I have 4 hours in Birmingham- what do I do?

[NotYourHolidayDick]

My lad has football all afternoon, so I'm in Birmingham (Trillion training ground, not St Andrews stadium), from 12-4 today.

I'll have 2 girls with me, one teen and one preview school.

What can we do to pass the time? I was thinking Sealife centre but it's going to be busy and I have ASD so struggle with crowds.

Any suggestions?

This is where I went with an afternoon to kill; DD was about 7. But then, I like this sort of thing!

www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/bmag

Hi OP, what about the botanical gardens? It's not too far from the sea life centre and you hopefully shouldn't experience any crowds.
They have a nice play area and an older play area for bigger ones, you can bring a picnic or there's a nice cafe there and some animals.
Cannon Hill park is also lovely but a little further out of the city centre.
The think tank at millennium point is also v good but may be busy and it's very stimulating on the senses.
I hope you have a lovely day whatever you decide to do.

What kind of stuff do you like doing?
Second bmag, or you can get into the big new library for free and have a potter - more interesting than it sounds - amongst other things there's a rooftop garden there if you can find it! Neither of those should be too crowded I wouldn't think.
There's a nice Waterstones at the Bullring, with lots of floors and a cafe, we often pass some time in there. Kids floor has a big tray of Lego :)
Usual big city options for shopping/eating.

The library - its amazing, they have two outdoor gardens too, we spend hours there. Selfridges food hall is worth a pootle round. We went to Legoland Discovery the other day and loved it.

Outside of the centre there is Star City.

Birmingham art gallery and museum, definitely the library - roof terrace and secret garden, go eat upstairs in Birmingham New Street station - explore the different passages for more food option. (For future this was fantastic www.bom.org.uk/ as was the Back to Back national trust properties. )

An afternoon at Think Tank? My younger kids love it there.

We live here, I would go to the museum but I can't kill 4 hours in there. So maybe the shops after that.
Sealife is nice but again not 4 hours of nice, lego discovery is good and will kill the time if you are under 8 otherwise really boring.

Second botanical gardens if you don't like crowds even when it's really busy you can still find interesting quiet spots and there's a feeling of space.

I would head to BMAG and do the library, explore that up to the gardens. Stroll along the canal or see if you can catch the canal boat taxi from Brindley Place to the Mailbox for food or a drink stop overlooking the canal. Then walk back through to Grand Central if you fancy some shopping.

There’s a fab pinball cafe (Tilt) tucked away just off New Street.

Other option could be to see what’s on at the Electric Cinema.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I was getting all excited about the library, and then thinking of doing that huge Primark if I could get the courage! But, I've just Googled the football ground and it's south Birmingham and says it'll take me half hour to drive to the centre!

It's B38 9EJ, so seems to only be 15 mins away from Webbs of Wychbold garden centre (if that means anything to all of you!)

Unsure as to whether I'd die of stress trying to drive further north into the city centre 🙈

Sorry to hijack but can anyone say what the botanical gardens would be like in October ( assuming weather OK)?

If your that side of the city try googling Akamba Heritage Centre. It's a lovely few hrs spent and there's little nooks if it's busy and you need a break from it. (They do play music quite loudish if your ears are super sensitive.)

Webbs is a nice garden centre - nice cafe and a pets bit.

Cadbury World in Bournville? Quite intetesting history of the factory and I think they have an outdoor play centre. Might be expensive though (and may be busy).

If you're 15 minutes from Webbs you're actually only about 30 mins or so from Worcester? That would be far less stressful than Brum.

Also Licky Hills country park (other extreme to cadbury world!!)

Webbs is a nice garden centre but you’d struggle to fill four hrs there even with lunch. Plus it’s still 15mins from where op will be anyway.

Cadbury world is sold out for today 😢

I don't mind driving an extra 20/30 mins as that still gives me 3 hours with my girls.

Well Stratford upon avon is 35 mins (according to google maps!!). Or Kenilworth castle? Or is there anything on in the NEC?

There’s Avoncroft museum about 12 miles from you.

Lovely place for a few hours. It’s a collection of historic buildings lovingly moved and rebuilt onto the site. I loved the prefab cottages the most.

Really nice tea rooms for a cuppa and a cake.

If you still fancy Birmingham itself, you could always tootle over to the train station? Northfield is about 20 minutes away and there are trains into the centre of Birmingham every 10 minutes - you can park your car there too. Arguably much less stress and effort than driving into the city centre yourself 😀

Avoncroft looks ace! I'm such an unlikely geek 😂 But I want to go inside a Windmill (are you allowed into it?!)

I was going to say get a train in. We've done that before. Enjoy your day. (Doesn't Primark have a Disney cafe?)

Not sure if the Disney cafe is still open in Primark
Think they had a rodent infestation

Just checked on line
It is open again
My daughter and family went and said food was rather mediocre