The Best Alternative City for a Night Out in the UK

Whether you’re planning a night out with the girls, a stag do in the city, or a big birthday bash, why not try somewhere new?

If you’re looking for cheap cocktails, reasonable taxi fares and a good deal on hotels, a weekend away doesn’t have to set you back.

Check out our alternative cities for a big night out, and spend less time queuing, and more time boogying.

The Best Night Out on a Budget

We recently conducted research into 50 of the most populous towns and cities across the UK, revealing the best alternative cities for a night out.

We’ve also looked ranked each on:

Not everyone wants to head to Manchester or London and that’s okay!

There are plenty of other options where you can have an amazing evening without breaking the bank or battling the crowds.

The Safest Towns & Cities

The Cheapest Pint

The Cheapest G&T

The Cheapest Taxi Journey

The Cheapest 1 Night Weekend Hotel Stay

The Cheapest Meal In A Restaurant

The Most Bars & Clubs Per 100,000

Methodology

We initially collected data for 75 of the most populous towns and cities in the UK, looking at:

- Numbeo’s safety index score
- The price of a pint
- The price of a G&T
- The initial fare of a taxi journey
- The average cost for a one night (weekend) stay in a hotel (one room)
- The average price of a meal in an inexpensive restaurant
- The number of bars and clubs per 100,000 population

Safety Index Score

When you’re heading out for a night on the town, you’ve got to feel safe. That’s why we collected the ‘Safety Index Score’ for each location from Numbeo; with the higher scores suggesting a safer city.

All data is crowdsourced by the website within the past 36 months. A full outline of the score can be seen here.

Price of a Pint

The average price of a pint was collected in June 2018 using data sourced through Numbeo’s Cost of Living index.

Price of a G&T

The price of a G&T in each town and city was collected using the Wetherspoons App to offer a fair comparison, highlighting the difference in prices across a single chain of bars.

Initial Fare of a Taxi Journey

Every time you begin a taxi journey in the UK, you’ll pay an initial fare; that’s the price the meter starts at. We’ve collected this figure from Numbeo’s Cost of Living index and cross-referenced with local council data in each location.

Average Cost of a One Night (Weekend) Hotel Stay

Using data obtained from Kayak, we collected the average cost for a one night hotel stay on the weekend in each location; looking at a single room for a fair comparison. Kayak’s figures are based upon the average price returned for searches in each location over the last two weeks. These were cross-referenced against Booking.com figures for accuracy, however the Kayak figures were used in the final data.

Average Price of a Meal in an Inexpensive Restaurant

If you fancy a bite to eat before heading out for the night, we collected the average price of a meal (per person) in an inexpensive restaurant in each location. We used Numbeo’s Cost of Living index and cross-referenced with local council data in each location.

Number of Bars and Clubs per 100,000 Population

No one wants to spend forever standing at the bar to get a drink! We used Yelp to establish the number of bars and clubs within a one-mile radius of the city (or town) centre before using the location’s population to calculate how many bars and clubs there are per 100k locals. The higher the number, the better your chances of enjoying your tipple in a jiffy!