Any recommendations for places to stay in Birmingham?

[Robert Poste's Child]

Can anyone recommend a B&B or budget hotel in Birmingham somewhere fairly central but quietish? AirBnB results are uninspiring at best and from looking at the usual hotel sites and Tripadvisor it's hard to tell if you're not that familiar with different areas.

Thanks.

[red devil]

Never had to stay in a hotel as my brother lives there, but the Jewellery Quarter is a good area to be based in...

http://jewelleryquarter.net/

[Robert Poste's Child]

Thanks, that's helpful.

[womanofdulwich]

We stayed here and it was clean and family run.

http://eatonhotel.co.uk/

Easy to find and car parking- we managed to walk to Edgbaston from here too.

We had a room at the rear and it was nice and quiet.

Can absolutely NOT recommend the Marriott in Birmingham

[Otta]

I stayed in the Premier Inn on Hagley Road a few times l;ast year. It's your standart PI joined to a Beefeater (with through door) where breakfast is served.

10 - 15 minutes bus ride to New Street. So not exactly central, but very easily accessible.

[Robert Poste's Child]

Thanks both. I'm considering the Bloc place in the Jewellery quarter, which looks a bit quirky.

[womanofdulwich]

Let us know how it is please RPC. The Jewellery Museum is really interesting and they do guided tours. :)

[Robert Poste's Child]

It was great on the whole.

My favourite bits:

- B'ham Museum for Staffordshire Hoard, social history of B'ham (much more interesting than that sounds), Pre-Raphaelites and lovely tearoom - catnip for ladies of a certain age, really.

- Back to Backs Museum tour

- Great Western Arcade, particularly chocolate shop (owner commutes from Lyons) and macaroon shop ('I've had my macaroons on a low light since Wednesday' - Mrs Overall in Brummie accent).

- (Added later) The people seemed friendlier, warmer and better mannered than in London, which I liked very much. Often I have to leave London for a while to remember how aggressive and selfish people can be.

Less impressed by:

- Jewellery quarter. Great if you want to buy jewellery but not much else going on. In 10 years it'll probably be amazing.

- Copthorne Hotel. Staff are polite and helpful but the place is desperately run down, no airco in rooms and surrounded by huge building sites and busy roads so opening the window isn't appealing (though to be fair after the first day I realised this is true of all hotels in central B'ham). Pretty noisy too with what the tabloids call 'revellers' though getting a cold on day 2 made have made me (even) more intolerant than usual.

- Obvious drug problems.

Probably also great if you like shopping though mainly the same names you see everywhere and a lack of interesting individual places.

Definitely recommend it for a weekend away that's less than an hour and a half by train.

[malumbu]

Small Heath is great

Lozells

Boordsley green

Sparkbook

Deritend

Winson Green

Areas to avoid - Solihull, Edbaston, Harbourne, Moseley. You may feel too at home.

It's Britain's biggest city. Not any easy question. Just go onto Tripadvisor

[Robert Poste's Child]

Isn't it the UK's third-biggest city? That's what the posters said, anyway. Though #1 for quality of life apparently.

After London you can't help noticing the huge amount of empty buildings, including some gorgeous Victorian and disused industrial units slightly outside the centre that could be turned into fantastic housing.

[Loz]

London is the biggest city in Britain. After that it depends how you look at it. Greater Manchester is bigger than Greater Birmingham, but Birmingham is bigger than Manchester.

Of course, that also depend on how you consider London. London is generally seen as one city, but the City of London itself is tiny.

[womanofdulwich]

So you didn't stay at Bloc RPC?

[Robert Poste's Child]

I found a cheaper deal in the end, but out of curiosity I did visit and ask to see a room. They're tiny, more like cabins than rooms, with the length of the bed taking up the entire width of the room. The bathroom is a minuscule wet room, so impossible to shower without soaking everything in there. Might be an amusing and cosy experience but the manager admitted noise can be a problem if the place is full. The apartment rooms might be a better bet, particularly if there are two of you - that tiny room and bathroom would be a romance-killer.