Omega Sektor is basically a giant gaming centre equiped with hitech gear for the ultimate gaming…read moreexperience. It is based in the old Virgin megastore building in Birmingham city centre at the top nearly of Corporation Street. I was lucky enough to visit the day before opening of this place along with the press, and got to try out pretty much everything there, consequently I have returned a couple of times and its fantastic. There are different themed rooms, all with state of the art systems loaded with all the latest games. There is also a familly room downstairs, a VIP area, a beanbag and movie area and a bar. Also as an added bonus the chairs are so comfy. Its free to join, and its £5 each time you go but you can stay as long as you want and theres loads of things from Wiis, Xbox to PS3 and of course the computers. Its definatly a gamers heaven, although not for me.

I'm not a gamer myself, and hearing about Omega Sektor I had to check it out. I can honestly say…read morethat I've never seen anything the size/scale of this when it comes to gaming, it really is a cyber paradise, the gamer's dream come true. The budget must have been astonomical, and i cannot understand how they have spent so much money on this place. It opened in teh summer of 2007, and it provides a 21st Century arcade style gaming, providing a casual yet high-tech social experience for all ages and abilities. You pay £5 membership which is a one-off fee, and then can roam the club, and play consoles, buying time on a particlar station at your leisure. There are many chill out areas and cafes to relax in between games. I heard of a week night 18+ gaming night that they were doing, where you can have a few drinks and play a few shoot-em up games with mates, sounds great to me, with the academy just round the corner for after...well worth checking out i think! I can see something like this taking off, as there's nothing on the same scale in Brum, and with its prime location just 2 mins away from teh Bull Ring, i wish them the best of luck, and encourage you guys to check it out!

Winterbourne is a great place for a sunny day. £5 gives you access to the Arts and Crafts house and…read moregardens, both of which are lovely. Behind the more formal gardens are woodland trails (you might even see a beech tree I helped to coppice as a student many years ago) and Edgbaston reservoir, a calm expanse of water populated by ducks, moorhens and crested grebes. There are beautiful waterside rock gardens with stepping stones, which I love. The whole place feels like a sanctuary from the city and is conveniently located close to the Barber Institute and the university campus if you want to make more of a day of it. There's a tea room which sells serviceable scones (with that really aerated cream rather than proper whipped or clotted cream though) and also sandwiches, soup and potatoes etc. You can get plants and gifts at the shop- and if you go during the week you may be able to get some advice from the gardeners, too.

Winterbourne House and Garden is an oasis from the hustle and bustle of the University of…read moreBirmingham campus, located a short five-minute walk from the eastern edge of the University. Built in the early 1900's, the entire Grade II Listed estate was bequeathed to the University in 1944 and is composed of a villa house and seven acres of gardens with thousands of different plants from across the world. Owned by the University, students are admitted for free while general public tickets are £6 per entry. The gardens are best visited on a sunny day in the late spring or early summer when you can take advantage of maximum flower coverage. With such a staggering numbers of plants on display, one could easily make a day of it to properly examine them all. Plants are both planted throughout the garden outside or placed within greenhouses to regulate temperature and moisture, an excellent example being the orchid house. The grounds are laid out with meandering, terraced paths on a hill that eventually lead to a stream at the back of the property. A wooded trail gives access off the property to Edgbaston Pool, which is classed as a site of special scientific interest with numerous birds that call it home. The house itself and attached grounds are set up as a quasi-museum to display early twentieth-century country estate life. The garden sheds/office house a second-hand bookstore, art gallery, plant store, and the ticket office/gift shop. Cacti, flowers, herbs, and other interesting plants can be purchased at reasonable prices. Attached to the ticket office is Winterbourne Press, a fully functioning printing press that performs demonstrations every Friday. The house was built with the most modern of amenities, including fully functioning cistern toilets for servants. A restoration in 2010 brought the house back to its former glory. A secondary feature of Winterbourne is their vaunted tea room, one of the primary reasons for my visit with Brittany A. recently. The public are not able to simply enter the house to visit the tea room, so each visit to the room will cost a person the full ticket price. Given these preconditions and the grandeur of the house, I had high expectations. Unfortunately, the 'tea room' is a basic cafeteria style set-up that you'll find at many historic sites across the UK. Pre-prepared cold case sandwiches and drinks are available, and until 3PM on most days you can order toasties and hot soup. I skipped the unimpressive looking and overpriced scones and ordered a slice of carrot cake, which was absolutely delicious and worth the price. Tea here is the most disappointing aspect, consisting of a tepid pot and a bag of Twinings thrown in. No loose leaf tea is available, and you get the luxury of carrying your supermarket tea out on a cafeteria tray, once more shattering the splendour of the home and grounds. In this aspect, Winterbourne could take notes from the splendid tea rooms of sites like Edinburgh Castle, which offers table service and higher quality teas at comparable price points. The lackluster tea room experience aside, Winterbourne House and Garden is a real gem of a historic property in the University area. While the ticket entrance price won't see me coming here all that often, the free entrance for UOB students is a reason to visit regularly if you attend the University.

