I’ve visited Birmingham from London more than seven times now, and I even lived there for a couple of weeks while renovating my own apartment just a minute from New Street Station. It’s the second largest city in the UK, the youngest too, with over 40% of the population under 25, and it has more canal waterways than Venice. Add in fine dining, serious greenery, an industrial-meets-artsy vibe (Digbeth alone could keep you busy for a day), and the fact it’s home to Cadbury’s chocolate factory, the Peaky Blinders, and the birthplace of heavy metal, and it’s a city that deserves a lot more than a rushed day trip.

This guide covers everything: my Birmingham bucket list, where to stay, where to eat, and every practical detail you need, whether you’re doing it as a day trip from London or making a proper weekend of it.

BIRMINGHAM ESSENTIALS

🚆 Getting There / Birmingham is very walkable once you’re there, and getting to it from anywhere in England is easy. Check train and coach options together on Trainline so you can pick whichever is cheapest and fastest, New Street Station puts you right in the centre of everything.

🚗 Getting Around / The city centre is compact enough to walk between most of the big sights, and there’s a solid bus network for anything further out. If you want to combine Birmingham with a Cotswolds or Stonehenge day trip, compare rental cars on DiscoverCars.

🎟️ Tours / Birmingham rewards a bit of context, especially for the Peaky Blinders history and the canal quarter. The best ones to book in advance:
Birmingham Guided City Centre Walking Tour
Slogging Gangs Walking Tour with Edward Shelby
Victorian Canals and Modern-Day Birmingham Tour
Digbeth, Public Art and Peaky Blinders Film Locations Walking Tour

🏨 Stay / I’ve stayed all over the city centre, from budget to splurge, these are the picks worth booking:
Budget: EasyHotel Birmingham
Mid-range: Hotel du Vin & Bistro Birmingham
Splurge: The Grand Hotel Birmingham

🧳 Luggage Storage / If you’re early for check-in or have time to kill before your train home, no stress, there are luggage storage points all over Birmingham. Use this website to find one nearby.

📱 Connect / Stay connected the moment you arrive. I use Holafly, use code TRAVELWITHPAU for 5% off.

🛡️ Get Insured / Even for a UK trip, it’s worth having cover. World Nomads offers coverage for over 150 activities as well as emergency medical, lost luggage, trip cancellation and more.

Birmingham Bucket List: 27 Things to Do

1. Take a Walking Tour to Get Your Bearings

If you only do one organised thing, make it this: a guided walk through the city centre to understand how Birmingham grew from a small market town into the UK’s second largest city. It’s a great way to get authentic insight into modern Birmingham life and spot a few hidden gems you’d otherwise walk straight past. Book the Birmingham Guided City Centre Walking Tour.

2. Explore the Bullring and Grand Central

Birmingham has been a marketplace since the 12th century, and that legacy has only grown over the years. The Bullring is the shopping district around Grand Central station, and it’s genuinely worth a wander even if shopping isn’t your priority, Selfridges looks like it landed from space, the Western Arcade has splendid architecture and lovely independent stores, and the Mailbox nearby is where you go for the luxury brands.

Practical info: Free to explore. Selfridges and the Bullring are a couple of minutes from New Street Station.

3. Take a Selfie with The Bull

Just outside the Bullring in Rotunda Square stands The Bull, a 6-tonne bronze sculpture by artist Laurence Broderick that’s become the symbol of the whole shopping district. It’s undoubtedly the most photographed spot in the city, and it’s impossible to walk past without stopping.

Practical info: Free, outdoors, accessible any time.

4. Wander the Canal Quarter and Brindleyplace

Birmingham’s canal quarter houses the city’s best bars, restaurants, and views, and it just makes for a lovely stroll. Brindleyplace is a beautiful square with restaurants, bars, shops and cafes right on the water, and the area is also home to the National Sealife Centre and the IKON Gallery if you want to make a proper afternoon of it. Book National Sea Life Centre entry tickets.

Practical info: Free to walk. National Sealife Centre and IKON Gallery both charge separate entry (IKON is free on Mondays).

5. Wander Gas Street Basin

Just around the corner from Brindleyplace, Gas Street Basin is the historic junction where several of Birmingham’s canals meet, all cobbled towpaths, narrowboats moored three-deep, and canalside pubs. It’s one of the prettiest, most photogenic corners of the city, and a proper reminder of why Birmingham genuinely does have more miles of canal than Venice.

Practical info: Free to walk. Right next to Brindleyplace and the ICC.

6. Admire Victoria Square and the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Victoria Square is best described as Birmingham’s answer to Trafalgar Square, and at its edge sits the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, home to the largest collection of pre-Raphaelite paintings in the world, occupying one of the city’s finest buildings. It’s also where you’ll find the Staffordshire Hoard, the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork ever discovered, on permanent display.

