The road contains a mixture of single and dual carriageway sections, and traverses environments as diverse as the dense urban sprawl of inner city Manchester and the lightly populated region of rural east Lancashire.

The road passes through the towns and villages of Mickle Trafford, Dunham on the Hill, Helsby and Frodsham whilst roughly paralleling the course of the south side of the M56 motorway.

After leaving Frodsham, the A56 crosses the M56 at Junction 11 and passes the towns of Runcorn and Warrington, taking up a more easterly direction to again parallel the course of the north side of the motorway.

At Bowdon the A56 turns sharply northwards, passing Altrincham and Sale, crossing the M60 Manchester Outer Ring Road at Junction 7 into Stretford.

Again heading roughly due northwards the A56 bypasses Haslingden and Accrington before joining the M65 motorway at Junction 8, slightly to the west of Burnley.