Yes! I love planetariums! The night sky is a damn beautiful thing, and planetariums are a great…read moreplace to learn a little more. Pay £1.50 for the privilege for adults, I'm not sure how much for children, sorry, and queue up on the third floor. The seats are comfy, filling from the middle where the best view is. The show isn't too long, and gives you an idea of the night sky on the night that you watch the show, visible planets, constellations and where to look for them, with the zodiacs marked in red. The voice is clear, but there are a couple of stumbles that they were too lazy to re-record, come on, think tank! There's also a nice section on the ISS with Tim peak too. Two things: One, there are a couple of dizzy bits, not too bad, but something to think about if you suffer badly. Two, please, for everyone's sake, control your kids, it's not fair if they're kicking off, running around and talking, and you will get ejected for it.

Many of us I'm sure remember visits to the Planetariums of yester-year where a big ball of light in…read morethe centre shone a pattern of stars above and all around. Well things have certainly moved on, as my recent visits to the Thinktank Planetarium or, 'Fulldome' (to use the up-to-date name) have confirmed. The old star-ball that I remember being in the middle of Planetarium domes has disappeared and been replaced with state-of-the-art digital projectors and computers. So instead of sitting and watching a fixed pattern of stars in the night sky I held onto my seat as I orbited the moon, flew past constellations, across entire galaxies and was still back home for tea time! Gone seem to be the days when all you would see at a Planetarium were Astronomy and Space films, as a quick visit to the Thinktank's Planetarium web site told me. I found the best place to check out all the latest events was the Thinktank Planetarium's own Facebook page. With interesting and buzzing contributions from over 3,000 followers I found it well worth visiting and re-visiting. When night time comes the Thinktank Planetarium are throwing open their doors open to put on shows featuring a new breed of Fulldome films now being made by creative people locally and world-wide. I have now been to a couple of these night time shows and can say without a doubt they are something special. The hosts are likeable and enthusiastic with a passion for what they are doing and this really adds to the experience. In the interval we had a drink in the IMAX, 'I-Bar'. The Millennium point complex also houses a full-on giant screen IMAX cinema which made me think of combining a visit to the Planetarium Fulldome with an IMAX visit to see the latest 3D blockbuster like Pirates 4! The experience of watching these new films I found quite difficult to explain to my freinds. Whether it's the music of Pink Floyd set to amazing visuals or any of the other prize-winning Fulldome films now being shown, I was transported somewhere new and exiting. The experience can be very immersive and that's why after my first visit to a Thinktank Fulldome show I never quite viewed a normal cinema film screening in the same way - not even the IMAX! As Morpheus said to Neo in the Martix, " No one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself" The same can be said about the Thinktank Planetarium Fulldome. So why not, "Take the red pill" and give it a try, you won't be disappointed!

Lots to see and do at this 15-acre botanical garden: a koi pond, aviary, butterfly house, bonsai…read morecollection, glasshouses, and many trails winding through various gardens. I was also witnessed a poor wild peacock being chased by children across the Main Lawn. Tickets are low-priced at £7.50 per adult. A 15 to 20 minute bus ride from the main city stops right by the garden. We didn't explore every nook and cranny, but covered the highlights in the hour that we stayed.

The Birmingham Botanical Gardens is a medium-sized and well-maintained gardens a bit outside the…read morecity center. They have pleasant fields for strolling, a small area with some bird houses for your bird-watching enjoyment, plus some indoor greenhouses with plants from different climates. It's not that large, but you could enjoy an hour or two here. Come when the weather is nice to enjoy some greenery.

