Fourteen Solihull days out with details checked on each venue's own site: free Green Flag parks, £6.60 walled gardens, moated manors and 1,000 motorbikes.

Solihull’s days out split neatly in two: a run of genuinely good free parks, canal walks and villages, and a handful of paid attractions, from a walled 1700s garden at £6.60 to two moated National Trust manors. Every venue below was checked against its own website before publishing, with prices and opening details as published on 8 August 2026; where something has quietly closed, we say so rather than send you there.

The free layer: parks that hold Green Flags

  • Tudor Grange Park, beside the town centre, is the borough’s headline park, and its leisure centre on Blossomfield Road is run by Everyone Active: an eight-lane 25m pool with learner and diving pools, a 150-station gym, indoor tennis and an eight-lane floodlit 400m athletics track.
  • Malvern and Brueton Parks are “two parks in one” on the town’s south-east edge, along the River Blythe. The river was restored through the park from 2025, and the council and Veolia unveiled the first phase of Malvern Park’s 100-year milestone project this year.
  • Babbs Mill Local Nature Reserve in Kingshurst is the north’s wild space: lake, meadows and a family play area, council-run and free.
  • For a round-up line rather than a destination trip: Elmdon Nature Park, Hillfield Park, Shirley Park and Meriden Park (which, confusingly, is in Chelmsley Wood, not Meriden village) all hold Green Flags too.

The best free walk: Knowle Locks

The Grand Union Canal climbs through Knowle Locks, a flight of five wide locks in open country ten minutes’ walk from Knowle High Street. Make it a loop with The Knowle Society’s free heritage walk leaflets (Walk Two, “Cottages & Locks”, covers the canal), and finish in the village, whose church and timbered high street are the prettiest streetscape in the borough. Neighbouring Knowle Park and Dorridge Park (with its own wood, a local nature reserve) are both Green Flag parks.

What the paid days out cost

Adult entry prices at Solihull area attractions, August 2026 Horizontal bar chart of adult entry prices, checked on each venue's own site on 8 August 2026. Parks, Knowle Locks, Touchwood: free. Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens 6 pounds 60 including donation. Packwood House garden and park only 12 pounds. National Motorcycle Museum 17 pounds. Packwood House whole property 18 pounds. Baddesley Clinton 18 pounds. National Trust properties are free for members; family tickets are 45 pounds at Packwood, Baddesley Clinton and the Motorcycle Museum. What an adult pays, checked venue by venue Entry prices from each venue's own website, 8 August 2026 Parks, locks, Touchwood Free Castle Bromwich Gardens £6.60 Packwood (garden & park) £12.00 Motorcycle Museum £17.00 Packwood House (all) £18.00 Baddesley Clinton £18.00 Children: £3 at Castle Bromwich (2-16), £9 at both National Trust houses (5-17), £10 at the Motorcycle Museum (5-15). Family tickets are £45 at all three big paid venues. NT members go free. Sources: each venue's own website, checked 8 August 2026. Gift Aid prices at the NT houses are £19.80. Planet Ice skating is priced at booking; Cineworld and The Core price per show.
The whole paid tier runs £6.60 to £18 for an adult; every family ticket in the borough's big three lands on the same £45.

The paid days out, in detail

National Motorcycle Museum (Bickenhill, by M42 junction 6) holds more than 1,000 restored British motorcycles with over 850 on display, and opens every day of the year except the Christmas and New Year holidays, 8:30am to 5:30pm (last entry 4:30pm). Adults £17, children 5 to 15 £10, family £45, fully cashless. Its free “Museum Live” open weekend runs each late October.

Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens (the trust brands them Castle Bromwich Historic Gardens) are ten acres of walled formal gardens laid out around 1700, plus 30 acres of parkland nature reserve. Open Wednesday to Sunday and bank holidays, 10:30am to 4:30pm, no booking needed; adults £6.60 with donation, children 2 to 16 £3. The best-value paid outing in the borough.

Packwood House (Lapworth, just over the Warwickshire line from Hockley Heath) is the National Trust’s much-restored Tudor house with its famous yew topiary: whole property £18 adult, £9 child, £45 family; garden and park only £12; members free. Its “Summer of Play” programme runs to 31 August. Baddesley Clinton, the moated manor hidden in the Forest of Arden near Rising Lane, prices identically at £18/£9/£45. The two are close enough to pair in a day if you have membership; paying for both in one day is £36 a head, so non-members should pick one.

Town centre: Touchwood, the Core and the ice

Touchwood anchors the town centre with more than 80 stores (including John Lewis and Apple), 20-plus restaurants and the Victorian arcades off the High Street. The Core Theatre, the council-run theatre on Theatre Square beside Touchwood, carries touring shows, films, family events and courses (box office 0121 704 6962), and Cineworld’s nine-screen Solihull cinema sits on Touchwood’s first floor.

Out at Hobs Moat Road, Planet Ice Solihull runs public skating through the week: weekdays 10:45am to 4:30pm plus Wednesday and Friday evening sessions, weekends 11am to 3:45pm with Sunday afternoon and evening sessions. Prices are shown at online booking, so book ahead rather than turning up on a busy Saturday.

The NEC corner, honestly described

The NEC is in the borough, and its exhibitions calendar is the single biggest what’s-on generator locally, paired with Cineworld NEC’s 11 screens and IMAX in the Resorts World complex. One warning for anyone working from old listicles: the Bear Grylls Adventure has closed; its website now redirects to the brand’s general site rather than any NEC attraction, so strike it from the itinerary.

Afternoon tea

Hogarths Solihull, an independent hotel in 27 acres of woodland on the Dorridge side, serves afternoon tea in its art deco tea lounge daily alongside breakfast, lunch and dinner: the standard special-occasion answer locally, fifteen minutes from the airport.

Frequently asked questions

What is there to do in Solihull for free?

The Green Flag parks (Tudor Grange, Malvern and Brueton, Babbs Mill, Knowle, Dorridge, Elmdon, Hillfield, Shirley, Meriden Park), the Knowle Locks canal walk with the Knowle Society’s free heritage leaflets, and Touchwood and the town centre. That is a genuinely strong free tier.

What can you do in Solihull with kids?

Babbs Mill’s play area and lake, skating at Planet Ice, Packwood’s Summer of Play (to 31 August), the Motorcycle Museum (£10 for children 5 to 15, £45 family) and Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens, where a child ticket is £3.

Is the Bear Grylls Adventure at the NEC still open?

No. Its own website no longer exists as an attraction site; the domain redirects to the general Bear Grylls brand page. Many round-ups still list it; do not plan a trip around it.

How much is the National Motorcycle Museum?

£17 for adults, £10 for children 5 to 15, £45 for a family, cashless only, open 8:30am to 5:30pm every day outside the Christmas and New Year closures, per the museum’s own site.

Are Packwood House and Baddesley Clinton in Solihull?

They sit just over the Warwickshire boundary by Hockley Heath and Rising Lane, minutes from Knowle and Dorridge, which is why every Solihull list includes them. Both are National Trust, both £18 adult / £45 family, free to members.

What else is nearby?

The NEC’s events calendar, plus everything a 10-minute train into Birmingham opens up. For getting around the borough itself, including the airport-corridor works, see roadworks and travel; if a day out turns into wanting to live here, start with house prices.

Sources

Every price and opening time above was checked against the venue’s own website on 8 August 2026; venues change hours seasonally, so confirm before a special trip.