Sea, sand and historic thrills in Blackpool

Blackpool… For many, just the name of the UK’s most famous seaside resort is enough to make them cringe, conjuring up images of run-down games arcades and seedy bars packed full of binge-drinking teenagers. For me, it has always brought to mind the historic Pleasure Beach, one of Britain’s oldest amusement parks and still one of its most popular. Yet the town’s original success was built on its expansive coastline and long, sandy beaches – features that are still present today. With significant investments being made to try and rejuvenate Blackpool’s seafront, how do the man-made attractions stack up against the natural elements? And is either aspect enough to justify a visit?

I’ve dreamed of visiting the town ever since I was a small child, but being on the opposite side of the UK to our Ipswich home it fell into the category of “so close, yet so far”. Earlier this year, we decided to compile a list of all the places in our country that we’d neglected to visit. Blackpool was right at the top, and so it was that we spent two days exploring it this summer.

Natural attractions in Blackpool

While the artificial aspects of the resort are hard to miss (a 65 metre tall roller coaster and 158 metre tall clone of the Eiffel Tower are never going to blend into the landscape), it was the extensive coastline that grabbed our attention immediately. Stretching on for over seven miles, it’s easy to see why trainload after trainload of working class tourists headed to the town following the construction of the first rail link in 1846. Few beaches could cope with the sheer number of visitors (tens of thousands every summer weekend in the 1920s) that descended upon Blackpool’s shores, but these ones could.

Of course, it was perhaps inevitable that the urban grime the workers were seeking to escape from would eventually follow them to the coast. A multi-lane road runs in parallel to the seafront, although there is at least a large promenade and a tram line to separate it from the sand itself. Row after row of bed and breakfasts and hotels clamour for the sea views on offer, and many are badly in need of restoration after years of battering from the sea breeze. There are some pretty buildings around, but Blackpool is never going to be famous for its architecture.

Does this detract from the seafront? I don’t think so. The lure of the seaside is as strong as ever, and the features that have attracted tourists to Blackpool for the last century-and-a-half are still very prominent. Whether it’s a family day out with bucket and spade in tow, or a just a relaxing stroll along sand that doesn’t seem to end, most people will find something to enjoy here. Even those most disapproving of the way the resort has evolved may not be able to resist a quick ice cream and a paddle in the surf.

Top natural attractions to visit in Blackpool include:

• Central Beach – the heart and soul of the town, Central Beach is an expansive tract of golden sand located right in the heart of Blackpool. For families, this is the place to go for sunbathing, sand-castle building and donkey rides.
• St Annes Beach – if you’re looking for a more relaxing spot away from the noise and bustle of Central Beach, St Annes offers a quieter alternative. Located a few miles down the coast, it’s a great place for a walk or a swim.

Man-made attractions in Blackpool

Of course, the variable weather conditions that ultimately led to British tourists heading to Spain and Portugal will still have a huge impact on your ability to linger outdoors. That’s where Blackpool’s range of man-made distractions come into play – and there are a huge number of them. From major attractions such as the iconic Blackpool Tower (which we were unable to visit due to recently-completed refurbishment work), Madame Tussaud’s waxworks and the Sea Life Centre (all operated by a single firm, Merlin Entertainments Group) to the dozens of arcades, tea rooms and pubs, almost everywhere you look someone is trying to extract some of your hard-earned cash.

I’ll be honest – for me, there is only one game in town. Having remained in family ownership for years, Blackpool Pleasure Beach still draws visitors to the South Shore like a magnet. First opened in 1896, it has outlasted the vast majority of seaside parks from its era by continuing to invest and improve. Several major rides have been added in the past two decades, while 2011 saw the opening of the £10 million Nickelodeon Land.  The park is also home to  the UK’s tallest rollercoaster, the Pepsi Max Big One.

While I am an unapologetically huge fan of amusement parks, it is not Blackpool Pleasure Beach’s modern rides that interest me. Instead, it is the vast array of classic attractions on offer, some of which date back to the early 20th century. This gives the park the feel of a living, working museum, rather than a simple tourist trap. The River Caves was the inspiration for Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean, while the Big Dipper roller-coaster was among the forerunners to today’s major thrill rides. It is the 1904 Flying Machines, though, that really caught my imagination. Still a great attraction today, it is difficult to comprehend how amazed visitors of that era must have been by this stunning piece of engineering.

