To wonder if blackpool is as bad as they say?

[Chefpig]

I'm hoping to plan a short break somewhere and blackpool is cheap. Is it as bad as people say though?

Same. The kids wanted to go to the Pleasure Beach - this was actually better than it was when I was a kid tbh, much more polished and no longer somewhere people could go just to hang around in big groups.
I would have been very upset if we'd chosen to stay in Blackpool, it's so run down and grotty. Cheap and cheerless is the only way I could describe it.

My mum lives nearby.

it’s got lots of good things to entertain small kids - the beach, sea life centre, the pleasure beach. My dc used to love ripley’s beleive it or not.

we used to go ice skating at the rink in the pleasure beach and we’ve been to a few shows at the winter gardens.

in the daytime, in the summer it’s great. Winter less good.

So it’s a shit hole, I’d put it up there as one of the worst places in the UK. And the accent is vile.

I used to travel to Blackpool for work as I had some sour, negative Nancys who I managed over there, that completely singled me out and isolated me. Visiting Blackpool was horrendous in every way, no less because I was away from my own family and stuck in some shitty hotel seeing these colleagues.

I took great pleasure in saying they “lived in a nice area and thank you for being such a good host”. Obviously neither were true, we both knew that. But it was one of those comments that no one could detect that I was being sarcastic aside from the recipient, and if she wanted to be a bitch about it, she’d be exposed for her true colours.

Out of season it is much better and mid week. If you go to the far northern end, the are hotels and nice prom walks without any of the tat and can be very quite. Beach and promenade are great. To the south, Latham St Anne’s is lovely and very close. The tram system is great and there are some excellent fish restaurants. You can have a decent time there , if you choose well. I took dgc around Christmas to go through the lights and we had a wonderful day out. With a weekend break, but some of the hotels are too cheap, not clean and serve canteen frozen food, so do your research

It’s quite rough and rundown in places. However there’s so much to do with the kids. They love it. The waterpark is fab, the pleasure beach is decent and then there’s the tower, the circus, the amusements. Lots of fun to be had and bring ur wallet as it all adds up. Can be an expensive wkend. If you’re not going with kids I’d avoid like the plague though.

When do you want to go?

There's a shitload of deprivation there and I imagine it must be awful in the off season. If you go during summer and/or for the lights, it'll suit you if you like that kind of thing and aren't put off by being in close proximity to social problems.

Basically what it does have going for it is a lot of stuff to do in a concentrated area.

We live around an hour away and it was always our "go to" place for shows, the fairgrounds, shopping, beach, zoo, tower, Palace nightclub, ice skating, etc etc. We'd go at least one a month for something or other, for around 30 years, from being teens with parents, going with my boyfriend in our 20s, taking our son in our 30s, etc.

Over the years, we've gone less and less. Maybe once a year pre covid, and saw it's demise, just like most run down seaside resorts. The authorities filled the run down boarding house with druggies and newly released prisoners, and that hastened the demise due to the street crime, anti social behaviour, etc.

Now that most of the shops have gone, it's not even somewhere to go to the shops anymore. Last time we went was a couple of years ago, and it was absolutely awful. Central prom is OK, but as soon as you go a street or two back, it's dire - derelict/burned out buildings, lots of "undesirables" hanging around street corners etc. We have no plans to go back!

We’ve been with our kids a few times on the way to the Lakes on holiday (from Devon so nice to break up the journey). We’ve always stayed for two nights in one of the hotels next to the Pleasure Beach. You can get good deals including Pleasure Beach tickets. We get the tram to the Tower and I love looking at all the comedy quotes on the pavement there. A bit of time in the arcades then we head off. My husband goes off taking photos as he’s fascinated by grotty old buildings. Never had any issues but were I it there a couple of days and most of it in the Pleasure Beach.

I had to take my daughter to a dance competition there last summer. It was horrendous, we felt really unsafe after dark and not much better during the day.

I'd go literally anywhere else.

If you stick to the front and the piers, especially towards the central and north bay, and are just interested in some tacky, rough and ready fun, for a single day, you’ll be fine. However, beyond that it’s one of the most deprived, run down, and generally awful places I’ve been to in the UK.

It started in the car park where we were delighted to witness a drug deal.

The walk from the car park to the front just felt completely unsafe. People clearly high on drugs, what were once well-kept guesthouses and hotels converted into tatty HMOs, litter and grime everywhere. There was one street in particular - and this is no exaggeration - looked almost post-apocalyptic.

I’m not a cosseted middle class person who is usually shocked by this kind of thing - I’m from a run-down working class town and live in a large city with its own problems, but I have never seen anything worse.

That said, they’ve clearly spend a decent amount on the front; the tower is iconic; and the piers are reasonable if you want traditional tacky entertainment (and who doesn’t, occasionally) and those parts feel relatively safe.

I would pick your accommodation very very carefully.

Yeah, we've been for visits to the pleasure beach, Sandcastle water park, and the Dungeons, which are all fine, but it's not somewhere you particularly want to hang around after.

Maybe not quite as bad as some people say though!

