Birmingham, Unfiltered

Drop your bags at your city-centre base — you'll want somewhere within walking distance of the civic core to make the most of the day ahead.

Start where the city's story is told best. BMAG's Pre-Raphaelite collection is one of the finest anywhere, and the grand Victorian rooms add their own atmosphere — all before you've had lunch.

A short stroll to Fleet Street brings you to Itihaas, one of the city's most celebrated Indian restaurants. The cooking draws on regional traditions from across the subcontinent — a fitting lunch in a city that helped shape British-Indian cuisine.

Step inside this Roman temple-inspired concert hall, completed in 1834. Even outside of a performance, the building's presence on Victoria Square is worth a proper look — its portico columns are genuinely impressive up close.

The National Trust's Back to Backs on Hurst Street are the last surviving court of back-to-back houses in Birmingham. Guided tours take you through homes frozen at different points in history — a vivid, human-scale counterpoint to the civic grandeur of the morning.

Wind down the day at The Shakespeare, a well-worn city-centre pub with bags of character. It's the kind of place that feels like it has been here forever — because it essentially has.

End the evening with precision Japanese cooking at Takumi. The menu rewards those who take their time with it — a considered close to a day spent exploring the city's layers.

The Jewellery Quarter is a neighbourhood like nowhere else in Britain, and this museum — built around a perfectly preserved workshop — explains why. Smith & Pepper's factory stopped production in 1981 and was left almost exactly as it was; walking through it feels uncannily real.

A two-minute walk from the quarter's heart, St Paul's sits in its own leafy square — a rare pocket of Georgian calm in an otherwise busy part of the city. Step inside for the stained glass and the quiet.

Tuck into lunch at Tung Lok on Bath Passage, a compact Chinese restaurant that keeps it focused and does it well. A satisfying midday stop before an afternoon on the water.

Housed in a striking neo-Gothic former school in Brindleyplace, Ikon is one of the UK's leading contemporary art spaces. Admission is free, the programming is consistently adventurous, and the building alone is worth the visit.

Follow the canal towpath west to the Galton Valley Canal Museum, where the story of Birmingham's extraordinary waterway network comes into focus. The Galton Valley itself features one of Telford's great engineering achievements — the landscape alone makes the trip worthwhile.

Back in the canalside quarter, Gas Street Social in Brindleyplace is the ideal spot to rest your legs with a drink by the water. The atmosphere shifts gear pleasantly as the early evening crowd arrives.

Head to The Waters Edge for dinner at Las Iguanas, where the Latin American menu — caipirinhas, sharing plates, bold spice — matches the energy of a Friday night along the canal.

Finish the evening at Tap & Spile in the Gas Quarter — a proper ale house a short walk from the waterfront. Good cask beer, no fuss, a fine end to the day.

Thinktank at Millennium Point is one of the best science museums outside London — its collection spans the Industrial Revolution steam engines that helped build modern Birmingham right through to space exploration. Allow a good couple of hours; it earns them.

A warming, sociable lunch at Happy Lamb Hot Pot, where the broth-based format encourages lingering over the table. Choose your soup base, load up your ingredients, and take a proper break from the sightseeing pace.

On the University of Birmingham campus, the Lapworth is a hidden-free, beautifully presented geology museum with fossil collections and mineral displays that span billions of years. The Victorian cast-iron interior is as impressive as the specimens.

Also on the university campus — a five-minute walk from Lapworth — the Barber Institute holds an astonishingly rich collection: Monet, Degas, Rubens, Van Gogh, all free to view. It consistently surprises visitors who expect far less.

Return to the city centre and settle in at Pennyblacks in Brindleyplace for the early evening. A relaxed bar with a good drinks list — the right pace for winding down before a final dinner.

Close the trip with dinner at La Galleria on Ethel Street, an Italian restaurant that keeps things classic without being predictable. A fitting, unhurried final meal before you head off.