Cutting edge museums like the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, eclectic and innovative theatres, the famous Balti triangle and a vast selection of bars, venues, clubs and restaurants all add to the mix when it comes to great reasons to visit Birmingham this New Year. A good infrastructure connects the city to the rest of the country, but perhaps the simplest way to get to the heart of the Midlands is to fly.

Sitting to the west of the city, Birmingham International Airport is bustling 24 hours a day, with incoming flights from all over the UK and a series of terminals handling overseas arrivals too; this modern yet easy to navigate transport hub makes visiting Birmingham a pleasure. From here, there are countless way to get into the city centre, where the real Birmingham can be explored.

Just opened in 2009, the city of Birmingham has a modern and advanced monorail system that shuttles travellers to and fro between the airport and the city's New Street train station. Dubbed the Skyrail, this unique service is free of charge and departs from both ends of the track every 2 minutes, saving you time, hassle and money on your seasonal visit to Birmingham, and putting the city amongst the very best innovators when it comes to transport in Europe.

Affordable and good value, car rental agencies have desks at arrivals and many of them offer partnership discounts with several airlines, as the airport and city are connected by the M6 and M42. Likewise a shuttle coach service is operated by National Express that transits to and from the airport to the city's bus station and also the nearby Digbeth Coach Station, which is the hub for UK coach travel. Check out the National Express website too, as cheaper fares can usually be found if you book well in advance. Local buses stop just outside the passenger terminals and cover the city centre and greater Birmingham, and obviously offer travellers the cheapest alternative for getting into Birmingham from Birmingham International Airport. The 900 Airlink in particular operates between the airport and the city centre every 20 minutes during the day, and every 30 minutes in the evenings and weekends, providing a direct route into the heart of the city.

If you've landed at Birmingham International Airport and don't plan to travel into the city straight away, or are just stopping off en-route elsewhere, there are several great Birmingham hotels found right next to the airport, providing a good value and convenient night's rest. Reliable hotel groups like Etap, Ibis and Novotel all have hotels within easy walking distance of the airport terminals.

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