Date Night Ideas in Birmingham

Setup.Shoes that can handle mud and a flask of tea. Moseley Bog's entrance is on Yardley Wood Road and Sarehole Mill is on Cole Bank Road, a short walk apart in the Shire Country Park.

1. Start at the Moseley Bog entrance on Yardley Wood Road and wander the paths and boardwalks through the wet woodland. The gnarled old trees are the ones Tolkien credited for the old forest.
2. Look for the Bronze Age burnt mounds along Coldbath Brook, which archaeologists read as the remains of ancient sweat lodges. The same brook once helped feed the millpond you are heading to.
3. Walk over to Sarehole Mill. The grounds around it are free to wander; check ahead for whether the mill building itself is open and what it costs to go inside.
4. Sit by the millpond and each name the most Shire looking spot you passed. If your legs are still keen, follow the River Cole a little way along the Shire Country Park paths.

Talk about:Where did you play as a kid that you would still recognise with your eyes closed?

Setup.A free afternoon, a small notebook, and nothing to borrow. Check opening days and hours before you go.

1. Meet outside on Centenary Square and ride up through the book rotunda, the circular stacks you see from the escalators.
2. Step out onto one of the two outdoor garden terraces and find the bench with the best angle on the city.
3. Keep going up to the Shakespeare Memorial Room, designed by John Henry Chamberlain in 1882 for the first Central Library, taken apart in 1974 and later moved again to the top floor here. It guards one of the most important Shakespeare collections in the world.
4. Finish at the viewing gallery at the summit and each point out one place in the city that matters to you and why.

Talk about:If we could only keep one book between the two of us, which one would it be?

Setup.Two tickets for a CBSO evening concert at Symphony Hall on Broad Street. Read the programme together first and pick a concert with at least one piece neither of you knows.

1. Book a CBSO evening concert. If either of you is 18 to 30 or a full time student, look for the reduced price tickets.
2. Arrive a little early so you are not rushing in with your coat half on.
3. During the concert, each of you picks one moment to remember and keeps it to yourself until the end.
4. Afterwards, walk slowly out and swap your moments over a late drink somewhere nearby.

Talk about:What piece of music would you want playing in the background of the best day of your life?

Setup.Proper walking shoes, water, snacks, and the Cross City train to Sutton Coldfield. Walk into the park through one of the gates on the town side and pick up a map if the kiosk is open.

1. Walk in through one of the town side gates.
2. Head out across the heath toward the pools. Blackroot, Powell's and Longmoor are all good targets, and each has its own mood.
3. Find Icknield Street, the Roman road, which enters the park near Royal Oak Gate. Its camber is still visible, so walk a stretch of it and imagine who walked it first.
4. Loop back past Wyndley Pool, the oldest in the park and possibly 12th century, and leave well before the gates close at dusk.

Talk about:If someone could hand you one place as a gift, forever, which would you choose?

Setup.Two tickets for a timed guided tour, booked in advance. Visits are by guided tour only, so arrive a few minutes early at the corner of Hurst Street and Inge Street.

1. Book a timed tour online. Same day places are sometimes available but never guaranteed.
2. Arrive at Court 15, on the corner of Hurst Street and Inge Street.
3. Move through the houses from the 1840s to the 1970s and each quietly pick the decade you think you would have coped with best.
4. Look for the restored tailor's shop of George Saunders, who came to Birmingham from St Kitts, and ask the guide about him.
5. Browse the second hand bookshop on site, run in aid of the property, before you head back out into the city.

Talk about:What did the house you grew up in smell like?

Setup.The last hour or so of daylight, a layer for the breeze off the water, and something warm in a flask. The car park has been closed to vehicles since 2019, so plan to walk, cycle or take the bus.

1. Arrive about an hour before sunset and start the perimeter path, gravel and tarmac all the way round.
2. Pause on the dam, where the breeze comes straight across the water.
3. Find Telford's octagonal gatehouse by the entrance and tell each other the Blondin story. There is a statue of him on Ladywood Middleway nearby.
4. Finish with a short walk to look up at Perrott's Folly, a 1758 tower in Edgbaston that, with the nearby Edgbaston Waterworks tower, is sometimes linked to Tolkien's towers, though nobody has proven it.

Talk about:What is the bravest thing you have ever done that nobody was watching?

Setup.A restaurant doing weekend bottomless brunch. Reservations.

1. Order water alongside everything, important.
2. Eat the eggs first, the cocktails second.
3. Walk for at least 30 minutes after.

Setup.A train ticket to a town 60–90 minutes away. A return ticket for after dinner.

1. Take the early train. Coffee on board.
2. Walk one full loop of the town in the morning.
3. Long lunch in a place tourists do not go to.
4. Bench in the afternoon, then home on the slow train.

Setup.A farm-to-table restaurant within driving range. Booking essential.

1. Drive out late morning.
2. Order whatever the chef recommends.
3. Walk the farm or grounds afterwards.

Setup.An antiquarian or used bookshop in a literary city. Cash for small purchases. A budget.

1. Each picks the section they would never otherwise visit.
2. Spend 30 minutes there. Pick one book.
3. Reveal at the till.
4. Read at a café for 30 minutes before walking on.

Setup.A Christmas market in December. Mittens, hats, cash for the stalls.

1. Glühwein first, the mug is your warming tool.
2. Walk the market once before any food.
3. Pick one ornament you both like, ban impulse buys after.
4. End at a Christmas concert if there is one nearby.

Setup.Off-peak return ticket to a coastal town. A backpack with layers, a book each.

1. Catch a train before 11am.
2. Walk the seafront. Eat fish and chips.
3. Spend an hour on the beach reading.
4. Train back before sunset.

Setup.A pick-your-own orchard within an hour's drive. Autumn weekends.

1. Go early to skip the queue.
2. Pick more than you think, they keep.
3. Cider doughnut and hot apple cider before driving home.

Setup.A pub running weekly trivia. A team name. A pen.

1. Order food before the quiz starts.
2. Argue every contested answer.
3. Stay for the prize round even if you cannot win.

Setup.A blanket, dinner from the fridge, a bottle to share, a torch. A patch of grass with a sky view.

1. Leave home an hour before sunset. Walk if you can.
2. Eat slowly while the light goes.
3. Lie down for the last hour. No phones except for a star app.
4. Walk back the long way.

Setup.A stack of old magazines, scissors each, a piece of cardboard each, glue, two sharpies.

1. Each makes their own board. No discussing while you make it.
2. Reveal at the same time. Each presents theirs in two minutes.
3. Make a third board together with the overlap from the two.
4. Hang the third one where you both see it daily.

Setup.A real antique store, not a curated boutique. An hour of free time.

1. Walk slowly. Touch what you are allowed to.
2. Pick the most absurd object. Each makes a case for buying it.
3. Learn one thing about one object from the owner.
4. Buy nothing, or buy one small useful thing.

Setup.An omakase sushi counter. Booking required for most.

1. Sit at the counter, not a table.
2. Eat each piece in two bites max, within a minute.
3. Tip in cash if you can.