The fixture list for 2010/11 have just been announced and it already looks like a fasciniting season ahead for Liverpool and Manchester United.

After a disastrous season last year and now without a manager (Rafa Benitez was effectively sacked and has since moved to European champions Inter Milan), Liverpool – a club that many people feel is in turmoil as they plunge further into debt under the stwardship of their American owners – will be hoping for a better 2010/11 season. They start the season at home to Arsenal over the weekend of August 14th (some dates will change due to TV and this particular match looks a certainty to be shown on Sky Sports). Other early season opponents at Anfield include West Brom, Sunderland and Blackpool.

Manchester United lost out in the title race to a strong Chelsea side and many feel that Alex Ferguson hasn’t done enough to replace superstar winger Christiano Ronaldo. Many United supporters feel that Ferguson’s hands are tied, also because of another reviled American owner - The Glazer family – and are worried to see their club plunge further into debt. A takeover looks unlikely in the short term, although the campaigners wearing the Green and Gold scarves (the original colours worn by Manchester United) will hope to pour on the pressure and drive Glazer away from Old Trafford. Supporters are uneasy by the massive debt and inevitable challenge of neighbours Manchester City.

Manchester United start their premier league campaign with a tantalising match against newly promoted Newcastle United, with other early home games in Manchester against West Ham, Liverpool and Sunderland.

Serviced City Pads will be dealing with many supporters who follow both teams from afar. We find that there are many Manchester United fans who travel to Manchester from Southern Ireland and stay in Manchester for the weekend. The same applies to fans of Liverpool FC, but there are also a number of scandinavian fans who stay in Liverpool for 2 or 3 days either side of watching a premier league match.

As Serviced City Pads have now launched the SCP rewards club, it makes perfect sense to join the club now (it doesn’t cost anything) and then book your accommodation in Manchester for every home match throughout the season. You will be rewarded for every night accommodation that you book with us. To find out more click here. 

We also find that if you are a group wishing to stay in Manchester it makes better sense to stay in a Manchester serviced apartment rather than staying in a manchester hotel. The apartment option offers more space and means you can have a beer together as a group before you go out for the evening. It offers a more communal and less formal atmosphere than the 4 walls of a hotel room. A serviced apartment in manchester – for a group stay – will also generally work out to be better value for meny than booking a hotel in Manchester.

So if you are looking to book a short stay in Manchester, you should contact Serviced City Pads straight away. We are the specialist serviced apartment booking company with a wide range of great value serviced apartments in Manchester.

When planning a trip to Manchester, you certainly have a wide selection of hotels to choose from. However, a large number of these hotels don’t offer high quality accommodation cheaply. Hotels in Manchester can be disappointing and there are a few reasons why.

Whilst luxurious hotels in Manchester can offer spacious and well-decorated bedrooms, accommodation like this is generally only available at a great cost. If you don’t have a large budget then hotels like this are immediately out of the question. Even when you can afford to choose a hotel like this for your stay, you are still only presented with a bedroom and bathroom and can still feel quite confined. If you leave your room, public areas within the hotel constantly remind you that you are just one guest of many.

If you opt for one of the cheap hotels in Manchester your experience can be even more disappointing. Cheap hotels in Manchester often only offer small and cramped bedrooms and extremely basic furniture, fittings and facilities.

If you are tired of the available hotels in Manchester, try something different. Luxury serviced apartments in Manchester provide a very different type of accommodation and are available at affordable prices.

At Serviced City Pads, we have a selection of serviced apartments in Manchester. Our apartments are all luxuriously furnished with fine items and fittings and provide somewhere spacious and comfortable where you can work, cook, relax and sleep. Our apartments are available for all budgets and can make your trip to Manchester a little bit more special.

There are wide range of hotels in Manchester and sorting through the selection to find the best for your wants and needs can be a struggle. In general, there are three factors you should be taking into consideration when looking for a hotel in Manchester.

Firstly, you should be looking for a hotel which provides high quality accommodation. You need somewhere comfortable, spacious and safe where you can store your luggage and have a restful nights sleep at the end of a busy day.

You also need a hotel that is conveniently located. Hotels in Manchester are available in all areas and their distance from where you want to be should be a consideration when exploring your hotel options.

The third factor for consideration is price. You must find a hotel which provides you with a top quality place to stay and is located in the right area, but that is also affordable. This is where many travellers struggle as hotels can be expensive.

These are three important factors to consider when thinking of staying in accommodation Manchester. However, it is not only hotels that can offer this type of accommodation.

Serviced apartments in Manchester offer guests to the city somewhere spacious, luxurious and comfortable to stay at an affordable price. These apartments are available in various locations and for varying budgets too.

