We love autumn quite a lot, and the wider city of Manchester does too. Now, Manchester has been named one of the top autumn hotspots in the UK, and even though we could point out why, we’re going to let the experts take this one.
New research from Car Finance 247 has revealed how the UK is celebrating autumn in 2025, uncovering the activities, tastes, and traditions that define the season, as well as the UK cities that lead the way. The analysis began with a shortlist of popular UK autumn activities, holidays and seasonal food and drink favourites.
Car Finance 247 then analysed the following parameters for each entry:
- Average Monthly Google Searches: Public interest measured using Google Keyword Planner data.
- Year-on-Year Change: Longer-term trend, comparing the latest month’s searches against the same month in the previous year.
- Regional searches: For city-level activity, search volumes were normalised against approximate population size to identify true hotspots per capita.
Manchester loves pumpkins in the autumn
Pumpkins are now firmly at the heart of autumn. Searches for pumpkin patch are up 22% year on year, while interest in pumpkin spice latte has grown 23%. Manchester and Glasgow show their prowess as UK autumn hotspots, recording the highest number of pumpkin picking searches overall (1,000 average monthly searches each), showing their enthusiasm for this Halloween-inspired tradition.
Halloween means autumn
Halloween remains the season’s biggest event with 201,000 of average monthly searches in the UK, but interest is softening compared to last year. Searches for Halloween costumes are down 19% and Halloween decorations have fallen 33% on a year-to-year basis.
London leads in overall volume with 2,900 average monthly Halloween searches, yet the real surprise is York, where per-capita searches are the highest in the country — nearly 500 per 100,000 people.
Bonfire Night lights a spark
Bonfire Night traditions remain steady with Manchester emerging as a hub with 1,900 average monthly searches, sharing the top spot with London that has the same search volume. Nostalgic flavours tied to the night, such as treacle toffee, are enjoying a modest comeback, up 23% YoY – and now I’m craving Parkin…
Autumn food & drink goes down well
While pumpkin spice latte is booming, traditional favourites are in decline. Hot chocolate searches have fallen 55% YoY, and cinder toffee is down 19%. At the same time, Brits are looking for fresh flavours: squash recipes are up 22% YoY, pointing to a growing appetite for seasonal cooking beyond the classics.
Well, we’re not sure about you, but all of these things are very appealing to us, and it’s unsurprising that Manchester likes to lap up the autumn season – we’re used to the rain, after all.