People thought we were crazy for spending a weekend in Birmingham- but we found the city and area quite nice with lots to do for kids!
Birmingham isn't on everyone's radar, but it doesn't have some notable things to do within and without the city. We visited Birmingham right as the indoor Covid restrictions lifted in the UK so we were very happy to be able to go inside museums and restaurants again!
WALK AROUND BIRMINGHAM CITY CENTRE
We started our trip by eating in downtown Birmingham. There are a lot of great food options to choose from. I found this article very helpful when searching for places we wanted to eat. Surprisingly, I didn't get any pictures of our food! We took a wander around the center of town which was very clean and beautiful. The little one had a good time playing in the reflection pool, but was a little too wary to touch the fountains. This city centre would be great for a hot summer day!
CADBURY WORLD
It may sound kitschy and ridiculous... and it was very touristy and hyped up but we had so much fun learning about the delicious chocolate of Cadbury. AND we came home with way too much chocolate. Wait, is there such a thing?
There was an area where they demonstrated how they put the chocolate into molds, and break them out. They let us decorate our own chocolate masterpieces on a cold piece of stone.
There was a fun little ride that took you around Cadbury chocolate land and taught you how chocolate was made.
We even made our way onto a label or a chocolate candy bar.
Outside there was a large play area with food, live performance and a 4D theatre show.
This place is a great place for kids to be entertained and happy!
Travel Tip- It is a little tricky to get to by public transit, but we opted to rent a car to get to all of these locations easily.
SEALIFE AQUARIUM
Our little one is very into underwater life and we knew we couldn't miss out on this stop. She was so excited to see it, that she nearly ran through the whole thing and we finished rather quickly.
It was a HIT! We knew it would be. The penguins were especially glad to see her that morning. They were so friendly.
LEGO DISCOVERY CENTRE
Just across the canal from the aquarium is the Lego Discovery Centre. In fact, you can get a combination ticket and save some money on both admission prices. Lego is one of our favorite toys right now as it promotes creativity and engineering. There is a small Lego Land display on the bottom floor, as well as many stations to create new Lego masterpieces, and even a few rides to have fun on.
LUCKY TAILS ALPACA FARM
This farm was a little outside of Birmingham, but what a treat! A llama farm where you can go on a walk with a llama was so fun. Our little one was pretty nervous at first as some of the llamas were aggressive snagging food off of people. We asked the staff for a mild llama and they let her walk with the sweetest baby llama. Can we adopt one?
By the end, the little one was walking the llama on her own and felt confident in leading the llama back to the farm at the end. It was a great adventure to push her to be brave!
We paid for a one hour walk with two adults and one child. We found a coupon on TravelZoo so we were able to get it for a discount.
Travel Tip- Always check Travelzoo and Groupon for new and different adventures in the area you are going to be traveling to!
KENILWORTH CASTLE
We love us some castles! We've had locals tell us "If you've seen one castle, you've seen them all." But I think we would disagree! Maybe it's because we grew up in the US and nothing is as old as anything over here... whatever the reason- we think castles are the coolest. Especially castle ruins.
We came on a Sunday afternoon and there was a lot going on. Multiple medieval booths were set up to describe how life would have been like back at the time. There was a music booth, a wine tasting booth, and even a law booth where they did a mock trial which was hilarious. Our little one had a great time with the map making sure we all knew where to go. At the end of the day, we say down, pulled up daisies and made flower crowns. What a great Sunday.
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