Come and talk to me about Blackpool

[BaDaBing]

Never been and neither has DH. Ds has been desperate to go (thanks Nickelodeon!) and we have finally relented and booked for 2 days in April. Going to stay at the big blue hotel and will spend 1 day at pleasure beach and Nickelodeon Land but wondered about the second day?

I realise everything will be a bit cheesy and a bit naff and am happy to ditch my usual cool and sophisticated image to embrace it. So tell me, what is a must do, must see etc?

Haven't been for years but I love the tower. You can get a lift to the top and walk over a glass floor, the circus in the basement is amazing and the ballroom is gorgeous.
Oh and chips and gravy with lots of vinegar eaten
On the sea wall

The sandcastle is good

i like it there. everyone else i meet hates it though .
the pleasure beach is £££ for what it is though, and the Nickleodeon bit is not that great. i went on dd1's preschool trip last year on a very cheap schools deal, but would have baulked at paying full price.

the beach and pier are lovely. proper golden sands, and nice rides on the pier. at the weekend the stag and hen parties all come out at about 3 o clock, so that's a good time to drive down to Lytham for a bit . There's a big water park thing, and a sealife centre, as well as the zoo. the park has
a little train.

I live there ( for my sins).

If you've got Kids you can't go wrong with the Tower, Pleasure Beach and there is a fab water park opposite the Pleasure Beach. There is loads to do on the Piers so they are worth a look. You've also got the Sea life centre and Madame Tiussauds.

There's also a fab zoo that I absolutely love.

aw tan, I'm .
i might drag bring the DC down your way over the weekend if the weather perks up.

I think one of the best things to do in Blackpool is cycle along the many miles of the wide promenade. There is now a facility to hire bikes in some high tech way (don't know the details) in various locations. Depends on how old your family is.

It is awful - sorry
the zoo is (quite) good though

The zoo is amazing!

Great selection of animals. Its always on our list to go to when we go down. The model village in Stanley Park is good too.

The water park is good. I hate swimming but will happily float round the 'rapids' all day.

The zoo is better than Chester zoo in that you can actually get round all the animals in one visit.

we loved blackpool zoo

if you have tesco vouchers you can spend them on quite a few days out in blackpool
see here where you can spemd tesco vouchers

We have been to blackpool the past three years on hols-the dcs love it and I have fond memories of holidaying there as a child. I agree it is very naff and tacky though but you just have to make the most of it.

I agree the zoo is very good-there is also a farm park in fleetwood which is good for younger dcs.

We stayed in a holiday park which was a few miles from the centre-very near the zoo and stanley park-which meant we avoided any problems with stag/hen parties in the evenings.

A lot of money has been spent on refurbishment of the Tower & the trams & other stuff too, I can't remember the details - also some of the tourist attractions have changed hands recently; the council owns the Tower (Jungle Jims, the Blackpool Circus, Blackpool Ballroom, Blackpool Tower Eye and the Dungeons) & Merlin runs it, also Madame Tussauds & the Sealife Centre, so they should be much better organised

The shopping area behind the promenade has been smartened up a lot too, it's all much nicer than it used to be.

Still basically cheap, cheerful & tacky though

Spent a wet weekend there two years ago....good fun.
DS was 6 we went to the tower circus great fun.
There was a Ripley's attraction near the south pier- it was ok too.
We stayed at the Imperial old fashioned hotel
Dinner one night at a nice Italien maybe called Piazza? near the Grand Theatre
Winter Gardens has recently been spruced up.
Heard good things about the zoo and sea life also.
It's it tacky but will probaly make you smile.

st annes and lytham are a quick bus ride away if you fancy a trip to a naicer more old school seaside resort.

St Annes has a fab beach and there are plenty of places to eat (but no McDonalds- hurrah!!)

Some really great ideas here, thank you. The zoo looks fab as does the huge waterpark. Also love the idea of chips on the sea wall - exactly the kinda holiday we are looking for :)

the pleasure beach is not that expensive

£22 for DCs (don't just buy a wristband for nick land as there are other rides around the park they can go on)
£27 for adults or you can pay £5 and then just buy tickets for any rides you want to accompany them on -but this obviously depends on the size of DC
and they have a show included in the price

avoid the all you can eat food place like the plague -sounds like a good deal but it's rubbish quality and drinks are expensive

The zoo is fantastic -I could spend hours just watching the gorillas

some bits of blackpool are nasty and I wouldn't have dcs out much after 8 as it fills up with stag and hen dos but for a couple of days of good fun you can't go far wrong really