If you’re looking for accommodation in Manchester, we at Serviced City Pads may have the perfect solution for you. We have a selection of impressive apartments and encourage you to explore what we have on offer.

Manchester is a city where there is a great deal to see, do and to enjoy. Visitor numbers for the city have been increasing in recent years and a large number of these visitors require accommodation. There are many hotels, bed and breakfasts and hostels available for those looking for accommodation in Manchester, but what is currently appealing to many are serviced apartments in Manchester.

Luxury serviced apartments in Manchester offer guests something a bit different. They provide them with a comfortable and relaxing environment where they can stay during their trip. Serviced apartments in Manchester are spacious so guests do not feel trapped and confined like when staying in a small hotel room and are fully-furnished so everything is right there at their fingertips.

Manchester serviced apartments in Manchester are a self-catering option of accommodation when staying in the city, and many travellers to Manchester have been eager for something of this kind for a long time. A large number of visitors want to get out in the city and explore the many restaurants and want to be able to prepare themselves a meal at their own leisure should they require a quiet night in. Self serviced apartments are perfect for this as they give guests options and choice.

At Serviced City Pads, we like to offer guests in Manchester luxurious accommodation suitable for their individual wants and needs. We have serviced apartments in Manchester in various locations, available in different sizes and suitable for all budgets too.

When organising a trip to a city for business or leisure, the majority of us want to find somewhere comfortable, convenient and affordable to stay. A large number of travellers immediately think of a hotel as being the only type of accommodation available, but this is no longer the case. Serviced apartments are an exciting alternative.

In Manchester, luxury serviced apartments can offer a higher quality of accommodation than hotels and at a better price too. Serviced apartments in Manchester offer guests a lot that hotels cannot. They provide them with a spacious environment consisting of more than just one small bedroom and a bathroom and are equipped with everything guests need as are fully furnished with quality furniture and fittings. Serviced apartments in Manchester are also conveniently located and can provide a private and relaxing place to stay.

Manchester serviced apartments are ideal for larger parties too. If you are travelling with others and choose to stay in a hotel, you can feel quite detached from the others in your group. If you choose to stay in a luxury serviced apartment in Manchester, you will all have a space where you can congregate to socialise and will also have your own personal space where you can relax privately too.

At Serviced City Pads, we have luxury serviced apartments in Manchester for single travellers, small groups and larger groups as well. We have serviced apartments in Manchester for everyone and our apartments are suitable for varying budgets too.

A popular reason to book luxury serviced apartments in Manchester is for family celebrations – especially weddings. With accommodation ranging from intimate suites in graded Regency houses, to spacious modern apartments large enough for work meetings, we at Serviced City Pads can accommodate not only the bride and groom, but the guests as well.

When people book accommodation in Manchester for a wedding, it may not necessarily be a traditional church ‘do.’ The city has a number of alternative wedding venues, including civic buildings, stately homes and even a submarine! The House of Fraser is better known for gifts than weddings, but just round the corner is Parsonage Gardens, one of numerous hidden gems near the river, that’s perfect for a post-ceremonial photo shoot.

Religious ceremonies are still the most popular way to go – and Manchester has an impressive selection of both Christian and non-Christian venues. Popular for traditionalists is Manchester Cathedral. Originally the parish church, it only gained cathedral status in 2002 and is as bookable as any other church.  Medieval in origin, it was practically rebuilt in the 19th century – although for once, the Victorians stuck close to the plans of the original. Sited close to the river, guests booking serviced apartments in central Manchester will find it easily.

Roman Catholic couples traditionally book their ceremonies at St Mary’s. This “hidden gem” was the first post-reformation RC church in England, and was consecrated in 1794. Beautiful inside, it’s worth visiting for its artworks alone.

Whether you’re guests or the lucky couple, we at Serviced City Pads have luxury serviced apartments in Manchester’s most popular wedding areas.

Book accommodation in Manchester and you are in the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. Yet Manchester was founded long before this, with a Roman settlement by the River Irwell, where Castlefield is today.

Rising at Irwell Springs on Deerplay Moor, the river separates the cities of Manchester and Salford. If you need to get from one to the other, the futuristic Trinity footbridge, in the Chapel Wharf district, gives easy access. It is one of several award winning bridges built in the 1990s. Civic engineers booking serviced apartments in Manchester should also check out the Merchant’s Bridge, in the Castlefield Basin. The seven bridges surrounding it span 200 years. The reconstructed Roman fort takes you back somewhat further.

Manchester gained its importance through the Industrial Revolution. We at Serviced City Pads recommend renting our luxury serviced apartments in Manchester’s Salford Quays if you are keen to explore this side of the city’s past, as you are surrounded with industrial history.

