Your Tweets led Benji Lanyado far beyond his old Manchester student stomping ground, from an indie tour of Salford to a dusty old library that witnessed a meeting of the masterminds of communism

Last Wednesday, I journeyed to Manchester with high hopes. I was determined to banish the dissatisfying memory of my misspent time at university in the city, when I loitered around the student district of Fallowfield for three years, save for the occasional drunken foray into town. This time I wanted to find truly Mancunian pursuits, aided by the good people of the Twittersphere. They did me – and their city – proud.

As per TwiTrip tradition, the day began with a request for train-time trivia. @Shabbychicb got the ball rolling, informing me that "Manchester City is the only football team to be founded by a woman: Anna Connell in 1880". Then @danpyt sent me a map depicting a Soviet plan from the cold war era to storm Manchester with tanks. Excellent stuff.

Benji Lanyado arrives in Manchester

My second request was for a lunch tip in the city centre. A schism formed. @TechnicalFault, @ThermobaricTom, @Davemee and a number of others advocated Pancho's, a burrito stall in the covered market, while @katiemaymanc, @sarahlphillips and @LisaAshurst urged me towards some corned beef hash at Sam's Chop house. The corned beef lobby won through, and within 20 minutes of arriving I was feasting on the stuff, lubricated with gloopy poached egg yolk and homemade brown sauce. Lordy, it was good.

I was off my face on hash, and needed to wind down. @SammyJDaniels and @AmyGlendinning aimed me towards the beautifully serene interior of St Mary's church, nestled on a city centre backstreet and aptly nicknamed "The Hidden Gem". And from one hidden gem I was guided towards another, as @technicalfault and @popisthis tweeted me towards, erm, a multi-storey car park on Shudehill. On the top floor, they insisted, I would have the finest view of Manchester, at 0% of the price I'd pay on the Big Wheel. This was an eerie task indeed – when I got there, the top floor was deserted. But the view was marvellous.

Chetham's Library

A few minutes' walk from the car park, in the shadow of the magnificent Urbis building, my next tip was of mighty historical significance. @Nedpoulter, @Riprap007 and @Iancharters recommended Chetham's Library, where in 1845 Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx's eyes met fatefully across a crowd-less room, before they went about changing the course of history. Yet despite its epoch-changing associations, Chetham Library is distinctly off the tourist radar, and I was only the second name in the visitor's book that day. Inside, under magnificent rafters and low light, the thin, creaking corridors were lined with thousands of dusty volumes stacked on ancient shelves. Truly wonderful.

Benji outside Salford Lad's Club

My next destination was in honour of another collective that changed the course of history forever. In a way. In 1986, one beautifully-coiffured gawky Mancunian, flanked by three slightly less beautifully-coiffured gawky Mancunians, posed for a picture outside the entrance to the Salford Lads Club. This picture of The Smiths ended up on the sleeve of their album, The Queen is Dead, and has become a classic rock photo. Like hundreds of devotees before me, I posed, as gawkily as possible. And then ... a real treat. Tipped off by @klloyddesign, @steph_boyle and @deats, I was led into a small shrine to The Smiths in the lads club's old weightlifting room by Leslie, the manager.

Up next was another Salford gem. @Escalinci and @eva_elliott pointed me towards Islington Mill, an indie arts centre in an old cotton-spinning factory just off the A6. The labyrinthine complex is home to a collection of studios, a cafe, a makeshift cinema on the top floor, and a B&B, ably manned by Paul, the owner's dad. I was then hurried onwards to another reclaimed, reinvented relic: The Temple, a bar in an old public toilet on the Oxford Road, where a handful of post-work drinkers were lurking under the street. According to @Deltorro01 @big_bad_doh and @jamiejburton, Guy Garvey, front man of Elbow, is often among their number.

After a quick visit to the Cornerhouse for some baffling instalation art (thanks to @Wordsnfixtures and @Gillmphoto), and techy-creative hub Mad Lab (where I met these lovely geeks) it was time for dinner. @Basketcasejo and @the_ladylark picked out Sweet Mandarin in the Northern Quarter, named as the Best Local Chinese restaurant in the UK by Gordon Ramsey. My meal - crispy beef washed down with a bottle of TsingTao - was superb, and the lovely ladies running the restaurant were even superberer. In fact, they'd even sent me a subliminal message across the ether earlier in the day, which I'd managed to miss among the floods of tweets that were being sent my way. It worked.

Pint at the Marble Arch pub

Before I signed off for the evening, I decided to embark on a short, geographically inexplicable bar hop. First, to the highly recommended (by @Davemee, @danpyt, @catdrawerjim and @garethhall) Marble Arch pub on the Rochdale Road, where the beer was Ronsealesque and the glazed brick interior was stunning, and then to the dim-lit student haunt the Deaf Institute (thanks to @heymanchester, @danpyt, @somuch2answer4 and @helenpower), recreated from the remains of, yup, an old deaf institute near the university.

And finally, it was time for bed at the Velvet Hotel, as suggested by @jonthebeef and @rainycitytales. In a single day, thanks to the good people of the Twittersphere, I'd found more hidden Manchester gems than I did in three years as a student. Once again, Twitterers, you excelled yourselves. A hearty thank you to you all.

• Virgin Trains run high speed services to Manchester from across the country. Search real time ticket availability and the latest prices online at virgintrains.co.uk, or call on 0844 556 5650, open 8am to 10pm, seven days a week.