Accommodation and travel
Thanks to an integrated transport network, Manchester is one of the most accessible cities in the UK for both national and international visitors. There are three main stations in the city centre: Piccadilly, Oxford Road and Victoria. All have direct rail services from across the country, and it’s just over two hours from London. National Express and Megabus provide coach services from all over the country into Chorlton Street Coach Station in the heart of the city centre.
If you’re arriving from overseas, Manchester Airport offers excellent connections to the city centre and beyond with a regional railway station, bus station with National Express coach connections and a Metrolink tram station onsite.
01 Getting to the conference
Once you arrive in Manchester, getting around the city and surrounding areas is easy thanks to the fleet of buses, trams and trains available. The compact nature of the city centre also makes walking a popular choice. Manchester is a bike-friendly city with many marked cycle lanes and dedicated routes throughout the city centre and beyond.
Our three main conference venues – Mercure Manchester Picadilly, Doubletree by Hilton and Holiday Inn Manchester City Centre – are all within 10-minutes’ walk of Manchester Picadilly station.
Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is the official public transport body for the city. Its website has a wealth of information and a number of journey planning tools to help you plan your journey.
Find out more about getting to Manchester, and getting around, including accessibility in the city, on the Meet in Manchester website.
02 Visas and entry to the UK
Please note that all non-UK passport holders are now required to complete an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to travel to the UK from abroad. Make sure you apply for your ETA in plenty of time. Use the official UK government website https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-an-electronic-travel-authorisation-eta to avoid extra charges and scams. Currently the ETA is £20.
If you’re coming to the BISA conference from outside the UK, you might also need a visa. Check if this applies to you at www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.
Once you have been accepted to present on the conference programme, and you have registered and paid to attend, we can provide you with a letter to confirm this. You will make your request for a visa letter as part of the registration process. We aren’t legally allowed to provide general letters of invite to the conference.
If you are applying for a standard visitor visa (please do not assume this is the correct visa for you – use the link at the top of this section to find out), current government guidance states that the earliest you can apply is three months before travel. Therefore, you will need to register and pay for the conference before obtaining your visa. We will issue a refund to any delegate who is turned down for a visa. Please send proof to office@bisa.ac.uk.
Requests for visa letters are made as part of your conference registration. This means that all requests should be made by the 12 March 2026 deadline for speaker registration. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide visa letters for conference observers.
Please ensure you follow the visa application instructions very closely.
03 Accommodation
Discover the diversity of accommodation in Manchester, catering to every taste and travel preference. For those seeking something special, luxury hotels offer opulent amenities, whilst delegates seeking wallet-friendly alternatives can find comfort in a range of budget hotels or embrace the communal spirit of hostels.
We are pleased to offer specially negotiated accommodation rates for attendees through Marketing Manchester, including at all three hotels where the conference is taking place. Due to the change of conference dates, the booking website is not quite ready. However please check back and we expect it to be available during the week beginning 5 October 2026. We advise early booking in order to guarantee your preferred hotel.
Of course, you are also free to look for alternative places to stay.
Top photo courtesy of Marketing Manchester.