Worth the drive from York to Birmingham?

Is there a reason for going to Birmingham? It's more of a working city than a tourist one, a;though there are places to see. They do have a really good Christmas Market there, so perhaps that's your reason. Be aware that it will be VERY busy at the weekend, try to go in the week if possible.
Daylight hours in Late Nov/Early Dec will be very short. It will be dark around 4pm, which will make driving more challenging. The countryside will be quite drab too. Bare trees, mud, barely any colours apart from various shades of brown and grey.
Liverpool IMO is a better tourist option. A little out of your way but with rail links to York and London.

Birmingham is an unusual tourist choice but the Christmas market is good and the city centre has some interesting sights - the city museum/art gallery hosts an excellent Pre-Raphaelite collection and the Staffordshire Hoard, which is well worth seeing.

Birmingham is one of the cities I most hate driving in - and I speak as a person with 40 years’ experience driving in Britain. It’s huge and often baffling. The city centre is full of overpasses and underpasses and you really need to have your wits about you to get where you’re going. In the pre-GPS days I was driving a car through Birmingham with two colleagues giving me different directions about whether to go under or over and I had a nasty crash into a bollard. I’ve driven there many times since and I still get confused.

Parking can be difficult - I don’t know where you’re planning to stay but don’t assume your hotel will have parking.

There is some lovely countryside between York and Birmingham - you could detour through the Peak District, but that deserves proper time and thought.

The usual route that maps will give you is pretty much all motorways and main roads.

What Birmingham does have to offer is excellent train services. So - just to choose one example -you could catch a train to Stratford upon Avon (not quite Cotswolds but Cotswolds-adjacent) for a nice day out.

I blame Rick Steves.......

This obsession with "the Cotwolds" is down to hype. Yes, there are some pretty villages - as there are in the Peak District or Yorkshire Dales. The may be spots of outsanding scenery - but nowhere near as much as in the Peak District or Yorkshire Dales. But in my 2023 edition of the RS Great Britan guide the Cotswolds has a 50 page chapter of it's own - and the Peak District and Yorkshire Dales are missing! The BIG selling point of the Cotwolds is that it is an easy day tour from London - and it's as easy from Birmingham, but there isn't a tourist market to fill the buses there. Do you realise that in GB the most well known feature of the Cotswolds (although most don't realise that it is in the Cotswolds) is the massive USAAF bomber base at Fairford?

Anyway, your plan - it isn't terrible given that the Birmingham christmas market is a key part of it.

Train to York, yes. Walk around central York - definately.

Car v train to Birmingham? Uhmmm. If you take the fastest Google Maps/GPS route the drive is boring and follows pretty much the same route as the train which can be noticeably faster. The best trains are those that continue south from Birmingham and go to Oxford and beyond, they take less than 2 hours to Birmingham, current morning departures are 09:36 and 11:36, booked 2 months in advance they are currently £25 each in Standard class, there are other trains which are half an hour longer (still direct) at 09;42, 10:42 and 11:42 and two months in advance these are only £16.60 each. The similar driving route could be closer to 3 hours.

But you could alter the driving route to go through some very nice scenery and make this a memorable day. This would take most of the daylight hours. Drive from York to Chatsworth House ( https://www.chatsworth.org/events/christmas/ ) Ask Google Maps for directions York-Ladybower Dam then add destination Chatsworth House. Driving is about 2 hours and a lot of that is scenic. After the visit ask Google Maps for route to Oaks Green Ashbourne and then add destination Birmingham, another 2 hours driving. This would really jusitfy the car and wouldn't be possible by train.

Birmingham Christmas market, like all christmas markets, is best experienced after dusk.

Now the radical bit. If you started around 08:00 Birmingham to Heathrow could be driven via some of the Cotswolds and still allow time to check in for the flight, and the journey by train is nowhere near as easy as it should be.

Skip Birmingham, but if you must go there, take the train. A car in a large UK city is terrible.

Rather than spending a day round the Cotswolds why not do a day round the North York Moors from York instead. There are a lot of pretty villages - Hutton in the Hole immediately springs to mind...

Thank you everyone for the responses and suggestions!

Yes, the Christmas market is drawing us to Birmingham. In addition, both couples have Hyatt points and status, and there's a Hyatt Regency centrally located in Birmingham that has a club, included breakfast, saves us on lodging by using points, within walking distance to central Birmingham and the Christmas market, etc.

The two wives targeted the Cotswolds without any primer from Rick Steve's (i.e. they found the area on their own), and it seemed like it would be much cheaper to split the cost of a rental car vs. take a bus tour for four.

I've read that York is also nuts on the weekends, especially with the Christmas market going, which is why we chose York during the week, followed by Birmingham on the weekend.

I'd welcome any other feedback and suggestions, but we'll definitely look into the Peak District, North York Moors, and the suggested stops between York and Birmingham. Thanks again!

I'd recommend Manchester and Liverpool over Birmingham, personally. Didn't enjoy our brief stay in Birmingham.

I lived Birmingham adjacent for 15 years and grew up in the Cotswolds; and I worked at (and through) Birmingham New Street for many years, so I have visited the Birmingham Frankfurt Christmas Market many times, but not recently since the prices became unaffordable for me. Fun and quite a few vendors, and most are from Frankfurt but not all. Too too dear for me now tho.

Driving in Brum is not the easiest thing to do, and from my experience Brummies are not the most patient drivers. They are usually in a bit of a hurry - places to go, work to do.

Weather in early December is often wet, and even if nothing is falling from the sky the roads never dry - the sun is far too low on the horizon and weak. So glare can easily become a problem if the sun is up - rarely - and if it is wet, often, you'll be looking through the wipers at the scenery.

If I were in your shoes I'd take the much faster trains - you're counting places as 2 days, 2 nights as 2 days.and not taking travel and relocation into account on either day. Usually we consider that 2 nights gives one full sightseeing day with arrival and departure on either end.

And I'd wait to rent (hire) a car until I saw the weather forecast the evening before. I'd get it at Birmingham airport - easy to reach in 15 minutes or less and very convenient to the M42 (watch out for variable speed limits and heavy traffic, and HS2 related roadworks) and the straight but slow (lots of cameras and some are speed averaging) A452 route to Stratford upon Avon.

Cotswold villages in clear winter weather can be attractive with illuminated (white lights) trees above the doors when it is dark enough but honestly they look much more inviting in the spring, summer, and early autumn. Wet thatch (less thatch than you may imagine) is not as attractive as sun bathed thatch.

Don't want to be a downer, but it often isn't the best time to visit what are the beautiful Cotswolds. (others above are right about the other beautiful areas too, but they aren't where I grew up and they are further north so the short days are even shorter.

I hope the 4 of you have a great time. The Hyatt is reasonably will situated, and close to Gas Street Basin.