are longer due to route. Airport to city trains are frequent. The building you are going to is totally walkable from Piccadilly. Uber or black cab if pouring down

That’s a good point actually. And better for accessing public transport

But the OPs hotel isn’t flexible :)

But the shuttle to the train isn’t running all day and I don’t think you can park at the airport train station for free, whereas you can at the tram park & ride.

Yeah but I was assuming she could leave car at hotel during the day. Even if for a fee. I'm not far from airport

The shuttle bus from the premier inn to the airport is a joke. It doesn't actually run when they say it does and it's more expensive than just getting a taxi.

Really bad when they advertise themselves as an airport hotel!

To report back: it worked. Journey up through Wales uneventful, though barely survived unexpected and congested nightmare of Wrexham Road Interchange (?). Driving got noticeably more aggressive/risky (people zooming back and forth through multiple lanes) as we moved into northern England.

Sat nav struggled to get us to Premier Inn Manchester Airport South (had to pinpoint on map rather than relying on postcode) but we arrived in the end. Hotel clean, beds fine, food unremarkable but not offensive. Good night's sleep had by both.

Drive to Sale Water Park next morning straightforward apart from when merged with M6, where on/off slip-roads were kind of joined together, and we had to manoeuvre round large car transporter that suddenly appeared. Tense few seconds. Short journey anyway.

Plenty of space in free Sale Water Park carpark. Tram convenient and cute, reminiscent of 1990s-era DLR. Nice to walk around Manchester in day time (>20k steps yesterday!). Northerners chatty and friendly, in contrast to recent experience of people in London, where I lived for many years. Maybe more genuine "local" locals in Manc in London? Found exhibit in Central Library on clear-cut differences in local accents/dialects/identities even within Greater Manchester interesting. Child liked university. Useful day.

Glad we didn't try driving into centre - additional stress and cost not worth it compared to sitting on tram for twenty minutes. Would I take same route again? Probably. Thanks to all for advice.