Attractions in and around Blackpool
Blackpool is officially the UK’s busiest resort that attracts thousands of happy holidaymakers year after year to its long sandy beaches and world class entertainments. With its trademark tower and huge roller coasters and miles of amusements this is a resort that has to be experienced first hand to appreciate it. You won’t be disappointed.
This is the realm of Kiss-me-Quick hats, rock shops, fish and chips and donkey rides but that is what the visitors want and what they expect and Blackpool delivers all of this and more. It is the nearest you can get to Las Vegas in the UK and that may well be enhanced with the arrival in the near future of some new style super-Casinos. Detailed below are just some of the local attractions.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach
Blackpool is home to Britain’s top tourist attraction. Blackpool Pleasure Beach, which has its own train station and 7 million visitors a year. At the theme park you can pay per ride or buy an all-day ticket for £25. The Pleasure Beach is a mixture of extreme excitement and fun and if you like things like Europe’s fastest and highest roller coaster, and it is hard to beat for a good value day out. Find out more.
Blackpool Zoo
Blackpool Zoo is just ten minutes from junction 4 on the M55 and 2 miles behind the seafront of Britain’s busiest resort. The zoo is home to more than 1500 exotic animals that include lions, tigers, Asian elephants, gorillas and also large families of rare primates. Find out more.
Louis Tussaurds Waxworks
Visit Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks for a great family day out – OPEN ALL YEAR ROUND. With five floors of fun and hundreds of models to meet, don’t forget your camera to capture your star studded visit. You will find movie stars from past and present, like Samuel L Jackson and a few more Hollywood hunks! Angelina and Kylie wait to greet their fans in the Celeb party of the year. Take a stroll down Coronation Street and take a light lunch in our themed Cafe with Roy and Hayley. Find out more.
Blackpool Tower
Looming over Blackpool’s Golden Mile, the Tower has to be the most famous seaside landmark in England. When it opened to the public on Whit Sunday, May 14, 1894, admission to the main building was sixpence. Since then, the Tower has been surprising and terrifying people in equal measure (on a windy day, you can feel the top of the structure swaying slightly). It’s the centrepiece of the illuminations that light up the Blackpool seafront every autumn. Find out more.
Sandcastle WaterPark
Sandcastle Waterpark is one of Blackpool’s leading tourist attractions. The Waterpark features over 18 slides and attractions including water slides, fun pools, wave machine, lazy river, water chutes, burger bars, snack bars, arcades, swim shop and much much more. So, if you’re looking for things to do in Blackpool and fancy a great day out make sure you visit the Sandcastle Waterpark. They cater for families with children of any age and can even organise birthday parties. The Sandcastle Waterpark is opposite the Pleasure Beach on the sea side of the promenade. Find out more.
Blackpool Piers
There are three magnificent piers whose salt soaked wooden boards have welcomed visitors to Blackpool since Victorian times. Why not take a stroll, you’ll find yourself stopping along the way because these boardwalks are a magnet of fun with an entertainment mixture of theatres, offering star quality live shows, and a splendid selection of restaurants, shops arcades, bars and attractions. Find out more.
Sealife Centre
Sealife Blackpool is an underwater paradise for hundreds of marine animals and freshwater dwellers, and of course, an exciting journey to the bottom of the sea for any little aquanaut! The attraction houses over 50 individual displays of fish, crustaceans and water dwelling mammals, including the stunning mesmerising jellyfish in Phantom of the Deep and Serpents of the Sea, the only collection of deadly poisonous sea snakes currently on display in the UK. Find out more.
The Golden Mile
The Golden Mile is one of the most famous miles in Britain, where you can have a laugh a minute. Why not put one of the hats on with an outrageous slogan. You can get some of the latest jokes and novelty items, and have a real laugh with your friends. Why not try your luck and win one of the many varied furry friends as a prize, or as Lily Savage says on tv, be Bingo mad and wait anxiously and enjoy a game or two on the seafront. Cross a palm with notes as it is now, and you can tremble as you have your fortune told. Blackpool has lost its image of the past and most of the action today is held in many luxury arcades like the famous Coral Island, Funland and Oasis.
Blackpool Illuminations
Blackpool Illuminations is an annual Lights Festival, founded in 1879 and first switched on 18 September that year, held each autumn in the English seaside resort of Blackpool on the Fylde Coast in Lancashire.