Practical info: Free entry. Located right on Victoria Square in the city centre.

7. Look Up at the Frescoes of Piccadilly Arcade

Opposite New Street Station, this picturesque arcade has beautiful architecture and an eclectic mix of independent stores, but what really gets my attention every time is the hand-painted ceiling frescoes, they’re rather unusual and easy to walk straight under without noticing.

Practical info: Free to walk through, open during shopping hours.

8. See Tolkien’s Inspiration at Moseley Bog

Moseley Bog is a green idyll on the fringes of the city, sitting on the site of an old millpond. J.R.R. Tolkien grew up around it in the 1890s, and it’s said to be the inspiration for hobbit-hangout the Shire, while a Victorian waterworks down the road in Edgbaston is said to have inspired Sauron’s towering lair. Wander around the nature reserve full of plants, animals, gnarled old trees, and gorgeous carpets of bluebells each spring. There’s real archaeological interest here too, including two burnt mounds and the remains of an old mill dam.

Practical info: Free entry. Best in spring for the bluebells. Find it on Google Maps.

9. Admire the Street Art in Digbeth

Recently named the Coolest Neighbourhood in Britain by the Sunday Times, Digbeth is less than ten minutes’ walk from the Bullring and Grand Central, and it’s completely worth the detour. The Custard Factory is the heart of it, cafes, independent shops, cinemas, arts venues, and the weekly food and drink festival, Digbeth Dining Club. Digbeth is also Birmingham’s street art hotspot, so a walk around doubles as an open-air gallery, Bath Place is one of the best spots for it. Book the Digbeth, Public Art and Peaky Blinders Film Locations Walking Tour to get the context behind it all.

10. Explore the Jewellery Quarter

Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter has been producing jewellery for over 250 years and still is, this is a working district, not a museum piece, with independent workshops, the Jewellers’ Clock, and genuine working goldsmiths behind unassuming shopfronts. It’s a completely different pace and character to the Bullring, well worth the wander if you want to see a side of Birmingham most day-trippers miss. Book the Discovering Birmingham Walking Tour, which winds through the “secret canal” on its way into the Quarter.

11. Eat Your Way Through the Chinese Quarter

Curry isn’t the only food scene worth crossing town for. Birmingham’s Chinese Quarter, centred around Hurst Street and Arcadian Centre, is strung with lanterns and packed with genuinely authentic Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai, and Korean restaurants alongside the Chinese ones, a proper contrast to the Balti Triangle further out.

Practical info: Find the Chinese Quarter on Google Maps.

12. Drink at Birmingham’s Craft Breweries

I’m a craft beer fan, so this one’s close to my heart. Head to Indian Brewery in Snowhill, the craft brewery behind Birmingham Lager, for a proper pint made in the city.

Practical info: Find Indian Brewery on Google Maps.

13. Play a Round at Golf Fang (formerly Ghetto Golf)

Golf Fang, inside the Custard Factory, is an 18-hole graffiti-themed crazy golf course paired with a full cocktail bar, arcade games, AR darts, and pool, adults-only and thoroughly ridiculous in the best way. It went through a £500k refurb and rebrand from its old name, Ghetto Golf, in 2026, so don’t be surprised if you see the old name still floating around online. Book Golf Fang Birmingham.

14. Play Retro Games at NQ64

Also in the Custard Factory, NQ64 is a neon-splattered arcade bar packed with retro cabinets and pinball machines alongside a proper cocktail menu, open late every night of the week. A great one to pair with Golf Fang for a full evening in Digbeth.

Practical info: Find NQ64 on Google Maps.

15. Visit The Old Crown, Birmingham’s Oldest Pub

The Old Crown is Birmingham’s oldest secular building, standing since 1368. Having survived the English Civil War, the pub and its events garden now sit proudly in the heart of Digbeth, Birmingham’s thriving creative quarter. Fun fact: it has some of the coolest, most original bar snacks in the city.

Practical info: Located in Digbeth, easily combined with a street art wander.

16. Feel Like Charlie at Cadbury World

A chocolate-focused attraction? I’m in. Just 13 minutes by train from New Street takes you to the red-brick, old-world Bournville village, built for the workers of what was once the centre of England’s chocolate empire. The demonstration area involves actual molten chocolate (and you get to eat it), and the world’s biggest Cadbury store awaits at the end, stocking concoctions you won’t find anywhere else. Book Cadbury World entry tickets.

17. Follow the Footsteps of the Peaky Blinders

Learn about the real Peaky Blinders and the Birmingham slogging gangs that inspired the show on a guided walking tour through the streets they actually roamed. Book the Slogging Gangs Walking Tour with Edward Shelby.