The River Irwell kicked off Manchester’s industrial era, and still plays an important role in modern industry and commerce. During the 17th and 18th centuries it was adopted as a trading route, the stretch between Manchester and Irlam (where it joins the River Mersey) being changed drastically to become part of the Mersey and Irwell Navigation system.

The river west of the city centre was altered again in the 1890s, for construction of the Manchester Ship Canal.  At its time this 36-mile waterway was the largest navigation canal in the world and allowed Manchester and Salford to become a major sea port. Today, the canal is still a great sight to see for those staying in Manchester serviced apartments.

History lovers staying at luxury serviced apartments in Manchester’s city centre may feel they’ve booked into a cultural desert, but this is not so. There is a wealth of civic and industrial landmarks to visit – many of which were well established long before the Industrial Revolution even arrived. Chief among these has to be Chetham’s Library. The oldest free public reference library in Great Britain and the oldest English language library in Europe, it’s a “must see” for anyone renting serviced apartments in Manchester city centre.

Chetham’s is easy to overlook, hidden as it is just off Millennium Square and next to the stunningly futuristic Urbis Centre. In 2009 the centre had a “Hidden Manchester” exhibition. A truly surreal experience was to wander the flatiron contours of this award-winning masterpiece; all glass, steel and digital technology – and then head for its Hidden Manchurian neighbour, where the books are chained to the wall as they were in the 17th century. The building itself is one of the oldest in Manchester, part of the 15th century Chetham’s Music School.

Although you can’t borrow the books (the oldest public lending library in the UK is at St Mary’s Church, in Surrey) you can still use them for reference. Once inside, you can take Manchester’s staunch tradition of Socialism to heart, and sit at the same window seat Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx sat, while Engels was composing his masterpiece, “The Condition of the Working Classes in England.”

Whatever your political beliefs, we at Serviced City Pads recommend a visit to Chetham’s for any “culture vulture” booking accommodation in Manchester.

When people rent luxury serviced apartments in Manchester, they sometimes head for the Arndale Centre, the home of Europe’s first (and largest) Next store.

For a change, why not take an amble around The Triangle? Whereas the Arndale is a 20th century complex dating from the 1970s, the Triangle is a grade II listed building that was originally used as a corn exchange. Following an IRA bomb attack in 1996 it was developed into a modern shopping complex – although the impressive façade remains.

The Triangle has a fascinating history. The current building, originally called ‘The Corn and Produce Exchange’ dates from 1897 and stands on the site of an earlier building which was built in 1837 and traded from Hanging Ditch. If that name sends a shiver down your spine, a number of city ghost tours start here, and there are plenty of serviced apartments in Manchester nearby.

The Corn Exchange fell into disuse during the Depression. However, in the 1970s it was used by the Royal Exchange Theatre Company, as well as becoming a filming location for Granada TV’s ‘Brideshead Revisited.’ The site then became a kind of Mancunian Covent Garden, with a number of traders setting up “alternative” retail outlets. As well as a large market there were permanent stores, cafes and wine bars.

Most of these businesses were forced to move as the site was redeveloped. No fear. They found alternative premises in Manchester’s Bohemian Northern Quarter, where they trade today.

Whether its high street fashions or an Indian head massage you want, we at Serviced City Pads have luxury serviced apartments in Manchester that provide you with the opportunity for as much retail therapy as you can afford. There is practically unlimited accommodation in Manchester available.

If you’re looking for luxury serviced apartments in Manchester, Exchange Square is just one of the areas we offer. One of a number of districts that were heavily redeveloped following the IRA bomb of 1996, it is today a major shopping area and the home of Europe’s first urban entertainment centre.

However, accommodation in Manchester’s city centre doesn’t mean endless towers of glass and concrete. Mancunians love their city with a passion – and so do the town’s planning committee. Whereas some cities would have knocked down two historic pubs to make way for a new Marks and Spencer, Manchester politely moved them. Nearby you will find the Printworks. This historic building that once housed the largest printing room in Europe, its 350,000 square feet now incorporate a 20 screen multiplex, an I-MAX cinema, a leisure club, swimming pool and more than 50 clubs, restaurants and bars.

If you’ve rented one of our Manchester serviced apartments at Serviced City Pads for a bit of retail therapy, Exchange Square is one enormous mall and includes the large Arndale centre.

The Triangle shopping centre almost matches the Arndale in terms of store variety. As well as chain stores like Selfridges and Marks and Spencer, there are some chic cafes and bars. Outside is a BBC Big Screen TV, with covered all-weather seating. As the city is the home of premier league teams Manchester United and Manchester City, perhaps this isn’t surprising.

Many people who rent serviced apartments in Manchester do so for work and pleasure. Exchange Square is the perfect location for both.