Birmingham Airport has international flights to over 88 destinations

Travel Information and Advice for Visitors to the UK

General information about the UK as well as advice on travel, health care, and security is avaliable from the Smoothound website. You can also download a copy of the information sheets sent to delegates who have registered with the meeting either in WORD format or Acrobat format.

Transportation

Birmingham is easily accessible from all parts of the UK. For those travelling from further afield Birmingham International Airport has extensive connections. More than 25 scheduled airlines operate direct flights from over 58 destinations in Europe, Scandinavia, North America and Asia, including New York, Chicago and 13 capital cities to Birmingham International Airport. Frequent flights to the main European hub airports provide convenient connections to destinations worldwide. Birmingham is also served by Flightlink connections from London's Heathrow & Gatwick Airports. The airport is situated 8 miles south-east of Birmingham and, with its own mainline station next door, access to the city centre couldn't be easier. The cost of a single ticket to Birmingham New Street by train is approximately £4.50 and the journey should take approximately 15 minutes. The cost of a taxi should be between £12.00- £15.00 and, depending on traffic, the journey can take between 20 - 45 minutes.

British Midland will offer 10% discount on economy fares and 15% discount on EuroClass fares on all their routes. For further information concerning this offer please call +44(0) 870 6070555 and quote FAR/CON/45

Travel within the UK

Birmingham is easily accessible from all parts of the UK by road, with maps available online from the multimap service. Maps are also available online from Birmingham Assist. For those planning to drive, you can use your own driving licence in the UK for up to 12 months, but do not forget to bring it with you. Please remember to drive on the left hand side of the road. Wearing seat belts in the front and back seats is compulsory. There are heavy penalties in Britain for driving whilst under the influence of alcohol. You are strongly recommended not to drink and drive. If you are travelling in the UK by car, have a look at the Shell Geostar Routeplanner.

For those wanting to make Birmingham a base to travel in the UK there are excellent railway links. Birmingham is served by two main line stations - Birmingham New Street in the city centre and Birmingham International at the Airport. The city is connected to Central London with a fast and effective services which takes just 80 minutes. With rail links running North, South, East and West travelling from any part of the country to Birmingham is easy. A full schedule of rail travel from Birmingham International can be obtained from the RailTrack website.

There are also excellent links by coach from Birmingham, full details of travel in the UK are available from the a2btravel website.