18. Browse a Music Album Cover Fine Art Gallery

St Pauls Gallery is the world’s leading retailer of signed limited edition album cover fine art, with well over 100 signed prints on permanent show and sale. It’s not to be missed if music is your thing, especially if you’re into 60s or 70s rock, prints signed by Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, and plenty more are all on sale here, alongside exclusive musician portrait photography.

Practical info: Free to browse. Located in the city centre.

19. Sip a Cocktail in a Speakeasy

Some of Birmingham’s best bars are hidden behind unassuming storefronts and doorways. 18/81 on Thorp Street has no obvious signage, just ring the bell. 40 St Pauls is equally discreet, look for the door with the number 40 off St Paul’s Square.

Practical info: Both bars in or near the Jewellery Quarter and St Paul’s Square.

20. Have a Curry in the Balti Triangle

Birmingham is the original home of the Balti. The Birmingham Balti was born here in the late 70s, when curry chefs started making dishes lighter, healthier, and faster to serve to suit Western tastes. There’s even an area called the Balti Triangle, just south of the city centre along Ladypool Road, Stoney Lane, and Stratford Road, named for the sheer number of eateries serving curries the balti way. See the Where to Eat section below for my picks.

21. Visit Winterbourne House and Garden

Step back in time at Winterbourne House and Garden, a beautifully preserved Edwardian gem a short distance from the city centre. Built in 1903, the house offers a genuine glimpse into early 20th-century middle-class life, with many rooms restored to their original charm. Surrounding it are seven acres of exquisite botanical gardens with over 6,000 plant species from around the globe, a picturesque walled garden, and a tranquil Japanese bridge, a peaceful escape from the city and a must for history and nature lovers alike. Book Winterbourne House and Garden entry tickets.

Practical info: Entry fee applies, check the official Winterbourne website for current prices and opening days.

22. Relax in Cannon Hill Park

Cannon Hill Park is Birmingham’s biggest and most popular green space, 200 acres of formal gardens, woodland, and lakes down in Moseley. Hire a swan-shaped pedalo on the ornamental lake, play a round on the 36-hole mini-golf course, or just find a patch of grass, and it’s also home to MAC Birmingham, an arts centre with a cinema, theatre, and gallery space if the weather turns.

Practical info: Free entry to the park. Find Cannon Hill Park on Google Maps.

23. Wander the Birmingham Botanical Gardens

A different, more curated green escape to Cannon Hill or Winterbourne, the Birmingham Botanical Gardens in Edgbaston pack glasshouses, aviaries, and beautifully maintained grounds into 15 acres, a proper afternoon out if gardens are your thing. Book Birmingham Botanical Gardens entry tickets.

24. Step Inside the Library of Birmingham

The Library of Birmingham is the largest public library in Europe, and even if libraries aren’t usually your thing, this one is worth popping into for the building alone, a striking, filigree-wrapped structure in Centenary Square with a rooftop garden and sweeping views over the city. It also holds one of the most significant Shakespeare collections in the world.

Practical info: Free entry. Open Monday to Saturday, closed Sundays. Located in Centenary Square, Broad Street.

25. See How Birmingham Really Lived at the Back to Backs

The Birmingham Back to Backs is the city’s last surviving court of back-to-back houses, once the standard working-class housing across Birmingham, and now preserved and restored by the National Trust to show life there across different decades. It’s guided-tour only and genuinely moving, a side of the city’s industrial history that’s easy to miss among the shopping centres. Book your Back to Backs visit through the National Trust.

Practical info: Booking essential, tickets are released a few weeks ahead. Located in the city centre near the Bullring.

26. Go to a Candlelight Concert

Experience live music illuminated entirely by candlelight at a Candlelight Concert in Birmingham. These intimate performances feature talented musicians playing everything from classical to contemporary, all under the soft glow of hundreds of candles, a lovely, low-key evening activity. Browse Candlelight Concerts in Birmingham.

27. Catch an Immersive Experience

The best immersive experiences tend to cluster in London, but a city the size of Birmingham gets its fair share too, worth checking what’s on while you’re in town. Check what’s currently available in Birmingham.

Birmingham Day Trips

The Cotswolds: While Birmingham is a vibrant urban hub, the idyllic Cotswolds are just a short drive away and make for an excellent day trip. Known for rolling hills, picturesque villages, and honey-coloured stone cottages, the Cotswolds offer a quintessential English countryside experience, explore charming villages like Broadway or Stow-on-the-Wold and soak in the tranquillity. Book the Cotswolds Full-Day Tour from Birmingham.

