Meriden

Hotels in and around Meriden suit two rather different kinds of visitor: those coming for the quiet charm of a village built around a medieval cross and a war memorial, and those using it as a well-placed base for Birmingham, Coventry, the NEC or Birmingham Airport. The Forest of Arden Hotel & Country Club, set in its own parkland on the edge of the village, is the standout option locally, combining spa facilities, a championship golf course and two restaurants with easy access back into the village itself. Smaller, more traditional accommodation within Meriden reflects its history as a coaching stop on the old London to Chester road, with characterful rooms above some of the village's pubs and inns.

Because Meriden sits so close to major road, rail and air links, many visitors choose it deliberately over a city-centre stay, trading a few extra minutes' travel time for a genuinely rural setting and a quieter night's sleep. It works equally well as a short countryside break in its own right, a stopover for those travelling the length of England, or a base for events at the NEC and Birmingham Airport without the cost or bustle of staying in the city itself.

Meriden's own sights are modest but genuinely distinctive, and the village makes an easy, well-connected base for exploring the wider Midlands.

• The Village Cross — a weathered medieval stone cross on the green, traditionally said to mark the centre of England; the current cross was re-set on the green in 1951 to mark the Festival of Britain, though the tradition behind it is said to go back roughly 500 years.
• The Cyclists' War Memorial — a striking granite obelisk on the same green, unveiled in 1921 in memory of cyclists killed in the First World War; some 20,000 people are said to have attended its inauguration, and cyclists from across the country still gather here every May for the annual memorial service.
• Packington Estate — a private estate dating from the 1690s, its 300 acres of parkland and surviving Forest of Arden woodland occasionally open for events and walks; it remains one of the best places nearby to sense what this landscape looked like before the motorways arrived.
• Heart of England Way — the long-distance footpath runs close to the village, offering waymarked walking routes through classic Arden countryside toward Kenilworth and beyond.
• National Motorcycle Museum — a short drive away at Bickenhill, home to one of the world's largest collections of British motorcycles, a good rainy-day option for visitors staying in the area.
• Coventry Cathedral — the ruins of the medieval cathedral stand alongside Basil Spence's modern replacement, both within easy reach of Meriden and among the most striking pieces of 20th-century British architecture.
• Kenilworth Castle — the substantial red sandstone ruins of one of England's great medieval castles, with an Elizabethan garden reconstructed by English Heritage, make a rewarding half-day trip from the village.

The Bulls Head, a long-standing village pub with its own courtyard garden, serves classic British pub food and remains one of the focal points of Meriden's social life. The Warwickshire Lad, on the edge of the village, is another well-regarded country pub kitchen, popular for Sunday lunches drawing on local produce. At the Forest of Arden Hotel, the Fairway Bar & Grill offers more formal dining alongside al-fresco options in Zest, while Coventry and Solihull, both close by, widen the choice considerably for an evening out.

Meriden's setting on the old Forest of Arden makes it a pleasant base for campers exploring the Warwickshire countryside between Coventry and Birmingham, even though the village itself has little formal camping right on its doorstep. As in the rest of England, wild camping is not permitted without the landowner's express permission, so it is worth planning ahead and booking a recognised site rather than pitching in fields or woodland around Packington Estate or the wider Arden landscape. The terrain here is gentle, lowland countryside — a patchwork of hedged fields, parkland and scattered woodland rather than dramatic hills — which makes for easy, low-effort camping and straightforward cycling or walking from a base near the village.

Warwickshire's inland location means summers can be a touch warmer and drier than in much of the country, and campsites in the area tend to be at their best from late spring through to early autumn, when hedgerows and woodland along routes like the Heart of England Way are in full leaf. The annual Cyclists' Memorial Service each May, drawing riders from across the country to the village green, makes a spring camping trip a good way to combine a stay with one of Meriden's most distinctive traditions. Given the proximity to the NEC and Birmingham Airport, sites in the wider area also see a good number of visitors combining a countryside stay with events or travel.

For those who would rather not put up a tent, glamping options across Warwickshire and the wider West Midlands countryside offer a comfortable alternative — anything from shepherd's huts to safari tents — usually with the same easy access to Meriden's green, Packington's parkland and the motorway network that makes this corner of England so convenient to explore.