If there's one thing an old docklands city can always be relied upon to have, it's a plethora of old warehouses ripe for reinvention. Liverpool delivers. Its industrial quarter, "The Baltic" - named for the Scandi seamen who once frequented its streets - has been transformed into clubs, bars, cultural spaces and co-working hubs. Escape L1's commercial hype by strolling out towards "The Triangle". Grab a coffee from Ethiopian-inspired Coffee & Fandisha, then take a spin around the streets to spot larger-than-life street murals from local legend Paul Curtis (who runs his own walking tours). For lunch, pick up souvlaki fries and dirty burgers from the food-stall offering at the Baltic Market. Come evening, it's all to play for: you'll find club nights, food festivals and art installations under one, vast roof at Camp and Furnace, and some of the city's top music nights at the now-legendary live-music venue and club 24 Kitchen Street. Our advice? Visit at the beginning of June, when the area's multi-venue music festival, the Baltic Weekender, explodes onto the industrial streets.

We wouldn't blame you for forgetting you're exploring a city when strolling the mansion-lined streets encircling south Liverpool's Sefton Park. The city's green lung - or, more appropriately, kidney, given its shape - was a Victorian endeavour, its grottos, fairy pools and elegant Palm House still adding a certain 19th-century formality to these 95 hectares. Start a morning exploring the grass-fringed pathways, then head west in search of the old stone gateposts that mark the start of Lark Lane. A bustling street with a village-like atmosphere, it's home to coffee shops, neighbourhood restaurants and one of the city's best vintage warehouses, a 185sq m furnishing emporium called GASP. Stop by Press Bros for coffee if you're visiting in the morning, try a breakfast of turkish eggs at Minna, and grab pizza and craft beer at Love & Rockets for lunch. Don't miss Keith's, a no-nonsense wine bar loved by locals and with a raucous atmosphere to prove it.

Harbouring a reputation as the city's student locale has - in the past - left Smithdown Road off the visitor's map. In the last decade, though, this ancient road (there's been a street here since as far back as 1086) has been on the make, with the city's 55,000-strong student population fostering something of a grass roots renaissance of independent bookshops, cafés, bars and restaurants in the terrace house-packed neighbourhood. You'll need a good afternoon to explore. Start with a stout at one of the city's oldest Irish pubs, Kelly's Dispensary, which, after a recent makeover, is looking as good inside as its iconic exterior, then fuel up with a lunchtime burrito at casual Mexican restaurant Evil Eye. Ready to roll? Take a 20-minute stroll towards Allerton to find the famous Penny Lane, before doubling back for a walk around Greenbank Park. Come evening, we're heading to Belzan, an acclaimed restaurant that's had national critics hopping off the 86 bus outside "The Asda" (the definite article is a scouse thing) for a taste of its small, seasonal plates and craft cocktails. End the day at The Handyman, a brewery and bar housed behind the colourfully preserved exterior of a former tool shop.

It's a little known fact that Liverpool has more Georgian architecture than the city of Bath, but if you stretch your legs with a stroll between the northwestern city's two cathedrals, the city centre's most elegant edge rapidly reveals itself. Between finely dressed townhouses and leafy garden squares, you'll find old-school pubs (like Peter Kavanagh's), boutique hotels such as Hope Street, and even an art deco-era concert hall. Drop by 92 Degrees for a morning coffee with sleep-deprived PhD students, sip an apéritif outside Papillon and scoff ragu and arancini under hanging house plants at Buyers Club. Then, take your seat at the Everyman & Playhouse, the city's leading theatre, for some evening entertainment.

A little out of town, on Liverpool's still-industrial edges, and 30 minutes' walk from the Three Graces-graced waterfront, extensive development (so bold in design that it lost the city a Unesco World Heritage site designation) is reinventing the remains of the city's docklands. A new Everton stadium and substantial high-rise building are on the horizon in this northern Liverpool neighbourhood, but winds of change skimming off the Mersey were first felt right back in 2014 around here, when a transformed warehouse opened as the Titanic Hotel - and went on to become one of the city's leading stays. Located in the striking skeleton of Stanley Dock, this boutique spa hotel has an abundance of space: all 153 bedrooms are opulently vast (the smallest having a 56sq m footprint), and there's a dramatically lit wellness centre sequestered into the red-brick arches of the building's basement. Elsewhere in the area, you'll find the Invisible Wind Factory, an ever-inventive arts and music venue, the city's psychedelically lit Rollerdrome and the casual Ten Streets Social restaurant.