I usually fly into Manchester Airport from the US, and spend a few nights in a budget hotel near Piccadilly rail station. I can't imagine the misery of bad digs in Manchester, but I quite like Greater Manchester for its history. It's the home of the Co-operative Wholesale Society, with it's "divi", as Compo referred to it in "Dried Dates and Codfanglers. In Salford Quays there's the L.S. Lowry gallery, and the Imperial War Museum North. In Central Manchester, there's the Museum of Science and Industry, with the canal basin just across the street and Roman ruins a short stroll away. And of course, there's the Manchester Ship Canal, with its Barton Swing Aqueduct in Barton upon Irwell, which was my introduction to Greater Manchester.