Exotic marine creatures including otters, jellyfish, piranhas and razor-jawed hammerhead sharks swim in the Sir Norman Foster–designed National Sea Life Centre. Prepurchase tickets online for fast-track entry and significant discounts off walk-in rates. Talks and feedings take place regularly. Book online too for 30-minute behind-the-scenes tours offering access to otherwise out-of-bounds areas, and for one-hour tours feeding turtles, penguins or (if you're game) sharks (£65 to £105; minimum age 12 to 14).
Nina Alizada/Shutterstock
National Sea Life Centre
Birmingham
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
19.44 MILES
Founded in 1068 by William the Conqueror, stunningly preserved Warwick Castle is Warwick's main attraction.
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29.79 MILES
Morgan has been handcrafting elegant sports cars since 1909. You can see the mechanics at work on two-hour guided tours of the unassuming shedlike…
17.84 MILES
The evocative ruins of St Michael's Cathedral, built around 1300 but destroyed by Nazi incendiary bombs in the Blitz, stand as a memorial to Coventry's…
0.23 MILES
Resembling a glittering stack of gift-wrapped presents, the Francine Houben–designed Library of Birmingham is an architectural triumph. The 2013-opened…
17.73 MILES
This stupendous museum has hundreds of vehicles, from horseless carriages to jet-powered, land-speed-record breakers. There's a brushed-stainless-steel…
21.73 MILES
When Shakespeare retired, he swapped the bright lights of London for a comfortable town house at New Place, where he died of unknown causes in April 1616…
21.54 MILES
Start your Shakespeare quest at the house where the renowned playwright was born in 1564 and spent his childhood days. John Shakespeare owned the house…
2.04 MILES
At the University of Birmingham, 3 miles south of the city centre, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts has an astonishing collection of Renaissance…
Nearby Birmingham attractions
0.11 MILES
Within the glitzy Brindley Pl development of banking offices and designer restaurants, a converted Gothic schoolhouse contains the cutting-edge Ikon…
2. International Convention Centre
0.15 MILES
Birmingham's International Convention Centre is situated at the western end of Centenary Sq.
3. Statue of Boulton, Watt & Murdoch
0.22 MILES
Birmingham's Industrial Revolution leading lights Matthew Boulton, James Watt and William Murdoch are depicted in this gleaming gilded statue. It's…
0.23 MILES
Resembling a glittering stack of gift-wrapped presents, the Francine Houben–designed Library of Birmingham is an architectural triumph. The 2013-opened…
0.41 MILES
Constructed in 1834 and styled after the Temple of Castor and Pollux in Rome, Birmingham's neoclassical Town Hall is now used as a venue for classical…
6. Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
0.43 MILES
Major Pre-Raphaelite works by Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones and others are among the highlights of the delightful Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery's…
0.44 MILES
Victoria Sq's 1993 fountain The River, aka 'the floozie in the Jacuzzi', is overlooked by this disapproving statue of Queen Victoria.
0.45 MILES
Public art in Victoria Sq includes modernist sphinxes and artist Dhruva Mistry's 1994-installed fountain, The River. Topped by a naked female figure, it's…