EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

Birmingham's international airport is eight miles east of the city centre off the A45 and near the M42 (Junction 6); the main terminal is beside Birmingham International train station, from where there are regular services into the centre. New Street train station , to which all InterCity and the vast majority of local services go, is right in the heart of the city. However, trains on the Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick, Worcester and Malvern lines usually use Snow Hill and Moor Street stations , both about ten minutes' signposted walk from New Street. National Express coach travellers are dumped in the grim surroundings of Digbeth coach station , from where it is a ten-minute uphill walk to the centre.

Maps, loads of local leaflets and transport information are provided by all the city's tourist offices . The main office is located bang in the centre of town on Victoria Square at 130 Colmore Row (Mon-Sat 9.30am-6pm, Sun 10am-4pm; tel 0121/693 6300, ). Also in the centre is a smaller tourist office - and useful ticket shop - at 2 City Arcade, off New Street (Mon-Sat 9.30am-5.30pm; tel 0121/643 2514). In addition, there are offices at the International Convention Centre (ICC; tel 0121/665 6116), Centenary Square, and in the National Exhibition Centre (NEC; tel 0121/780 4321), next to the airport. The city council runs its own tourist office and ticket booking office in the Central Library, right in the centre on Chamberlain Square (Mon-Fri 10am-5.30pm, Sat 10am-4.30pm; tel 0121/236 5622). All of the tourist offices operate a same-day hotel bed booking service for free, but advance bookings have to be made at either the NEC or ICC branches.

To see Birmingham at its best, you really need to stay in the centre, but most of the less expensive accommodation is scattered around the suburbs. This may well mean that you'll be dealing with Birmingham's excellent local transport system, whose trains, metro and buses delve into almost every corner of the city. Various companies provide these services, but they are co-ordinated by Centro , who operate both a city-wide public transport information line, Centro Hotline (tel 0121/200 2700) and a regional equivalent, covering the West Midlands conurbation (tel 0247/655 9559). A one-day Centrocard , valid on all services, can be purchased from bus drivers and at train and metro stations; it costs £5 (£4 after 9.30am and at the weekend).

One thing that may confuse is the name of the inner ring road: it's called the Queensway, but individual stretches keep their other names too, for example: Great Charles Street, Queensway