I was recently caught in the position of being a tourist in my home city. A college friend was…read more visiting from London., and I met him at Moor Street Station. After answering his question as to what the differences between The West Midlands, Birmingham and The Black Country were, he asked me where we should go. 'Well, apparently we've got more canals here than in Venice' I said and we walked to Brindley Place (I refuse to call it 'Brindleyplace' like I refuse to call The Bull Ring 'bullring'. You can't just all-one-word places on a marketer's whim). We paid £6 each and then started off. The cruise travels on a route as far as Birmingham University. The sight lines are really good as there are continuous windows running down the length of the boat. The commentary is actually interesting and well-written and delivered, informing you of both canal boat and rail routes along the journey and their role in the development of industry of the area. Additionally, commentary on The Mail Box development gives some modern history to boot, and shows the change from industrial Birmingham to a city-living city. There's a licensed bar on board the boat as well as washroom facilities. An incidental bonus is the detailed graffiti that lines some of the walls along the tow-path, as well as gaggles of water fowl. There are a few canal cruises you can take from Brindley Place, but don't take your chances by going on one that takes you on the grim route north featuring dumped shopping trolleys-This is the one.

Horrible experience almost from the start! We sent through a query to a number of companies about a…read moreYacht in Greece. Eldin was very responsive at first, however things quickly changed when I received a quote that was significantly cheaper for the same boat 2019 450F Lagoon from Lefkada. I kindly asked if they would match the quote, he rudely responded in CAPITAL letters to me! At this point we should have just gone elsewhere, as it was a sign of things to come!!! They eventually agreed to provide 2 SUPs for free and we signed contracts. The day before our charter, Eldin wrote to us to let us know that they can not provide the 2 SUP as agreed. Having it not having a skipper was not part of the agreement, and the rude emails began once again. Having just completed our trip we were delighted with the local White Sails team, but we would not recommend that you go through a broker such as A2A Yachting. The frustration and unnecessary rude emails and total lack of customer service was appalling, and could have totally ruined our first sailing experience. Next time we will go directly to White Sails and forget about dealing with the broker!

Fascinating canal trip in the tunnels. Amazing sound and light show inside caves. The guide /…read moreskipper was a real Black Country guy with great sense of humour and really knowledgable about the history and geology. Price was very reasonable and can go back again on the same ticket.

A lovely way to spend an afternoon after a tour of the countryside as we had the wrong postcode. We…read morewere going to celebrate a friend's 70th birthday and were given the post code from website but this is the website for their office. We called and were given an alternative post code which took us to the centre of Evesham by the river. There is a small car park just at the edge of the park next to the river. We boarded the boat and greeted by the crew. It is a large barge with tables and seats for 24. Our party was 19 so we had the boat to ourselves. We had a quick safety briefing we set off. The skipper commentated as we cruised the Avon. We were served our food. There was a choice of fish & chips, chicken & chips & pie & chips which was preordered. I opted for fish & chips. It came in a box with mushy peas and there were sachets of tartare sauce on the table. The fish and chips were lovely with the scenery going past. We bought drinks at the bar they sold alcohol, soft drinks and hot drinks. £2 for a Coke and £2.10 for a J2O- I was drinking. £3.00 for a cuppa tea. The cruise last 2 hours and cost £16.50. It was a lovely few hours.

So, as part of the Festival of Firsts I asked the Yelp Community what they hadn't done in…read moreBirmingham. Renfield C. suggested a Ghost Walk (http://www.yelp.co.uk/topic/birmingham-yelps-festival-of-firsts) and what a mighty fine idea it was. Midlands Discovery Tours run 3 different ghost walks (as well as numerous other history related walks in the Midlands). Two are run monthly and one is run exclusively around Halloween. The main monthly Ghost walks are split into the "Sinister" and "Graveyard" varieties. The Graveyard Ghost Walk takes you into Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter and covers the catacombs in the two famous cemeteries in this part of the City (Warstone Lane and Key Hill). I haven't done this walk, but both of these locations are fantastically spooky anyway; so well worth checking out. For our #YelpFOF Ghostwalk, we chose the "Sinister" side. Starting off at Council House, we trekked around to Town Hall, Paradise Forum, New Street Station, Temple Street and ended up at the Cathedral. Our tour guide Mike was decked out like a Victorian Undertaker and led us around the City imparting his knowledge about where the bodies were buried, moved to and then reburied (did you know John Baskerville was moved from his resting place at least 4 times?). Poor Mike is normally part of a duo and was missing his partner on this particular eve. It was still incredibly enjoyable, but there were certain stories he wasn't as use to telling; saying that, even his minor mistakes were fun (as he was a fab storyteller). The tour costs £8 per person, but we ran at just over 2 hours. If I was to do another one, I would probably wait until it warmed up a bit. By half way around, my hands were frozen and I couldn't feel my ears! It was still incredible value for money and well worth cold pinkies for. A big thank you to Gem, Renfield, Emma and Dan (our intrepid Yelp explorers) for joining me for this installment of the FOF. We'll have to do it again (when it's warmer!).

As well as the regular tours that Midlands Discovery Tours run each weekend, they also offer…read moreprivate tours for groups on pretty much any topic. I know they've done one for international visitors about Heavy Metal, outside of Birmingham for those wanting to know more about Liverpool and Harry Potter tours based on some of the locations in the films. The one I asked for was for some students who were learning about the hospitality industry so we picked the topic of 'Tourism in Birmingham.' The angle very much lent itself to jobs as all the participants are looking to work in the industry and we learnt which the biggest hotel in Birmingham is, what sport was invented in Birmingham, why the Hyatt Regency was built and how many visitors come to Birmingham each year. Of course no walk/talk would be complete without the phrase 'more canals than Venice.'