What Coventry has to offer

The range of activities, events, and opportunities available to groups of friends while off-campus

One great thing about the University of Warwick campus is that it’s self-contained, however on occasion it’s great to take a short trip off-campus to do things with friends. Despite Coventry’s reputation, it has many things to offer to students for a day trip, afternoon out, or a night out.

Day Trips:

As Coventry is a city of history, it offers a large range of things to do. Some of the main things to do if family visit or do with friends includes visiting the local Herbert Art Gallery, the Transport Museum, or maybe you would prefer to visit the independent places like the Coventry Music Museum. If you want something a little more outdoors then the ruins as well as the new Coventry Cathedral are a good place for you to take in historical information or to just marvel at both spaces. All of these locations are within walking distance of the city centre and with the student-friendly priced bus tickets straight from campus it’s quite easy to find something for you to do.

Afternoons out:

If you fancy something that takes up a little less time out of a full day, maybe consider doing indoor activities with friends. The popular ones from students who live on campus tend to be places like: the cat cafe (The Cat Lounge), paintballing, pottery painting, attending the game board cafe, mini golfing, or even exploring the range of vintage/thrift stores within the city. Again, all within walking distance and maybe slightly hidden away from the city centre, but worth the visit.

Nights out:

One of the main things that concerns students is the range of places to go out in the evenings. There is a choice of bars and clubs to choose from in Coventry, the most popular one being Kasbah. The bus route is easy and the venue plays music that tends to reach to a wider audience than the clubs in Leamington. My personal favourite if I’m going out in Coventry has to be The Empire in the city centre. Not only is it a great place for club nights, but a very good venue for live music and probably the go-to venue if you prefer indie or rock music. In addition to this, Coventry’s title as The City of Culture means that new opportunities are presenting themselves all the time to get the students in University of Warwick and Coventry University involved. The most recent event was Radio 1’s Big Weekend which was widely popular with the students on-campus.

Transport:

Possibly one of the most useful and practical services within Coventry is its public transport. If you live far then it’s probably more convenient for you to get the train to visit family at home, or just go on a trip. For me, I only live an hour away in the car, so if I want to travel home then it’s incredibly easy for me to get a bus into the city centre, and get a coach from there to home. While taking the coach is also one of the cheapest options (depending on where you live), there are various types of coach cards available to young people to help with the cost of travel and they are totally worth it.

While this is only a taster into what Coventry can offer you as a student, there is something for everyone and has a lot of interesting sites, historical as well as contemporary.