Doors opening at the gateway to England’s north

Staring through the floor-to-ceiling windows of my hotel room, I watch an Airbus A380 spearing up through the clouds.

Fortunately I can’t hear the plane. In fact, I can’t hear any outside noise. That’s a promising sign for any hotel, but especially one you’ve checked into really hoping for a good night’s sleep — whether you’ve arrived tired after a late flight or have to be up for an early departure.

Not just tranquil, the TRIBE Hotel at Manchester Airport is a smart, design-driven yet functional and affordable option, which won’t come as a surprise if you know the TRIBE brand, which launched in Perth — by Kings Park — in 2017.

Acquired by the Accor group, TRIBE has branched out of Australia, opening 18 hotels in places as varied as Paris and Phnom Penh.

Manchester Airport isn’t the most exotic location, of course, but it is the gateway, not just to two of England’s most vibrant cities (Liverpool is less than an hour’s drive away), but to some of Britain’s most beautiful countryside, including Snowdonia and the Lake District.

Further afield, more than 60 airlines offer direct flights to and from around 200 destinations, including several, like Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines, with connections to Perth.

Sprawling where Manchester’s southern suburbs blend into the pastoral farmland of Cheshire, this airport has come a long way since its wartime origins when it was a base for Britain’s Royal Air Force. It now handles 30 million annual passengers — a number that’s set to swell further in 2025 with the completion of a ten-year $2.5 billion expansion and modernisation program.

Much of this has focused on transforming one of the airport’s three terminals — Terminal 2, which has more than doubled in size and evolved into a so-called “super terminal” to serve the bulk of the passengers.

Feted for its sleek interior design (it was shortlisted for an airport architecture award by the UNESCO-backed Prix Versailles) Terminal 2 offers a much-improved passenger experience than before (trust me, I’ve been a regular user of this airport over the past decade).

Security is now much more seamless and painless than before — the new high-tech scanners are a big help — while the retail, food and drink options are a cut above most other UK airports.

There are your usual global luxury brands and British chains, but you’ll find offshoots of cafes, bars and restaurants born in Manchester (a local brewer has opened a pub here with the UK’s first airside microbrewery).

Whichever terminal you’re flying from (or into), the TRIBE Hotel is just a few minutes taxi ride away or 10-15 minutes on foot via a Skylink walkway (note to airport management: please ensure the travelators are always on).

Feelings of wanderlust are stoked in TRIBE’s open-plan lobby or “social hub”, which has coffee-table travel books to leaf through, and live digital arrivals and departures screens flaunting a variety of destinations, from Orlando and Lapland to Cairo and Lisbon.

Unlike some run-of-the-mill airport hotels I’ve stayed at, TRIBE is a pleasant place in which to linger and hang out. There’s a bar, all-day restaurant, and cosy spots for relaxing or working on your laptop, plus a small fitness studio with Technogym equipment. The rooms (there are 412, mostly 17sqm or 24sqm in size) are comfortable and soothing, the colour scheme — neutral tones with pops of blue and orange — lively but calming. Connecting, family and accessible rooms are available.

Guests should expect a pleasingly firm king-size bed, Chromecast-enabled wall TV, and a Nespresso pod machine along with other tea and coffee-making facilities. The en suite bathroom has a shower with fragrant lotions from Kevin Murphy, an Australian company. Rising up to the eighth floor, some rooms overlook the hotel’s covered atrium and others, like ours (818), look out towards the airport and Manchester’s distant skyline.

You could be in the city throng in half an hour, either by train or Uber, but we’re happy to eat downstairs at TRIBE Table. Inspired by the “sun-soaked terraces of Italy” — rather than the slightly cooler, damper Mancunian climate — it serves reasonably priced a la carte Mediterranean cuisine for lunch and dinner, although the staff’s accents are definitely Mancunian.

There are Neapolitan pizzas and hand-stretched pasta dishes, but standouts, for us, are the baked aubergine parmigiana and grilled fillet of sea bass with wild chicory and salsa verde. Venetian tiramisu or mixed berry panna cotta may tempt you for dessert. Bank on paying about $80-$100 for three courses and drinks (there’s a decent selection of Italian wines).

We return to the restaurant the following morning for the buffet breakfast, which features a tasty blend of continental and traditionally English fare. It’ll set you up nicely for your travels, wherever you’re heading. A stone’s throw from TRIBE is the station, which has buses, coaches, trains and trams to Manchester and beyond.

If you’re in two minds about hiring a car for your British trip — there are numerous companies at the airport — you may be interested to know direct trains will take you from Manchester Airport to, among other places, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, York, Leeds, Liverpool, Blackpool, Windermere in the Lake District, and Llandudno in Wales. There are also regular coaches to some of those destinations, as well as to Birmingham and London (Victoria and Heathrow).

Come to think of it, this is one of the best-connected airports for land-based travel I’ve been to — anywhere in the world.

+ Another new addition to Manchester Airport is Aether, a private terminal within the airport. It’s accessible to all passengers travelling any class, although your airline needs to be a signed-up partner if you’re travelling with checked baggage (Emirates, British Airways and Cathay Pacific are among the participating airlines). Different Aether options can be booked, priced from £90 ($179) per person. The more luxurious categories include cuisine from top British chef Adam Reid and a chauffeur-driven BMW transfer to your gate. See experienceaether.com. + Steve McKenna was a guest of TRIBE Hotel. They have not influenced or read this story before publication. fact file + Rooms at TRIBE Hotel Manchester Airport are priced from around £75 ($149). tribehotels.com. + For more information on flights and facilities at Manchester airport, see manchesterairport.co.uk. + To help plan a trip to Britain, see visitbritain.com .