When people go there on holiday I just think why....

Exactly.

I once went to Wells next the sea, after a friend recommended it having spent years of family holidays there.

I wasnt terribly impressed tbh

Wow! Unbelievable! 🙈 How grim.

I think people born and raised in Dubai would prefer a trip to London.

I mean, who wouldn't?!
Unless you're from Dubai....then a UK seaside coastal town might sound appealing 🤔

As are yours!

You’ll get some defenders on here and to be fair, the promenade isn’t bad, and the piers are ok, but once you get one road from the front, it really is a fetid dump. It’s seriously deprived, in a way I’ve not seen in any other town or city.

On our last visit, I felt genuinely unsafe walking from the car park to the front. Every guest house seems to have become a doss house. A drug deal taking place openly in the car park. Dodgy people everywhere. And I’m not some lily-livered person who’s lived a sheltered life; I rarely feel unsafe.

I don’t want to be too harsh, as I’m sure there are bits that are fine. The real tragedy is that it could actually be amazing with a VERY large amount of money pumped in to clear it up. However, that seems very unlikely. I remember as a kid in the 80s how well kept the guesthouses were, such a shame to see it in such a state.

Aaah, Blackpool…

I was on a day-trip date with my boyfriend many years ago.

He was propositioned for sex by a prostitute in broad daylight, on the sea front - whilst we were walking hand-In-hand!!

I'd much rather go to Dubai (I went last Christmas) than Blackpool.

Oh, the irony...

That is a statement that is impossible to argue with. Well said

I’d much rather go to Blackpool than Dubai.

I used to live in a seaside holiday town with a Butlins, it’s very run down, lots of drug issues and the town centre is a dive, but sometimes when running or dog walking along the seafront I’d see families with young kids coming down into the beach who had probably never or rarely seen the sea and they were always SO excited, it was lovely to see and reminded me that there could be worse places! It’s a happy place on a sunny day when everyone’s enjoying the sea, ice creams etc. Not my destination of choice but seeing how people love it, I guess we take it for granted when we have it a few steps away from home.

@RevengeOfTheDirtyLaundry we have so many other beautiful seaside towns with lovely countryside around them: Cromer, Sheringham, Wells etc. so I’d recommend those far more!!
Yarmouth has a high crime rate, is very seedy once you go beyond the immediate coast road. As in, go 1 road inland!

blackpool has become very run down now since its hey day. It was cheap and cheerful back in the 90s, but now it’s a close relation to jaywick.

Our experience of Blackpool was nothing like this.

Lytham St Anne's is probably my dream holiday home destination once I have a few more million to spend.

Blackpool has lots of family attractions for young ones. The Lake District is gorgeous. Blackburn and Wigan have attractions for children. Martin Mere is amazing if they like birds.
And that's without really thinking or googling anything.

One of my teens says the same about Edinburgh, our home town!
People often don’t appreciate what they have.
Not that I’m saying you necessarily should appreciate it, OP. You feel how you feel and that’s fine! But often when something is so familiar to us, we just don’t see it as others do.

DH grew up going to Blackpool every year. His parents would go on and on about it and why did we go abroad when we could go there (ironic as they also went abroad). So we paid for them to go on a long weekend, they would hardly speak about it and never suggested we went again. I can imagine it wasn’t the family friendly resort they remembered.

Have to switch at Grantham, I’ve heard it’s not too bad. Brings you out right by a Lidl and Morrisons.

I mean it’s definitely something you can buy vodka slushies and stuff on the beach 🤣 but it’s not quite Blackpool horror.

I nearly booked a little weekender at Butlins but decided to do a travel instead doing a few nights here and there hotel hopping up north.

I take your point, there's not many Scots who go to Blackpool. What other immigrants don't speak English? If you went you'd see people of colour, from all over the world. Women can get a shag anywhere. Ridiculous comment.

Ah...good thinking 🙂
(It was Butlins we went to when I was a tiny baby all those years ago. There's a photo of me looking cranky 😂)

As long as you avoid Mondays and Fridays, you should ok. Mon and Fri is the Butlins changover day so its absolute bedlam.

Not counting a long weekend when I was 4 months old I have never been to Skegness.
I really want to go there for some reason. I like the idea of a very typical English seaside place.
Unfortunately I have read the train service to get there is a bit chaotic so I am not sure when I will eventually get there.