Start from 67 curated places around Birmingham, GB, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Opheem
Aktar Islam's two-Michelin-star room near the canals reworks Indian cooking as a fine-dining tasting menu, all precision plating and regional depth. This is the special-occasion table that put Birmingham's modern Indian scene on the national map. Book it as the centerpiece of a trip, not a casual drop-in.
Adam's
A Michelin-starred modern-British dining room in the city centre, run with the kind of polished, unfussy service that makes a splurge feel relaxed. The tasting menus lean on seasonal British produce with European technique. It is the grown-up celebration meal locals book for anniversaries.
Trails & outdoors
Birmingham Canal Old Line Towpath (Gas Street to University)
A flat city-to-green canal walk that starts at Gas Street Basin and follows the towpath southwest, trading warehouses for overhanging foliage within minutes. About three miles one way to the University of Birmingham, with the option to train back. The easiest way to see why locals love the canals.
Cannon Hill Park Loop
A gentle paved circuit around the boating lakes and lawns of Edgbaston's best park, under a mile and pram- and wheelchair-friendly. Plenty of benches, the mac cafe and the nature centre along the way. The short, easy stroll for a lazy afternoon.
Things to do
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
The city's flagship museum, holding the world's finest collection of Pre-Raphaelite art and the gold-and-garnet Staffordshire Hoard in the grand Round Room and Industrial Gallery. Free to enter, with a family gallery for younger visitors. The first stop for a rainy afternoon or an art fix.
Symphony Hall
One of the world's best-regarded concert halls acoustically, home to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and a wide program of jazz, folk, rock and classical. The sound is the whole point, and you feel it from any seat. The grown-up night out for live music done properly.
Landmarks & sights
Library of Birmingham
The filigree-clad building on Centenary Square that locals either love or argue about, with a free Secret Garden terrace partway up and a panorama deck higher still. The top-floor Shakespeare Memorial Room is a transplanted Victorian study tucked inside the modern shell. Go for the rooftop views as much as the books.
Jewellery Quarter
A working district where roughly a third of UK jewellery is still made, packed into Georgian streets around St Paul's Square. You can watch goldsmiths through workshop windows, then duck into the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter where a factory was left frozen as its owners walked out in 1981. It is a neighborhood to wander, not a single attraction.