Birmingham/Nottingham uni Open Days-where to park? Friday or Saturday best?!

[fedup21]

DD is looking at visiting both Nottingham and Birmingham University in a couple of weeks-both open days are Friday and Saturday. Birmingham warns that parking will be difficult .

Does anyone know the areas and know where we can park? Would it be better to do Birmingham on the Friday-will the city be busier on Saturday!? Is parking any better at Nottingham!?

Any recommendations for a travel lodge overnight between the two?!

It’s all a bit scary!!

I work at Birmingham Uni. If I were you I’d come on a Sat and park at Northfield station - 10 mins on the train to uni. That’s where I go from and there’s always spaces in the car park on Sat (never in the week after about 7.30!). You can park by the shops in Longbridge but you’ll pay for parking over 3 hours.

The station is slightly more central to where you need to be than the car park on Pritchatts Road. And you avoid getting stuck in the slow traffic around Selly Oak.

Probably repeating what others have said , we did both last year and Nottingham was fine they just turn grass into parking so plenty of space ,birmingham said parking would be difficult so I took the postcode for a car park nearby but we still went to the uni first and parked in one of their car parks easily

I've been to a couple of open days at Birmingham and we parked on the field at King Edwards school and then walked to the university (they do run buses, but it's only a few minutes walk). At Nottingham we parked in a field/grassy area on campus that had been turned into a car-park for the day.

Have just done Birmingham on a Saturday. They had free parking on their uni car parks. Lots of spaces but it was first come, first served. Got there at 9 30 and there were lots of spaces. Student team of marshalls kept it running smoothly and it was well signposted. If you are going to The Vale accomodation, it's better to drive there as, again, parking is plentiful.

Okay, just reviving this thread for the Nottingham open day this coming Friday.

Opinion seems split so far - some saying there is loads of parking on open days so you might as well drive to the University, and others saying the traffic is a nightmare traveling in the direction of the University, so we'd be better off doing the park and ride from Toton Lane on the tram. (We'd be coming off the M1). We aim to get there early (hopefully by 9) as need to get home for something in the evening.

What's the verdict ?

Park and Ride is great but bear in mind the trams stop frequently so it's quite slow.

Traffic in that part of Nottingham will be heavy at that time on a weekday, definitely!

You sound a bit on the fence there Piggywaspushed

https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels/england/nottinghamshire/nottingham/nottingham-west.html?cid=GLBC_NOTMIL

There is a Premier Inn at Phoenix Park which is a team stop and close to the M1.

*tram stop 🚎

i would Park on the campus at Nottingham. DS did degree and post grad at UoN and now works in near the Uni. He worked a few Uni Open Days as well. I visit him in Nottingham and did work visits there as well- I don't think the traffic there is particularly bad. (Leeds and Cambridge far, far worse)

Traffic around by Nottingham uni at basically rush hour on a morning isn't going to be fun... it's not terrible by some city's standards but you're going to be stuck for a while whichever way you come in from. I've not seen the parking situation on campus on a weekday (my kids have swimming lessons at the uni pool on weekends and that can be annoying to park if an event is on) so can't vouch for that part.

It's a very very pretty campus though (the buggers just don't do the course I want so I'm having to trek down to Leicester every day - hrumph).

Thanks everyone

Parking is free on University of Nottingham campus on the weekend. The UoN campus is huge - loads of parking available.

We are at Nottingham as I type, traffic wad heavy, plenty of parking but v slow and by 10 am it looked v full! Leave plenty of time!

Thanks Kilash. We arrived about 8.20
The parking was incredibly efficient despite the fact we got there earlier than expected. In the morning, traffic wasn't too bad - just what you'd expect going into any City at that time of the morning. Took over 1/4 hour to get off the campus in the afternoon, but hey ho.
I was impressed all round with Nottingham

I'm glad you liked us @backforgood 😁

I really did @MrsElizabethShelby .... just going to be a case of seeing if the University like dd though

Nottingham has gone to the top of our list, we all absolutely loved it. Perfect course, lovely accommodation, campus beautiful to walk around and only an hour from home.

We are looking at medicine though so tough times ahead.