Old Trafford or the Etihad: Which Manchester Stadium Tour to Do

If you are travelling with someone who does not follow football, Old Trafford wins. The museum holds more than 1,000 exhibits over three levels and works as an afternoon out on its own, with the guided tour bolted on rather than carrying the visit.

If you are travelling with a teenager or anyone who wants the modern game, the Etihad wins. City's tour is built around technology the older ground does not have: a glass players' tunnel, a 360-degree cinema experience with Pep Guardiola and a virtual reality attraction called Beyond the Blue Moon.

If you support neither, the deciding factor is usually price and length. Old Trafford is cheaper for a family at £75 for two adults and two children. The Etihad runs longer, 75 minutes on the marketplace listing and 90 on the club's own, and rates higher with visitors, at 4.8 out of 5 from 3,317 verified reviews.

Old Trafford's museum and stadium tour is about £28 for an adult, £18 for a child aged 5 to 15 and £75 for a family of two adults and two children, with under-3s free. The catch is dynamic pricing: peak dates push the adult ticket toward £39, so a July Saturday and a November Tuesday are different products at the same desk.

The Etihad starts around £32 for an adult and £20 for an under-16, with family packages from about £60 and third-party sellers listing two adults and two children near £72. Booked through GetYourGuide the tour was $42.61 per person.

For a family of four, Old Trafford is the cheaper day out. For two adults on an off-peak date, the two grounds land within a few pounds of each other.

Prices were checked on 26 July 2026. Both clubs move them around fixtures and school holidays, so confirm at checkout rather than trusting any table, including this one.

The guided section runs about 70 minutes and covers the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand seating bowl, the players' tunnel, both dressing rooms, the dugouts and the press conference room. It is the standard route, done well, in a ground that has been doing it for decades.

The museum is the reason to come. Three levels, more than 1,000 exhibits, and rooms with names that mean something: the trophy room, the Munich Room commemorating the 1958 air disaster, the Treble Corridor for 1999. Kit history, classic match memorabilia and the club's foundation gallery fill the rest.

Budget an hour for the museum on top of the tour, which is what the club suggests and what the three floors actually need. Opening is 09:30 to 16:00 Sunday to Thursday and 09:30 to 17:00 on Friday and Saturday.

City's tour runs 75 to 90 minutes depending on which ticket you buy, and takes the home dressing room, the glass players' tunnel and pitch-side at the dugouts. The glass tunnel is the signature: it lights up, it is on television every week, and it photographs better than any concrete corridor in the league.

The difference is what has been added around the walk. A 360-degree cinema experience puts you alongside Pep Guardiola. Beyond the Blue Moon is a virtual reality attraction running through the club's past, present and future. Neither exists at Old Trafford, and both are why the Etihad tour holds 4.8 out of 5 across 3,317 verified reviews.

What the Etihad does not have is a deep museum. City's history is told through the tour rather than through three floors of cases, which is the honest trade against the older ground.

The two grounds split cleanly on this. Old Trafford is cheaper for a family at £75 and shorter in its guided section at 70 minutes, and the museum lets children move at their own speed once the tour ends.

The Etihad is longer, 75 minutes on the marketplace listing and 90 on the club's own, which is a lot for a small child, but the VR attraction and the 360-degree cinema are the sort of thing children talk about afterwards. Under-5s go free and anyone under 16 has to be accompanied by an adult.

Rough rule: under eight, Old Trafford. Eight and up, the Etihad, unless the budget decides it for you.

• Under 8: Old Trafford, for the shorter guided section and the self-paced museum
• 8 and up: the Etihad, for the VR and the cinema
• Family of four on a budget: Old Trafford at £75
• Either way, check the fixture list before booking

Both are on the Metrolink, which is what makes a two-ground day possible at all. The Etihad has its own stop, Etihad Campus, about five minutes' walk from the ground and roughly ten minutes from Piccadilly or Victoria. Old Trafford is served by the Old Trafford and Wharfside stops on the other side of the city.

The two grounds are 6.5km apart in a straight line, and the tram route between them runs through the centre rather than across, so allow 40 to 50 minutes door to door with the change.

Neither ground is a place to drive to on an event day. Both sit inside restricted zones when there is a fixture, and the Etihad's own park and ride sites at Ashton Moss and Ashton West are free for tram passengers.

It is possible and it is tight. Old Trafford's last tours run to 16:00 Sunday to Thursday and the Etihad's own schedule closes earlier than a museum would, so the day has to start early and the order matters.

The version that works: Old Trafford first thing, because the museum is the part you cannot rush, then the tram back through the centre for a mid-afternoon Etihad slot. Lunch in the centre between the two, since neither ground sits in a food district.

The version that fails: booking both for the same afternoon and assuming the tram takes 20 minutes. It does not, and neither tour will hold your slot.

One more warning. Both tours stop on their own club's home match days, so a Manchester derby weekend can close both grounds at once. Check two fixture lists, not one.

For a United fan, Old Trafford is not a choice, it is a pilgrimage, and the museum earns the ticket on its own. For a City fan, the same applies at the Etihad, where the trophy years are recent enough that the tour is telling a story you watched happen.

For a neutral with one afternoon: the Etihad if you want the modern game and the technology, Old Trafford if you want football history in cases. For a family of four counting the cost, Old Trafford at £75.

For anyone with two days in Manchester, do both, in that order, with the museum in the morning.

• United fan: Old Trafford, and give the museum a full hour
• City fan: the Etihad, for the glass tunnel and the recent silverware
• Neutral, one afternoon: the Etihad for tech, Old Trafford for history
• Family of four: Old Trafford on price, at £75 against about £60 to £72 plus the longer tour