AC Hotel Birmingham - Anniversary Break

As I mentioned in my life update earlier this week, it was our second wedding anniversary on Tuesday, and to celebrate my husband wanted to take me away on a day trip shopping. We thought we'd make a full day of it and, rather than travel back at stupid o'clock at night, decided we would stay over. Now, I've stayed in Birmingham several times before, but always somewhere cheap and cheerful. As it was our anniversary we wanted to go for something a little more special, but without completely blowing the budget. After much searching online, I came across the AC Hotel, which is part of the Marriott hotel chain.


The rooms are very sleek and modern, not one for if you're a fan of a bit of colour, but I like to keep things very neutral anyway! The king size bed was absolutely massive, I think it must have been a super king. When my husband & I lay out on either side of the bed you could probably have fit another two people in the middle - I felt like I was sleeping miles apart from him! As well as being huge, the bed was also really comfy, with really plump pillows.

The hotel room had all of the basic facilities you'd need. We weren't in room for long at a time, it was just a stop gap and somewhere to sleep for us, which is a good job really as we had no idea how to get the tv working! One fancy extra to the room was a Nespresso machine. I'm not a big fan, so I didn't take advantage - if it had been Tassimo it would be a whole other story! We did however take advantage of the free wifi, which was a little slow going at first but once we reconnected, we were able to get some YouTube videos playing whilst we were getting ready to go out.

The bathroom again had the same modern decor, I absolutely loved the sink. It came with all the usual toiletries, which were surprisingly good for hotel smellies, and plenty of towels. The walk in shower was really generous in size, Whilst not being the most powerful, it still did the trick.

We didn't venture around the hotel much outside of our room, but I know there are gym facilities available, something I might have used if our stay had been longer than one night. The bar area was again really modern and well presented - the bar itself looked really swanky. Although we didn't have much dealing with the staff, as we had everything we wanted, they were always very pleasant, and useful when we did have one problem with the lifts (you have to hold you room card to the sensor to use them - very confusing!).

We opted for a canal view room, which was lovely, and quite a nice view considering we were in the centre of Birmingham. In terms of location, that was what sold the hotel to me really. It's located in The Mailbox, so just a five minute walk away from New Street Station and the Bullring, as well as being surrounded by different restaurants. As it turned out, it was right next door to our restaurant of choice, Zizzi, which turned out to be quite handy as it was pouring down with rain when we left for dinner! Being so close to all of the action does come with a slight price though, as there was a little bit of noise as the restaurants were shutting up for the evening, but nothing too bad, and you couldn't hear people as they walked around outside at all.

I'd really recommend this hotel if you're looking for somewhere convenient to stay, but fancy something a little nicer than your standard Travelodge. Our room was just over £100 for the night, which isn't too bad considering it was just after the bank holiday weekend, though that didn't include breakfast (you could add that for around £10-15 extra). I'd definitely book this again for another shopping trip to Birmingham. You can check out more info here.