The tunnel and dugout
Walk the route the players take onto the pitch and sit in the manager's seat.
Arne Müseler — CC BY-SA 3.0 de · Bill Boaden — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Graham Robson — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Diego.Rabanaque — CC0
Just over 74,000 seats, the biggest club ground in England, and a first match played in February 1910 - before most of today's visitors' grandparents were born. This is the 'Theatre of Dreams', as Bobby Charlton called it, Manchester United's home for more than a century and, frankly, the reason many Arab families put Manchester on a British itinerary at all. In March 2025 the club announced a 100,000-seat replacement to be built next door, so a visit now is a visit to something that will, within a few years, be a memory. On non-match days the only way in is the Museum & Stadium Tour, booked in advance on the club's website and lasting around 70 minutes: you sit in the stands, go down to the home dressing room, walk the players' tunnel and finish in the dugout, in the manager's seat if you are quick. The guides are the kind who know the stories rather than just the dates. The museum occupies three floors of the North Stand, with the trophy room and a quietly moving section on the 1958 Munich air disaster; arrive a good hour before your tour slot to see it properly, because the museum shuts at closing time and a late slot leaves no time afterwards. Adult prices move with the date: budget around GBP 36, with quiet weekdays a few pounds cheaper and peak dates nearer GBP 39; children aged 5 to 15 pay roughly GBP 18-25 and under-5s go free. Doors open 09:30 to 16:00 Sunday to Thursday and until 17:00 on Friday and Saturday; there are no tours on home match days, and the dressing room is dropped from the route in the days around a fixture. In July and August and at weekends slots sell out days ahead, so book as soon as your Manchester dates are fixed. Expect plenty of walking and stairs; it suits children from about six upwards, and a pushchair is better left behind or folded. Getting there is simple: Metrolink from the city centre to the Old Trafford or Wharfside stops takes about fifteen minutes, then a five- to ten-minute walk. Outside stand the Sir Alex Ferguson statue, the 'United Trinity' of Best, Law and Charlton, the Munich clock on the south-east corner and a megastore that will take more from the family budget than the tour itself. From here it is a fifteen-minute walk to Salford Quays and IWM North for a full day out. Match tickets are another matter entirely: they go to members first, and what reaches an ordinary visitor is mostly hospitality packages or resale at multiples of face value.
Walk the route the players take onto the pitch and sit in the manager's seat.
The trophy room and the 1958 Munich section deserve a full hour before your tour slot.
Ferguson, the Best-Law-Charlton trinity and the Munich clock, all free and open any day, match days included.
Sir Matt Busby Way, Old Trafford, Manchester M16 0RA
If even one person in the family supports them, yes - the tunnel and dressing room are hard to repeat anywhere. If nobody follows football, see the statues and the megastore outside for free and walk on to Salford Quays; the tour then amounts to ninety minutes in empty stands.
Rarely. Tickets go to members first and sell out before general release, and the club's own resale exchange is members-only; what is left for a visitor is hospitality packages or third-party resale at several times face value. For an affordable match in the Manchester area, try one of the smaller local clubs instead.