Also known locally as The Lights or The Illuminations, they run each year for sixty six days, from late August until early November at a time when every other English seaside resorts seasons are coming to an end. Dubbed as The greatest free light show on earth, they are six miles (9.65 kilometres) long and use over one million bulbs. The display stretches along the Promenade from Starr Gate at the south end of the town to Bispham in the north. In 2008 the Illuminations will run from 29 August to 2 November. Find out more.
Sandy Beach Within a short driving distance
Blackpool’s beach is a beautiful sandy beach, it stretches from Starr Gate to Bispham and then on to Cleveleys and Fleetwood, miles upon miles of sand and sea. Don’t forget your bucket and spade for the giant sand castle building!!! For the more mature may I suggest a nice comfy deck chair and a snooze? Dont forget to see the donkeys. Find out more.
Camelot Theme Park
An unforgettable day out at an amazing medieval theme park full of fun and adventure for all the family – set in King Arthur’s legendary magical land of knights, wizards and castles. The park is situated in rural Lancashire at Charnock Richard, Chorley, between Preston and Wigan and open from 28th of March. The Camelot Theme Park’s five Lands are full of wonderful rides shows and attractions to provide something for everyone on a thrilling day out. In addition to the rides you can witness Merlin’s wizardry, watch knights jousting and younger visitors can meet the animals at Squire Bumpkin’s farm. Find out more.
Lancaster
Lancaster is a small city, rich in architectural delights and cultural heritage which is best explored on foot. Lancaster’s history can be traced back thousands of years and that is no better displayed than by having a guide tour of Lancaster Castle. This imposing mediaeval castle also dominates the Lancaster skyline and no more so when used as the back drop to the Annual Fireworks Spectacular held each November, an event too good to be missed!
Forest of Bowland
Situated in the North West of England, the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty covers 312sq miles of rural Lancashire and North Yorkshire and includes the famous landmark Pendle Hill. The Forest of Bowland offers plenty of opportunity for quiet enjoyment such as walking, cycling, fishing and horse riding, and with newly opened Access Land, can now offer some of the most remote and rugged walking in the North West. To find out more.
Lake District
The Lake District, also known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a rural area in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes and its mountains (or fells), and its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth and the Lake Poets. The central and most-visited part of the area is contained in the Lake District National Park, one of fourteen National parks in the United Kingdom. It lies entirely within Cumbria, and is one of England’s few mountainous regions. All the land in England higher than three thousand feet above sea level lies within the National Park. The Lake District also contains Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England. To find out more.
Fleetwood
Fleetwood is a seaside resort, serving as a quiet contrast to nearby Blackpool. Fleetwood lies at the northern end of the Blackpool tramway. Fleetwood prides itself on “Hospitality & Service”. As a popular seaside holiday resort it was founded just over 150 years ago as a resort for Victorian Gentlefolk.
Notable for its one-time great fishing and seafood industry, this function has somewhat declined in recent years, though many visitors still feel the need to visit the jetties where Fleetwood trawlers still offload their catch, or else they enjoy hiring or chartering one of the many local boats to try their hands at sea angling.
Lytham St Annes
Lytham St Annes is a quieter, less commercially developed resort when compared to its immediate northern neighbour, Blackpool, and for this reason it is much favoured by older people and those who seek a more peaceful seaside experience. It has extensive golden sands, and because the sea lies a good way out, and the tidal race is slow and gentle, it is an ideal place for small children, and its shoreside facilities reflect this.
There is a well established with a main promenade near the central pier, where visitors may walk amongst the ornamental gardens overlooking the sea.. The old Victorian pier, which lies centrally on the beach has been totally renovated in recent years, and its former elegance has been enhanced by new facilities for refreshments, ice cream kiosk, toilet facilities and an amusement arcade for small children. On the beach one may find the traditional donkey rides which seem to have suffered very little by the march of time.
Close to the promenade is the famous Lytham Green and Windmill. Lytham has an excellent shopping centre, with many quaint shops as well as the larger stores. There are facilities for tennis and bowls at Lowther Gardens and at Fairhaven Lake, there are sailing dinghies, rowing boats, motor boats and water skiing. St. Anne’s is famous for its Golf Links, there are four championship courses, the Royal Lytham and St. Anne’s, St.Anne’s Old Links, Fairhaven and Lytham Green Drive.
Lytham is also a good winter venue with its games arcade on the pier with good basic café facilities on-site.
