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Resorts World and the NEC, next door
The airport's closest neighbour is a full leisure complex, and behind it the exhibition halls that draw people to this corner of the Midlands in the first place.
Most airports offer a coffee and a long wait. Birmingham has Resorts World a few minutes away, an indoor leisure complex on the NEC campus with a designer outlet mall, a Cineworld with an IMAX screen, a Genting casino, a Hollywood Bowl for bowling and arcades, escape rooms, and a run of restaurants from Miller and Carter and Zizzi to Las Iguanas, several with a Sky Bar view over the lake. It is open late, it is indoors end to end, and it turns a dead afternoon before an evening flight, or a long wait to collect someone, into something better than a departure lounge.
Behind it sits the reason the complex exists: the National Exhibition Centre, the NEC, one of the country's biggest exhibition and events venues, with a concert arena alongside. Whether there is anything on depends entirely on the day, a trade show, a craft fair, a gig, so it is worth checking the NEC's listings before you plan around it, but if your trip happens to land on a big event, it is on the airport's doorstep. Many travellers here are in town for exactly that, which is why the airport hotels cluster around the NEC and fill up when it is busy.
The Bear Grylls Adventure
The standout for families and thrill-seekers sits right beside Resorts World: an indoor adventure park with genuine bite.
The single best-known attraction next to the airport is the Bear Grylls Adventure, at the NEC beside Resorts World. It is an indoor adventure venue built around doing rather than watching: iFLY indoor skydiving in a vertical wind tunnel, a tall climbing and high-ropes complex, archery and shooting ranges, and a dive tank you can snorkel or scuba in, sharks included. It suits older children, teenagers and adults after something more memorable than a cinema, and the activities are booked individually or in bundles.
It is a ticketed attraction and a popular one, so it rewards booking ahead rather than turning up, and the bigger activities like the skydiving and the dive have set session times. For a family with a half-day to fill near the airport, whether side of a flight or visiting the area, it is the obvious answer, and it is a couple of minutes from Resorts World if you want to fold in a meal or a film around it.
Into Birmingham, if you have longer
A few hours spare landside puts one of Britain's biggest city centres within easy reach by train.
If the gap is measured in hours rather than a whole day, Birmingham itself is close. Trains from Birmingham International, the station reached on the free airport rail link, run into Birmingham New Street in about ten minutes, dropping you in the heart of the city: the Bullring and Grand Central shopping, the restored canals around Brindleyplace, the museums and the restaurants of the centre. It is a genuinely usable option for a long layover or an afternoon before an evening flight, in a way few UK airports can match.
The honest caveat is time. A city trip means allowing comfortably for the round journey plus getting back through check-in and security, so it suits a landside wait of several hours, not a quick turn. If you are meeting or seeing off a traveller with time to spare, it is a better way to spend it than the terminal; the transport hub and the train guide cover the connections and fares, and the arrivals board keeps you honest on timing if you are heading back for a landing.
Getting there, and the airside catch
The free rail link makes the NEC and Resorts World a few minutes away; the one thing to watch is which side of security you are on.
Getting to all of this is easy and mostly free. The Air-Rail Link people-mover connects the terminal to Birmingham International station in about 90 seconds, running every couple of minutes, and from the station a covered bridge leads straight to the NEC and Resorts World on foot. For the city and beyond, the same station is your rail head. So the NEC, Resorts World and the Bear Grylls Adventure are all a short, step-free hop from the doors, no car or taxi needed; the train and Air-Rail Link guide has the detail.
The one catch is the border. Everything here is landside and off-airport, so it only works if you have not yet gone through security, or if you have arrived and cleared passport control. On a connecting flight, leaving to visit means clearing immigration and then re-clearing security for your onward flight, with the queues and rules that involves, so it is realistic only for a long layover, not a tight one. For a wait you would rather spend inside the terminal, the facilities guide and the shops and lounges cover what is airside.