First-class fun in the Second City
Discover 19th-century living at Birmingham Back to Backs. Jog, walk or orienteer your way around the National Nature Reserve at Sutton Park. Or ride your luck at Broadway Casino. Kids can meet Thomas and co. at Drayton Manor Theme Park, enjoy mouth-watering fun at Cadbury World, and get close to tigers and rhinos at Twycross Zoo.
Country kids
Ride the River Rapids, Bertie Bus and the Buffalo Coaster at Drayton Manor Theme Park, then meet over 100 animals from all over the world at the zoo, including tapirs, tigers, tamarins and tree monitors. Or enjoy the self-guided exhibition tour, 4D cinema, Victorian recreations and play area at Cadbury World.
Keep the fun coming at Legoland Discovery Centre: ride a mini Lego train and shoot laser guns, see a mini Lego village, race canal boats, play football and joust at Warwick Castle. Or take a daring drive-through ride at West Midlands Safari Park, complete with zebras, rhinos, lions and giraffes, plus stomach-turning rollercoasters at the theme park. Take on the indoor ski slope at the SnowDome.
Almost 1300 species call the 11th-century ruins of Dudley Castle home and you can learn about lions, Asiatic bears, chimpanzees and more, walk through lemur habitats and feed Australian lorikeets with pots of nectar. Or bring your brain to Thinktank Birmingham, with four floors of steam engines, talking robots and the 4K Planetarium.
Climbing the walls? Now you can do that with the kids at Rock Up Birmingham, including the 18-foot Leap of Faith. Enjoy an epic game of crazy golf in a tropical paradise at Treetop Adventure Golf. Or immerse yourself in a pirate battle or a spy mission to destroy Nazi weapons at Escape Hunt Birmingham Central. Visit nearby Cliff Lakes for wakeboarding, paddleboarding, wild swimming, and a fantastic inflatable aqua park.
For the grown ups
There’s plenty to keep you occupied on site but anyone with itchy feet won’t have far to go for a frisson or two of fun. Stick around Sutton Coldfield for the National Nature Reserve, complete with walking, jogging, angling and orienteering opportunities. Or maybe ride the jet skis at Kingsbury Water Park.
More canals than Venice? Judge for yourself when you head into the Second City for a walking tour of Birmingham tailored to the needs of your group. Or enjoy a slice of motoring history at the National Motorcycle Museum, home to very early pushbikes with engines, to modern racing bikes and land speed record-winning rocket bikes.
See a recreation of 19th-century life at Birmingham Back to Backs, with houses built around shared courtyards in a world of tin baths and outdoor privies. Or discover 40 galleries displaying art, applied art, social history, archaeology and ethnography at
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Stay in Brum to sample Symphony Hall, the city’s world-famous acoustically refined 2262-capacity concert hall with a diverse programme of jazz, world, folk, rock, pop and classical music concerts. Or flutter away an evening at Broadway Casino, with its first-class gaming floor, renowned card room and sophisticated Italian restaurant.
