Though we are 10-12 minutes drive from Birmingham city centre, with hundreds of shops etc and the beautiful buildings near the Library, Bullring etc etc, I have chosen for a few years now, to do most of our non food shopping at Westfield Merry Hill in Dudley. Its 30 minutes away. A few of my reasons.
1) Most important - plenty of parking and free. Underground, multistorey, outdoor, all around the centre, so you can choose where you need to be closest to. On a day like today, 2 days before Christmas, dragged the children to Merry Hill and found ample parking in the basement of the multistorey within a few minutes. A few years ago, we spent Sat and Sundays waiting in the long line of cars for hours to get into the Bullring. Last Sunday, ventured to city centre looking for a gilet, to come back an hour later, fed up of the long lines to park and traffic jams. City Centre has a fabulous atmosphere and is great to get to on public transport, just not to drive to in the festive season.
2) Huge selection of shops - miles ahead of the other shopping centres in North and South Brum. There's Eat Central, with around 15 eateries, plus the ubiquitous chains dotted around. The only shops I miss which are in city centre are Zara and House of Fraser. No Selfridges or Harvey Nichols for that kind of shopping.
3) Largely free children's activities in the holidays - my children have seen Mr Tumble, Ben and Holly, Peppa Pig, Charley Bear and around 5 more CBeebies characters, got given goodie bags for all kinds of shows and things and have been sent freebie vouchers in the post - with their Kids Club. Lots of the restaurants have children's meals for around £2-3, which are not the standard chicken nuggets/fish fingers. There is a lovely indoor children's play area free to use where the children have enjoyed many play sessions and 2 outdoor play areas. Lots of toilets, always clean and a separate baby change toilet with play facilities, baby change, toddler toilets etc.
Can go on but this is a long enough post and the shopping needs to be sorted out/wrapped up etc!
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