I took my 10 year old DS when everything opened up again after lockdowns. I chose it because there is lots to do.
We stayed 2 nights and did : Zoo, Tower, Tower Circus, Dungeons, wax works, quieter Arcades, Aquarium/Sea Life Centre. Theres an indoor waterpark type place and obviously the rides (son declined these 2). Trams are a novelty.
I didn't feel unsafe at all, so suprised to read that in PP.
Rained the whole time - torrential at the Zoo.
Son struggles in busy places, this was exacerbated by lockdowns.
He was like a rabbit in the head lights the first evening, hence change of plans to Zoo the next day,and quieter arcades. He did fine after that.
Accomodation was a hotel facing the sea - it was like stepping back to the 70's 😳
We enjoyed it on the whole, but it is rundown.

In places it is rather depressing and rundown. I went for family connections - the tower was fun and a trip on the trams.
Could be worth staying further out and just visiting anything you want in Blackpool itself.
Only went out during the day.

You can have a good holiday in Blackpool. The Tower is great with kids imo and the beach is nice when it's warm. There's the Pleasure Beach and they can get some good touring shows. Daytrip is possible to the Lake District. Zoo. Fish and chips.

I'm fond of it, but I am aware of drug use, homelessness and poverty when I'm there. I don't feel safe walking around alone at night.

I live less than 10 miles away, havent been for years. Its very run down, very tacky and feels unsafe at times. The winter gardens are pushing alot of very good shows and its ok if you park in houdshill across the road. With kids for a weekend id avoid, lytham is lovely, St Annes is a little decayed but fine

It’s absolutely dire. I live in a city that has a reputation for being rough and has a lot of derivation, but when I came back from Blackpool I felt like I was coming back to civilisation.
I was only there for a competition in a sport I was involved in, I can’t for the life of me understand why anyone would choose to holiday there. Yes it has some entertainment and attractions, but those things also exist in other places that are nicer. Even other seaside towns like Bridlington, Scarborough etc that are a bit rough around the edges are preferable.
I didn’t have high expectations and was down for a bit of tacky seaside fun but it wasn’t just tacky in the way McDonald’s is (I use that as an example as it was mentioned), it felt downright dangerous, even during the day. It was Easter weekend and sunny, so I was expecting it to be busy but the place was dead, other than groups of dodgy people loitering about and staring as you walk past. I had someone follow me and shout comments while walking from the station to the hotel.
Maybe it’s better in summer when it’s busier, I don’t know. Still wouldn’t change the fact that it’s very run down though, and had an all round ominous feel.
On the train out to Preston some teenage boys tried to fight the conductor and the train had to be stopped for the police to come and arrest them.
In fact when I looked around, most people on that train seemed to have some sort of issue - a lot looked like long term substance users, unkempt, one young guy was talking about meetings with his social worker. I’ve since learned that many homeless people basically get dumped there by local authorities when they can’t house them in their home towns, they get housed in former guest houses that are now HMOs. I do feel for them, but at the same time it doesn’t exactly make for a relaxing holiday.
If it’s a choice between Blackpool or no holiday at all then I’d rather have no holiday and stay home.

Depends what you're looking for.
We've had a few enjoyable trips to Blackpool with friends and our kids. As long as you set your expectations it can be lots of fun.

It's great for kids as there is loads to do.

I went, reluctantly, for a weekend with a friend who said 'it'll be kitsch, offbeat, we can go ironically'. (yeah, yeah, we're not friends any more). It was absolutely awful. Dirty, depressed, very run down, in the evening we felt very unsafe, I was glad to see the back of it.

I'm not disputing people's experiences of seeing poverty and social problems at all, and I come from a depressed area, but I must have had rose coloured/kid perspective lenses in because I didn't notice anything at all in the day time.

The only negative experience, was in the chip shop in the evening there was a drunk person displaying racist attitudes to the person behind the counter. I don't think the drunk person was from Blackpool because she was asking for directions.

DH grew up going twice a year (main holiday and then a weekend) his parents went on about it constantly. We travelled extensively before DC and they always complained we should just go to Blackpool instead (instead of the Maldives etc).
So we paid for them to go there for their anniversary, never mentioned it again, barely spoke about the weekend. It must have been really bad!

We went last year, during illuminations. The Tower was closed, there were no other shows.
The best and biggest hotel has been turned over to migrants. It is rundown not even cleaned.
The classiest place we found was the Wetherspoons, (Lion & Albert).
Still fancy it?

We went to blackpool and had a lovely time. The lights are brilliant, the water park and theme park are fun, the tower attractions are great. I think it's a wonderful family destination. But it was also the first time my children ever genuinely noticed poverty. We live in a very normal suburb of a normal city, but the kids noticed in Blackpool that the surroundings were different, some of the people looked different and lost (drugs) and they didn't quite know how to articulate it but they both definitely noticed it and how different it was - my oldest said it was like something you might see on TV. Now I don't think it's a bad thing for them to realise that rundown places and poverty really do exist, but it's definitely there, just off the seafront.

The front is fine, I wouldn't venture into the actual town though, spent 2 nights there a few years back and it was a bit grubby

I'd go for the day in summer. But maybe not stay overnight.

It is a total shithole. Very rough and dirty.