GBbabe

We will be spending two weeks in Liverpool while DH does some research on maritime history. He would like to go up to Blackpool. I was looking in a guidebook and aside from the North Pier and Sealife Center, there was nothing else besides the amusement parks. We may do the Pleasure Beach Pass for £5 each. Does Blackpool Tower have something that reasonable for just walking around? Can anyone suggest other things we can do in a day's outing? Also, a nice place to have lunch for under £35 for two.

Thanks.

flanneruk

There's nothing in Blackpool to see. Blackpool, traditionally, is a place people from Lancashire go to to have fun. It's an almost precise Lancashire translation of Coney Island.

It's a less traditional daytrip destination for people from Liverpool, who've long preferred the closer Southport, or the resorts of North Wales, some of which (like Llandudno) are actually quite scenically attractive.

Blackpool just doesn't work without crowds. Except during the Blackpool Illuminations, the North Pier and the Pleasure Beach are exactly what Blackpool is all about: walking around them, surrounded by crowds, and getting your fortune told or whatever is the whole point of Blackpool.

Without wishing to be patronising, Blackpool absolutely isn't about a "nice lunch". Fish and chips, with a strong pot of tea and lots of bread-and-butter, in whichever cafe takes your fancy, really is about as good as you'll get.

I'm not all trying to dissuade you from taking a trip that for almost a century was the annual high spot of many Lancastrians' lives. But it's only enjoyable if you do it on its own terms. If you're in a car, parts of nearby Morecambe and Lytham St Anne's are slightly prettier, and there is still a modest fishing industry in Fleetwood. But the Fylde, as the area round Blackpoool is called, isn't the peak of British scenery.

If you get bored of this quickly, go back to the M6 and head east, up to the lovely hill towns of NE Lancashire and the Yorkshire border. Even Roman remains around Ribchester.

Lifeman

As flanner says, Blackpool is downmarket, tacky and not really worth the trip. It's the sort of place that has a huge chip on its shoulder and is not very attractive (or at all if I'm honest).

I was there last week on business and the place is currently a nightmare to drive through, due to lengthy roadworks along the sea front for quite some distance and it wasn't possible to drive along the promenade.

There isn't much decent food in the town, just overpriced fast food. There are three piers, North, Central and South, the Sea Life Centre, The Sandcastle indoor centre, the Tower and hundreds of slot machine arcades designed to relieve you of your cash. The Pleasure Beach amusement park is enormously overpriced and charges you just to walk round it. There are early season deals like the one that you mention, but the £5 pass doesn't include much and you'll have to purchase ride tickets.

All in all, I wouldn't bother. Spend the day in Manchester for museums, restaurants at all prices, shopping and history.

unclegus

I was last in Blackpool about 10 years ago for a social club weekend outing,it is not a place I will be returning to for a variety of reasons none of which I will go into.
HOWEVER!
I found the Tower to be good fun and great value for money.
we paid £10 (I think) for a day ticket,and we saw an aquarium and went to the top of the tower,we had a visit to the Circus which was very good and had a decent Fish and chips lunch in one of the resturants,in the afternoon we saw a kids song and dance show which was suprisingly good.As we left we had our hands stamped so we could return in the evening which we did.
There was a Glem Miller tribute band on with folk helping you do some of the dances,a pretty good fun night out.
Not high entertainment but a full days worth for a tenner can't be bad.
The Tower in my opinion was the only reasonably decent thing of the whole weekend,I do not have sufficient swear words in my vocabulary to describe the rest of my weekend.

Mary24

Agree with the other posters. But, if you like roller coaster rides etc then you can go to the Pleasure Beach. There are also trams up and down the promenade, go to Squires Gate in the south and up to Fleetwood in the north. Food mainly fish and chip shops etc - most famous is the Harry Ramsden Fish and Chip shop on the promenade. There is also ballroom dancing, in the Tower Ballroom - for which it is famous. But Blackpool has become more tacky over the years really needs a huge overhaul.

Alec

As a local, I agree with Lifeman that now isn't perhaps the best time to visit Blackpool, as there is ongoing work along the promenade with traffic restrictions and the tram only running between Bispham and Pleasure Beach. Also while the Tower is open, you can't go to the top as it's undergoing a multi-million pound refurbishment (due to open in Sep, together with Blackpool Dungeon in basement). A new Madame Tussauds has opened, and is very good (the only one in UK outside London). Pleasure Beach has just opened the new Nickelodeon Land (great for under 12s). There are various deals, like 2-for-1 wristband and online discount.
If you come in July onwards, the promenade works should be finished and it promises to be quite a feature (locals have seen a preview of various new attractions) and will be a great way to spend a sunny day (weather so far this season has been fabulous).
As for food, there is of course fast food and fish and chips along the prom if you like (there is Harry Ramsden's), but there are now several very good eateries in the area. I can recommend some if anyone is interested. Golfers are in their element as there are at least half a dozen very good courses, including world-famous Royal Lytham and St Annes (The Open in 2012).

GBbabe

Thanks for confirming my impressions of what I read. DH still wants to do it and I am not expecting very much from the day trip. We will be in Blackpool sometime in June.

Thanks, Alec, for info on the work projects.

Flanner, no car so we won't be driving around the area. We have been to Llandudno and found that a lovely town. DH is a mining historian and the old copper mine on the Great Orme was very interesting to us.

We will be in Liverpool for several weeks and do plan to get to Manchester - I have family history to research there, and to Chester and other places yet to be determined.

Thanks, again.