Birdwatching From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 3573 posts, RR: 52 Posted (6 months 7 hours ago) and read 833 times:
I just booked myself on a cheap Flybe ticket for a day trip to Birmingham on May 1 (still a long time to go).
I have less than 24h, arriving at 2200 on April 30 and flying back out at 1700 on May 1.
I've never been to Birmingham and I'd like to use that day to get a good first impression. Ideally I'd head for a hostel in the evening after my departure, then on Wednesday have breakfast at a nice cafe, stroll around town for a couple of hours, then visit some museum that might be interesting in the early afternoon, then get back to the airport in time for my flight.
Any locals who might have some suggestions? Any good value / cheap hostel ideas? I don't really need anything fancy, just a place to crash for the night.
Or would anybody like to meet me for a pint on Tuesday evening?
Soren
All the things you probably hate about travelling are warm reminders that I'm home
Birdwatching From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 3573 posts, RR: 52 Reply 2, posted (6 months 6 hours ago) and read 833 times:
Quoting PlymSpotter (Reply 1): IIRC I need to be in Birmingham the next day anyway, so that sounds like a plan. Would be great to catch up again!
That sounds great! Do you want to come down to STR the day before and we fly back up together? Flybe has very cheap fares. I live in STR now. We can do some nice spotting here.
Soren
All the things you probably hate about travelling are warm reminders that I'm home
PlymSpotter From Spain, joined Jun 2004, 11111 posts, RR: 63 Reply 3, posted (6 months 4 hours ago) and read 832 times:
Thanks for the offer, I'd love to take you up on it, but it's probably not going to be possible this time. I'll be heading to a tutorial on the Wednesday, so will have lots of A1/A0 plans and workbooks with me. Unless I dumped my stuff in uni and did BHX-STR-BHX .
Did this down to Oktoberfest earlier in the year, Flybe had great service, early departing and arriving both ways and upgraded to ER195 from a Dash on the way out. Nice.
danielmyatt From United Kingdom, joined Mar 2011, 160 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (5 months 4 weeks 15 hours ago) and read 806 times:
There are plenty of cheap hotel options in Brum (nickname for Birmingham, Incase you didn't know) the Ibis at BHX is usually less than £40 a night and it means you could walk straight to your hotel instead of training or bussing it into the city centre late at night. It's only a 10 minute train ride or a 25 minute bus so it's not far if you do decide to go into Birmingham on the night.
I would suggest that you take a stroll round the Brindley Place canal area, looks good and here are plenty of nice cafes and bars.
For a pint I would go to Baccus Bar on New Street, the Post Office Vaults at Victoria Square, or if you like your real ale The Wellington on Bennetts Hill.
The Millenium Point science museum is good even though its a little bit for kids, and the Birmingham museum and art gallery at Chamberlian Square is a good way to fill an hour or so and it's free. It does have a very cool planetarium.
You could also try the sea life centre, that's quite expensive though.
And if you do find the time, go to Cadbury World, just a short train ride out of town.
Try and take a look at the bullring or the mailbox if want to do a little bit of shopping or fancy a light lunch.
It's a shame you dont have more time, Birmingham is a vastly underrated city.
fxramper From United States of America, joined Dec 2005, 7023 posts, RR: 93 Reply 7, posted (5 months 4 weeks 7 hours ago) and read 755 times:
Was there not too long a go for work - we ended up at the Aussie Bar on Broad St. The food was good, the beer was cold and there was some sort of pub crawl for barely legal drinkers. We ended up staying for several rounds watching all the youth fight the door help.
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