Stonehenge and Bath: A longer but genuinely worthwhile day out, combining England’s most famous prehistoric monument with the Roman baths and Georgian architecture of Bath. Book the Stonehenge and Bath Day Tour from Birmingham.

Warwick Castle and Stratford-upon-Avon: The closest day trip on this list, both are only around 40 minutes from Birmingham by car or train, and just nine miles apart from each other, easily combined into one day. Climb the ramparts of the medieval Warwick Castle, then wander Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace and final resting place. Book Warwick Castle entry tickets.

Where to Stay in Birmingham

Make a weekend of it if you can, get to Birmingham on a Friday and stay through Saturday for two full days of exploring.

Budget: EasyHotel Birmingham

An affordable choice for travellers on a budget, offering clean, compact rooms in a central location, perfect for a simple and practical stay.

Mid-range: Hampton by Hilton Birmingham Broad Street

A budget-friendly yet comfortable option with well-appointed rooms, free breakfast, and a convenient location close to nightlife and attractions.

Mid-range: Staybridge Suites Birmingham

Perfect for longer stays, this all-suite hotel offers modern, spacious accommodation with kitchenettes and complimentary breakfast, right in the city centre.

Mid-range: Hotel du Vin & Bistro Birmingham

A charming, characterful hotel housed in a historic building, known for cosy rooms, exceptional dining, and a central location.

Splurge: Malmaison Birmingham

A stylish boutique hotel in the Mailbox district, with chic rooms, a trendy bar, and a relaxing spa. Ideal for a modern, upscale stay.

Splurge: The Grand Hotel Birmingham

A beautifully restored historic hotel with luxurious rooms, elegant interiors, and excellent dining, right in the heart of the city centre.

None of these float your boat? Search all Birmingham hotels.

Where to Eat in Birmingham

Breakfast: try Medicine Bakery, a lovely, relaxed spot for brunch and pastries before a day of exploring.

Drinks: try Indian Brewery, the craft brewery behind Birmingham Lager, in Snowhill, a proper local pint.

For curry, head to the Balti Triangle along Ladypool Road, Stoney Lane, and Stratford Road, or one of these standout spots across the city:

• Opheem: Michelin-starred, for a proper special-occasion curry.
• Lasan: A long-standing favourite pairing Indian food with cocktails.
• Raja Monkey: A local favourite for a laid-back curry night.
• Asha’s: Named after the legendary Bollywood playback singer, glamorous and reliably good.
• Itihaas: A step above the average Balti house, worth it for a treat.
• Tamatanga: More relaxed and social, great for a group.
• Rajdoot: One of the Balti Triangle originals.

One Day and Weekend Itinerary

If you only have one day, start at the Bullring, stroll around and make sure to visit both arcades (Piccadilly and Western), then walk through the canal quarter and drop into St Pauls Gallery, have a curry for lunch, then head to Digbeth for another stroll, drinks, and food in the evening at Digbeth Dining Club, and make sure to pop into The Old Crown.

If you make a weekend of it (which I recommend), use the second day to visit Moseley Bog, Cadbury World, and the Peaky Blinders walking tour.

Getting To & Around Birmingham

You can take a bus or train from pretty much anywhere in England. Check train and coach options together on Trainline so you can compare and pick whichever is cheapest and fastest, New Street Station drops you right in the middle of the action. If you’re planning day trips out to the Cotswolds or further, a rental car gives you more flexibility, compare rates on DiscoverCars.

Once you’re there, Birmingham is a genuinely walkable city with a great bus system for anywhere slightly further out, you won’t need a car for the city centre itself.

Birmingham FAQ

Is Birmingham worth visiting?
Absolutely. It’s the UK’s second largest city, with world-class museums, a thriving food scene (it’s the birthplace of the Balti), a genuinely cool street art neighbourhood in Digbeth, and enough history and quirky attractions to fill a full weekend.

How many days do you need in Birmingham?
One full day covers the city centre highlights, the Bullring, the canal quarter, and a curry in the evening. A weekend lets you add Cadbury World, Moseley Bog, and the Peaky Blinders walking tour without rushing.

Is Birmingham a good day trip from London?
Yes, trains from London take around 1.5 hours, making it a very doable day trip, though a weekend gives you a much fuller picture of the city.

What is Birmingham famous for?
The Bullring, the Peaky Blinders, being the birthplace of heavy metal, Cadbury’s chocolate, the Balti curry, and having more canals than Venice.

What is the best area to stay in Birmingham?
The city centre around New Street Station and the Mailbox puts you within walking distance of almost everything. Digbeth is a great alternative if you want to be closer to the nightlife and street art scene.

Do I need a car in Birmingham?
No, the city centre is very walkable and the bus network covers everything else. A car is only useful if you’re planning day trips out to the Cotswolds or further afield.

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