Ooops! is a new artisan gallery & Gift shop opened on Sandon Road by business woman Jacqui Chana…read more When you step through the front door, the cool, crisp white decor provides a contemporary look with splashes of colour. The walls are adorned with tattoo-inspired stained glass panels, the handcrafted cards are quirky alternatives to the more "acceptable" ones found on the High Street and the gifts range from small bespoke pieces to large upcycled items. It doesn't just stop there. Downstairs is the gift shop but upstairs is a small area which offers an excellent, intimate space for independent artists/photographers and the ilk to stage their own exhibitions. Beyond what is the "artist's gallery", there are two rooms which will have the capacity to provide workshops, a meeting space and hold small events. This is a great little gift shop, which is sure to inspire and attract not only the "creative types" but also the discerning customer and supporters of independent stores. Ooops! is a welcome addition to Bearwood.

I do seriously love this place, and even though some of the exhibits are looking a bit tired,…read morethere's still a lot there, and new things coming in. There is a lot crammed in here, which, although it means the information on each subject is a bit watered down and lower quality than a specific museum, it's great for sparking the interest of kids and finding out what they love and keeping attention with varying material, the human body, forensics, machinery, industry, recycling, building, space, robots, computers, medicine, even a lighthouse bulb, it's got a lot going for it. The science garden is great, but filled with pushy children and parents who've given up caring after a full couple of hours inside, the planetarium was excellent. Our favourite bits were the planetarium and the beating heart that beats to your pulse, and the vehicles. Obscurely a lot of it seems to high up for kids, but there are loads of activities for them to get stuck into.

ThinkTank is a slightly sprawling science museum spread over 3 (and a half) floors. It can be…read morepricey for a family visit, but there's a lot to do and there are often good offers available. I'd recommend turning up early as on arrival you are given a timetable of talks, events and planetarium showings. You get a wristband on entry so you can go in and out as you please. (I recommend coffee from 6/8 Kafe, next door, or a well priced pub lunch at the Woodman, opposite Millennium Point.) The ground floor showcases huge bits of machinery, including car-manufacturing robots, traction engines, a lovely tram and.. A Spitfire, a Hurricane and the 1939 City of Birmingham Locomotive. A huuuge steam engine, one of the most powerful ever used. The main theme being Birmingham made, so it's a great Brummy experience. Just a shame you can go on any of them to explore. (Especially the Spitfire ;)) Other floors have sections on the human body (with videos of the digestive system.. Best not viewed near lunch), forensic crime scene investigations, how recycling works etc. There's a good little area called Kids City which has a doctor/dentist surgery, a cafe, a garden shed, and a big water play area (with aprons). It's really good for little ones. Upstairs is the space section, with a great 360 degrees planetarium which has a range of shows for different age ranges. The science garden wasn't open when we went, but in spring and summer it's another sciencey play area for kids. And grown ups.

Free museum in Birmingham city centre focusing on contemporary art. It's in a very grand building,…read moreso I thought the museum would be big too, but it wasn't. Well there is a lot of empty space, and not that much to see. Few different rotating exhibitions, I saw some on the rave scene in the 80s and also racial violence from the 60-90s. On the way out I accidentally insulted one of the artists, but he just brushed it off.

We visited this museum yesterday and we really liked it. Both the exterior and interior of the…read morebuilding are beautiful. The museum has a terrific selection of paintings from the 15th, 16th & 17th centuries and a particularly good selection of Pre-Raphaelites. There's a *gorgeous*/large Edwardian tea room and also a separate café (the latter is small and attractive). The gift shop isn't very large, but it had some nice items. Also, I had a wonderful conversation with one of the guards; she was very friendly and kind-hearted.

It was a great show, we saw hamilton, good quality sound and comfortable seats, we had a nice tub…read moreof popcorn and the staff were friendly and helpful, hamilton is a great show and white it's in town I recommend you see it!

A grand old theatre, dating back to 1899, yet very comfortable, with great bars and the option of a…read morepre-show meal too. The Hippodome has brought wonderful shows to Birmingham for generations. Long May that continue