Things to Do in Birmingham
Prices, opening hours, best times to visit and the stuff nobody tells you, everything you need for a first trip to Birmingham, England, plus one pigeon's opinions on all of it.
I'll be honest, Birmingham took some getting used to. No seafront, no ancient ruins, mostly canals and roundabouts. And then it grows on you, the way a good curry does, or a pub you didn't mean to stay in for four hours. This is the proper, no-nonsense guide to things to do in Birmingham, what things actually cost, when to go, what to skip, and which bits are worth the queue. Ten main stops below, in roughly the order that makes sense if you're doing a weekend, plus a quiz at the bottom to see if you were paying attention.
Library of Birmingham
I don't read, obviously, but I respect the building enormously. Big gold circles stacked on top of each other like it couldn't decide how tall to be, so it just kept going. It's the largest public library in Europe, and completely free to wander, no ticket, no booking, just walk in.
Take the escalators up through the atrium to the rooftop terraces on Levels 3 and 7, both free, and one of the better skyline views in the city for the price of absolutely nothing, which is the only price I really understand. On Level 9 there's the Shakespeare Memorial Room, a proper Victorian library relocated wholesale from the old building, worth a look if it's open when you visit.
Hours Roughly 11am-7pm Mon-Tue, 11am-5pm Wed-Sat, closed Sun, the rooftop terraces close a little earlier, so check before you climb all the way up
Address Centenary Square, Broad Street, Birmingham B1 2ND
Official site birmingham.gov.uk/libraryofbirmingham
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Free entry, which already puts it ahead of most things in life. It's home to the world's best collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, a bigger deal than it sounds, apparently, plus the Staffordshire Hoard, the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found, dug up from a field about twenty minutes from here.
The museum has been reopening in phases after a long refurbishment, so a few galleries may still be closed depending on when you visit, check the "what's open" page before you go so you're not disappointed. The Round Room and its domed ceiling are worth the visit even if you skip everything else; the acoustics in there make every pigeon coo sound important.
Hours Typically Wed-Sun, 10am-5pm, open daily during Birmingham school holidays
Address Chamberlain Square, Birmingham B3 3DH
Official site birminghammuseums.org.uk
The Bullring & Selfridges
The silver blobby building is either the ugliest thing in the city or the best, depending who you ask, and I refuse to take sides. Underneath it there's been a market on this exact spot for roughly eight hundred years, which frankly makes me feel young. The Bullring itself is one of the UK's biggest shopping centres, but even if shopping isn't your thing, it's worth walking through just to see the Selfridges building's aluminium disc cladding up close.
Right outside is the Bull Ring open-air market, running since medieval times, and the bronze bull statue everyone photographs, mostly harmless, mostly just standing there, much like me.
Hours Generally 10am-6pm, later on some days, Selfridges usually stays open latest
Address Bullring, Birmingham B5 4BU
Birmingham's Canals
There are more miles of canal in Birmingham than in Venice, and I get asked about this more than almost anything else, so let's settle it here: over 100 miles of them within the city alone, a legacy of the city's industrial past, when goods moved by narrowboat rather than road. Gas Street Basin is the nicest stretch to start from: converted Victorian warehouses, moored narrowboats, a couple of decent canalside pubs.
Walking the towpath from Gas Street Basin toward Brindleyplace and the International Convention Centre takes maybe 20 minutes and is genuinely one of the better free things to do in Birmingham, especially on a mild evening when the water catches the lights. I've had some of my best naps down there.
Best time Early evening, spring through autumn, when the canalside bars have their outdoor seating open
Where to start Gas Street Basin, just off Broad Street
Cadbury World
Not in the city centre, it's out in Bournville, about a 20-minute train ride from New Street, but worth the trip if chocolate is your thing. It's a self-guided tour through the history of the Cadbury company, with a 4D cinema, a Cadabra ride, and a "have a go" zone where you make your own chocolate bar to take home.
Booking ahead is essential, Cadbury World runs on timed entry slots and does sell out, especially in school holidays. I don't eat chocolate, bad for pigeons, apparently everyone's very firm about this, but I appreciate the smell drifting over the whole neighbourhood on a warm day.
Hours Typically 10am-4pm, varies by season and day of week
Getting there Train to Bournville station, or a 20-30 minute drive from the city centre
Official site cadburyworld.co.uk
Jewellery Quarter
Still making actual jewellery, not just selling it, hundreds of small workshops, some of them family-run for generations, produce around 40% of the jewellery made in the UK from this one neighbourhood, part of what earned Birmingham its old nickname as the "workshop of the world," a title the city took very seriously in its industrial heyday. The Museum of the Jewellery Quarter (a preserved working factory, left almost exactly as it was when it closed) is the best way to understand the area's history in under an hour.
