Where to stay in Birmingham: hotels by neighbourhood

Stay on Colmore Row or Church Street in B3 if it is your first time. You are a few minutes from New Street, Snow Hill and the Cathedral, and two of the city's best Victorian buildings now have beds in them. If you want the cut outside the window, go to the Mailbox. If you want a quiet street and a pub downstairs, go to Edgbaston. Here is where to stay in Birmingham, by neighbourhood, with the buildings that make each one worth the money.

Colmore Row and Church Street: the Victorian end

This is the business district, which means handsome stone, good bars and weekend rates that come down when the office crowd goes home. Two hotels here are reasons to visit on their own.

The Grand Hotel, Colmore Row

The Grand opened in 1879, built by Isaac Horton to designs by Thomson Plevins, and it faces the Cathedral across the churchyard. It sat closed for nearly 20 years before a £50 million restoration brought it back. Rooms run from the Grand Room and Grand Loft up to a penthouse suite. Downstairs there is the Madeleine Bar, which does afternoon tea from Wednesday to Sunday and Champagne after dark, Isaac's brasserie with a Sunday roast, a garden terrace in summer and Downstairs at the Grand, a late bar with live music. You could check in on Friday and not leave the building until Sunday. Nobody would blame you.

Hotel du Vin, Church Street

Round the corner, Hotel du Vin fills a restored Victorian eye hospital from 1884. It has 66 rooms and suites, a Bistro du Vin doing French cooking with local produce, and a proper bar. It is the choice for people who like their hotel to feel like a townhouse rather than a conference centre.

The Mailbox and the Cube: stay on the cut

Birmingham's canals are the best thing about the centre after dark, and this is the place to sleep next to them. Gas Street Basin and Brindleyplace are a short towpath walk away, and New Street station is just over the road.

Malmaison, the Mailbox

Malmaison is at 1 Wharfside Street, inside the Mailbox, which was the Royal Mail sorting office. The Michelin Guide lists 193 rooms, a brasserie and a spa, with the canal on one side and the station on the other. Dark woods, white linen, big rooms. It does the job well.

Hotel Indigo, the Cube

Next door is the Cube, the block by Ken Shuttleworth of Make Architects, finished in 2010 as the last phase of the Mailbox. It backs on to the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. Hotel Indigo has a health club and spa on the ground floor and shares the top of the cube, so ask for a high room. The views over the city are the point.

The Rotunda: sleep in the skyline

The Rotunda is the cylinder at the top of New Street that every Brummie gives directions by. It went up between 1961 and 1965 as offices, to designs by James A. Roberts for the original Bull Ring, and it has been Grade II listed since 2000. Urban Splash and Glenn Howells Architects turned it into flats between 2004 and 2008, and the whole 19th floor and one 20th-floor penthouse are run as serviced apartments by Staying Cool. That is fourteen apartments with a kitchen, a round window wall and the Bull Ring markets at your feet. For a group, or anyone who wants to cook breakfast, it is the most Birmingham place to stay in Birmingham.

Edgbaston: trees, cricket and a pub with rooms

Edgbaston starts just south-west of Five Ways, and in the 19th century the Calthorpe family kept factories and warehouses out of it. You can still tell. The streets are wide, the houses are big and it is quiet at night. Edgbaston Cricket Ground, home of Warwickshire and capable of holding 25,000, is here, as are the Botanical Gardens and the University of Birmingham.

The High Field Town House is the pick. It has 12 rooms with The High Field, a Peach pub with a big garden and a sunny terrace, at 22 High Field Road. Breakfast is downstairs, dinner is downstairs and a pint in the garden is downstairs. For a Test match or a graduation weekend, book early. The trams now run all the way to Edgbaston Village, so the centre is easy without a taxi.

How to choose

• First visit, or a weekend of eating out: Colmore Row and Church Street, B3. The Grand or Hotel du Vin.
• Arriving by train with a canal walk in mind: the Mailbox, B1. Malmaison or Hotel Indigo.
• A group, or a few nights with a kitchen: the Rotunda, B5. Staying Cool.
• Cricket, the university or a quieter night: Edgbaston, B15. The High Field Town House.

A few practical notes

Weekend prices in the business district often drop when the office trade empties out, while concert and conference weeks push everything up, so check what is on at the arena and the convention centre before you book. Birmingham is compact: nearly everything in this guide sits within the ring road or a short tram ride outside it. If you are driving, note that the city centre is a Clean Air Zone, and plan parking before you set off. Then leave the car and walk. The city is better on foot.