3 Best Sights in Manchester, Manchester, Liverpool, and the Peak District

The thought-provoking exhibits in this striking, aluminum-clad building, which architect Daniel Libeskind described as representing three shards of an exploded globe, present the reasons for war and show its effects on society. Hourly Big Picture audiovisual shows envelop you in the sights and sounds of conflicts while a timeline from 1914 to the present examines objects and personal stories from veterans showing how war changes lives. Excellent special exhibitions cover everything from life in Britain during the Blitz to artistic responses to conflict. The museum is on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal in The Quays, across the footbridge from the Lowry. It's a five-minute walk from the MediaCityUK stop of the Metrolink tram.

This University of Manchester–owned museum is in a superb Gothic Revival building with modern add-ons. Its latest extension has added a superb South Asia gallery and a Chinese culture gallery. Embracing anthropology, natural history, and archaeology, the museum features one of the U.K.'s largest ancient Egyptian collections as part of the extensive Ancient Worlds galleries, a beautiful Living Worlds gallery designed to raise questions about our attitude towards nature, and a vivarium complete with live frogs and other amphibians and reptiles. A lively events program for all ages helps lure in repeat visitors.

Not everyone in 19th-century Manchester owned a cotton mill or made a fortune on the trading floor. This museum recounts powerfully the struggles of working people in the city and in the United Kingdom as a whole since the Industrial Revolution. Displays include the story of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre—when the army attacked a crowd of civil rights protesters in Manchester's St. Peter's Square, killing 15 and almost sparking revolution—together with an unrivaled collection of trade-union banners, tools, toys, utensils, and photographs, all illustrating the working lives and pastimes of the city's people.