Best beer gardens in Manchester

Manchester gets, optimistically, 30 days of proper beer-garden weather a year. The moment forecasters mention sunshine and double-digit temperatures, every pub with so much as a paved courtyard fills up - and the difference between a great beer garden and a passable one becomes very obvious. The two things that separate the best are shade options for hot afternoons and shelter for the inevitable shower that arrives at 5pm.

The list below is every venue in our database with confirmed outdoor space, sorted by the cheapest pint we've verified there. City-centre entries tend to be courtyards and terraces rather than lawns, and they fill within minutes of the sun appearing. South Manchester entries - Chorlton, Didsbury, Levenshulme, Heaton Moor - are where the proper big-lawn gardens are, and they absorb the Saturday crowd when town is full.

Use the price as the tiebreak. Two gardens of similar quality can be £2 a pint apart, and over an afternoon in the sun that adds up faster than anything else on the bill.

A few sun-day survival tips: arrive before 1pm or accept that you're standing for an hour. Bring sunscreen - most Manchester pub gardens face west and the late-afternoon sun is brutal. Order in rounds rather than individually to halve the queue time. And keep an eye on the sky - most gardens have indoor seating priority for the regulars who stuck it out through winter, so the moment rain starts there's a polite scramble.