Birmingham for the weekend - top tips please

[Kbear]

I have a weekend away with a group of friends - we have an event Saturday afternoon but are going up from London Friday morning and home again Sunday lunchtime....

I have looked at bus tours and canal boat trips - can you suggest good stuff for us to do/places to visit please? We are staying Broad Street area.

Ta Brummies

It depends on what you're into so let us know if it's culture, music, etc. I'm guessing it's a group of adults (no kids). You'll be well placed for the nightlife at any rate since you're staying on Broad Street.

Broad Street's a bit stag and hen central these days. Better to walk down the canal 5 mins to the Mailbox or the Jewellery Quarter/St Paul's Square is great for a night out.
The new library is worth a look and has a great view of the city.

museums, things to see, cafes etc good places to eat/drink - all adults, women, no kids

ta

It's worth going to the roof garden at the top of the main library, canal boat trips are also a good way to see the city.

The Museum/Art gallery is excellent. If you are on Broad St have a look at the new library it is an amazing building with a roof top garden with good views of the city. The Bull Ring is good for shopping along with the Mailbox.

Cocktails at the Lost & Found

A railway station or any of the motorways out of there are most attractive.

Mailbox is lovely - Miller and Carters is an amazing Steakhouse

Are you rock choir img ??? I'm there at the weekend too.

Haha hoss I have to agree. I really dont like Birmingham for anything other than a meeting place for friends who live there.

Though Moor Street station is actually beautiful.

And Selfridges. But im in Newcastle so I do like the chance to visit a Selfridges

Mailbox is good for restaurants & bars- there's Epernay (champagne bar) Strada, Cote ( French bistro type place) etc. There's also quite a few bars & restaurants off St Philips churchyard area- there's a gorgeous but expensive Italian tapas- Fumo, Mexican restaurant that does lovely cocktails on Bennetts Hill- Bodega, the Botanist pub specialises in cocktails, that's on Temple street, all those 3 are very near each other. There's also a couple of decent real ale pubs round there but I can't remember what they're called.
Jewellery quarter also good for bars & restaurants
Jekyll & Hyde is a gin pub!
Shopping is good, agree the Museum & art gallery is fab, as is The Barber institute but that's a few miles out of town near Bham Uni campus. Could do Botanical gardens? A couple of miles out of city centre.

Definitely the new Library - leave a fair bit of time, go onthe rooftop garden, go into the Shakespeare Room, etc.

Art Gallery is very good (and free) and that's just next to the Council Buildings which are quite nice to peek at from the outside - nice fountain / square, etc outside.

(So far, all a short stroll from Broad Street)

Mailbox is good for eating places or lots of nice pubs and restaurants around the canalside and Brindley Place.

If you want shopping, then Mailbox and/or Selfridges and the Bullring Shopping Centre is considered quite good

I agree with hoss.

My recommendation would be don't go. I wish I had the option not to!

The Mailbox consists of bars, restaurants & extremely expensive shops. Great if you like that kind of thing I suppose.

Leave the city centre and come to Edgbaston! Botanical gardens during the day, (extremely expensive but lovely) cocktails at the Edgbaston and food at the Highfield in the evening.

haha - rumbled ! Yes, we are going to Rock Choir 10th party bash! Thanks for the tips - lots of info - I am hoping next time they book it in Barcelona but Birmingham will do for a few gins with the girls (gin pub - I like the sound of that!).

Broad Street is like Falariki in the Summer - avoid, avoid, avoid!!!!

Get a taxi to the Balti triangle and eat well for a tenner or so. Adil's is good at the moment. Curry in central Birmingham is either expensive or shit or more usually both.

Woktastic for sushi

Too late to avoid it, it's booked!

Intrigued by Birmingham being compared to Faliraki haha - feel exhausted at the thought but we'll give it a go !!

Woktastic for sushi

With a time machine in order to go to it before it closed due to the demolition of the central library, presumably.

There's a branch opening in Selly Oak at the end of the month (which is bizarre cash-flow wise: open a student-friendly eaterie in student central just as the student go home).

twitter.com/woktastic/status/604250658947108864?lang=en-gb

The relocation in central Birmingham is still on hold.

www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1049288198418075&id=304011369612432

Here you go some 'hidden spaces' revealed by architects this month

Check out this site.

Agree that Lost & Found good for cocktails, but it gets very busy. Cherry Reds for decent, informal food and lots of beers. Brew Bar across the street from Cherry Reds, for craft beers. Get a taxi to Moseley or the Ladypool Road for curry, or go to Jyotis in Hall Green for vegetarian Gujarati food.

For 'posh' food, Cielo near Brindley Place is a v good Italian. There's a nice Thai near there too.

Ikon Galley for a nice cafe and modern art that is sometimes interesting and sometimes dreadful.

Cocktails in Selfridges.