Hey :)

I've not been playing DnD too long and usually play online using Roll20 or other VTTs.

I've just got a group of 5 friends together and started DMing the Lost Mines of Phandelver (in person).

I'm looking at the maps in the book and they seem really small. The scale makes sense but it doesn't seem to allow much room for movement.

I was thinking about making customs maps and blowing them up to A1/A0 but realised if I still use the 1inch grid I'd have to go to x2 A0 for some of the maps.
I'm thinking 1/2 inch grid would be better but I can't seem to find a decent selection of 15mm miniatures..

Any advice on what to do about map and grid size and also where to find small miniatures to fit?

Thanks in advance :)

There are a few schools of thought on this. Basically, though, the maps in the book are primarily a tool for you to know the layout of the dungeon. The players need the layout of the single space they're actually fighting in, not the whole dungeon. I sometimes just sketch out the area on a blank grid with a pencil, and that's technically all you need. (I've also never once used anything that was originally intended to be a miniature, though; take my input with a grain of salt.)

But maps, fancy maps, are nice to look at. Everybody likes maps because they're fun. If you have the ability to blow up and print out the maps as shown in the book, you might as well go for the inch grid and split across multiple sheets. Though it might be interesting to cut them up into "tiles" so you can layer in rooms as the players reach them?