It's a genuinely nice area to just wander, independent cafes, small squares, a completely different pace from the Bullring ten minutes away. Good spot if you like watching people who are extremely good at one very specific thing.
Getting there Jewellery Quarter station, one stop from Snow Hill
Birmingham Back to Backs
The last surviving court of back-to-back houses in the city, restored and run by the National Trust, showing what life looked like for working families across different decades, the 1840s through to the 1970s, all preserved in the same small courtyard. It's a proper, atmospheric hour and a half, not a rushed audio-guide job.
The catch: you can only visit by guided tour, groups are small (around eight people), and slots do sell out, book online well ahead rather than turning up hoping to get in. Expect steep, narrow original staircases; there's a ground-floor-only option if that's a problem.
Hours Tue-Sun, guided tours run at set times through the day, closed Mondays
Address 55-63 Hurst Street / 50-54 Inge Street, Birmingham B5 4TE
Official site nationaltrust.org.uk
Winterbourne House and Garden
An Edwardian house and seven-acre botanic garden that most first-time visitors somehow miss entirely, which is exactly why I like it. Built for the Nettlefold family in 1904 and now owned by the University of Birmingham, it's got period rooms full of original furnishings and gardens holding over 6,000 plant species, genuinely quiet, genuinely green, a proper contrast to the city centre twenty minutes away.
There's a good tearoom terrace overlooking the garden, and considerably fewer tourists trying to feed me questionable sandwich crusts than at the more central spots.
Hours 10.30am-5pm (March-October), 10.30am-4pm (November-February); last entry an hour before close
Address 58 Edgbaston Park Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2RT
Official site winterbourne.org.uk
Balti Triangle
Home of the balti itself, invented right here, and don't let anyone tell you differently. Sparkhill and Balsall Heath, just south of the city centre, have some of the best curry houses in the country, most of them BYOB (bring your own bottle, no corkage fuss), most of them unbothered by decor or Instagram appeal because the food is doing all the talking.
Prices are genuinely low for the quality, a full balti meal for two with drinks rarely runs much past £30-£40 total. Go hungry, go in the evening, and don't expect a website or a booking system for most of the best ones; you just turn up.
Best time Evenings, any day, this area doesn't really do quiet lunches
Getting there Bus or a 15-minute taxi from the city centre; not really a walking distance
Aston Hall
A proper Jacobean mansion, built between 1618 and 1635, that somehow ended up surrounded by the modern city rather than open countryside, a genuinely strange thing to walk up to after coming off a busy road. It's run by Birmingham Museums Trust, and the grounds are lovely for a quiet walk even outside the house's opening season.
Note that Aston Hall's opening is seasonal, typically running through the warmer months rather than year-round, so it's worth checking the current dates before making a special trip out there.
Hours Seasonal, generally spring through autumn, confirm dates before visiting
Official site birminghammuseums.org.uk/aston-hall
Best time to visit Birmingham
Late spring through early autumn (May-September) gives you the best odds of decent weather for the canals and the gardens, and it's when most of the seasonal attractions, Aston Hall included, are actually open. That said, Birmingham doesn't shut down in winter the way some UK cities do: the museums, the Library, and the Balti Triangle are just as good year-round, and the German Christmas Market (running through November and December in Victoria Square and New Street) is genuinely one of the best things to do in Birmingham if your visit lines up with it.
Getting around Birmingham
The city centre is genuinely walkable, most of the attractions above sit within a 25-minute walk of New Street station. For anything further out (Cadbury World, Winterbourne, the Balti Triangle), the local train network and buses cover it well; a day travelcard is usually cheaper than paying per journey if you're doing more than two trips. The canal towpaths are, honestly, the nicest way to get between Brindleyplace, the Mailbox, and the city centre if the weather's playing along, flatter and quieter than the roads above.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Birmingham worth visiting?
- Yes, it's the UK's second-largest city, with free world-class museums, the country's best curry district, and more canal miles than Venice. It doesn't get the tourist attention London or Edinburgh do, which honestly works in its favour.
- How many days do you need in Birmingham?
- Two full days covers the city-centre highlights comfortably; three lets you add Cadbury World and the Balti Triangle without rushing.
- Is Birmingham expensive?
- Not especially: most of the best things to do (the Library, the Museum, the canals) are free, and eating out, particularly in the Balti Triangle, is noticeably cheaper than London.
- What is Birmingham famous for?
- The Cadbury chocolate company, inventing the balti curry, its canal network, longer than Venice's, and its old industrial nickname, the "workshop of the world."
That's everything I've got.
A note before you plan around this: prices, opening hours, booking requirements and admission details in this guide were correct at the time of writing, but venues change these often and sometimes without notice. Always check directly with the attraction or its official website before you travel or build a schedule around a specific time or price.
Before travelling to any destination featured on this site, please also check your government's latest travel advice, as safety situations, entry requirements and travel warnings can change.