Outside of Pleasure Beach, some of the best man-made attractions in Blackpool’s bewildering line-up include:

• Blackpool Tower – visible from all over the town, the Tower has recently undergone a major renovation which added the somewhat out-of-place Blackpool Tower Dungeons walk-through horror exhibit. Besides the stunning views from the top, though, the biggest draw remains the famous Tower Ballroom. Dominated by enormous crystal chandeliers, it still plays host to ballroom dancing nights on a frequent basis.
• Sandcastle Water Park – kids will demand a visit to Britain’s most famous indoor water park. Highlights include the world’s first (and longest) water slide featuring an uphill section, the Master Blaster.
• Grand Theatre - having opened in 1894, the Grand Theatre has shown impressive staying power and now features the official title of Britain’s National Theatre of Variety. The performances won’t always be to everyone’s taste, but the building itself is still worth a look.
• Blackpool Illuminations – introduced in 1879 as a way of extending the holiday season, the Illuminations sees over a million lights used to decorate six miles of Blackpool promenade.

Overall, then, I would recommend a visit to Blackpool to a diverse range of people from lovers of the sea air, to casual history buffs, right through to hardened thrill-seekers. The town still has some way to go to fully clean itself up, and it’s hard to see it ever returning to its glory days. But as a nostalgia-inducing reminder of how the natural and artificial combined to offer fun-packed seaside holidays in years gone by, it still has plenty to offer.

Thanks for this guest post to Nick Sim from Theme Park Tourist, your guide to theme parks and amusement parks , featuring news, guides and reviews for parks all over the world

Photo credits: Blackpool beach and tower by diamond geezer,  The Pepsi Max Big One by Ingy The Wingy and Pier by stinksoup   Other photos by Nick Sim.

More delights up North

Getting to know LS Lowry at the Lowry in Manchester
Snowdrops at Lytham Hall in Lancashire England
The must see sights of Leeds

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com – Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

You’ll also find our sister blog with tips on how to build a successful travel blog at My Blogging Journey

Don’t miss out – subscribe to Heather on her travels

Apartment Living on Laystall St with StayManchester – video

I’ve slept everywhere from a tent in the back garden to a luxury hotel, but I must admit that serviced apartments such as the  Laystall Apartments by StayManchester.com were a new experience for me.

Once the industrial powerhouse of the north of England, Manchester is full of old warehouses that once manufactured the goods that were sent all over Britain’s colonial empire. With Britain’s industrial decline, the old mills and warehouses have fallen silent silent but many have been renovated and converted into modern apartment buildings.

Although the Laystall Street Apartments are in a modern rather than old building, the conversion of old warehouses seems to make Manchester an ideal city for serviced apartments as an alternative to hotel accommodation. Of course many groups of friends come to Manchester for the football, concerts, shopping or nightlife and are looking for somewhere they can stay together that will also be good value, so serviced apartments fit the bill perfectly.

If you can’t see the embedded video above, view it on my blog here

At the Laystall Apartments I found our 10th floor apartment was a cross between a hotel with 24 hour reception and a show home with two double bedrooms, one with en suite shower room and a second bathroom.

The decor was the latest look with a colour scheme of cappuccino with a twist of lime. My en suite double bedroom had a comfortable bed with crisp white bed-linen, a brown leather headboard and dark wood furniture.

Beside the bed was an elegant silver string lampshade and a radio alarm clock, useful if you’re in Manchester on business although I can’t see the party crowd would be wanting an early morning wake up call.

There was a proper wardrobe with extra quilts and pillows and a normal hairdryer (as opposed to those horrid wall mounted ones) for getting ready for those nights out on the town. The pictures in both the bedroom and the living area were night-time cityscape pictures of Manchester. I must admit that the city looks a lot prettier at night with all those twinkling light that it does in the daytime with a view of the retail park opposite and the surrounding industrial landscape.

Laystall Apartments from staymanchester.com

Laystall Apartments from staymanchester.com

The bathroom was also ultra modern with white tiles and black polished surfaces, modern chrome fittings and a pale aqua glass bath surround, and there was some hotel style miniature shampoo and soap. The living and dining area was large enough to throw a party with a chocolate leather sofa and chair that turned into a sofa bed and a Samsung flat screen TV.

The glass dining room table seated six people with a bowl of fruit and some bottled water to keep us going and wrap around windows with a great view over the city warehouses. The red kitchen with grey surfaces was an impressive size with all the fittings and equipment that you’d expect in your kitchen at home. For those who are staying a few days, the washing machine in the apartment was also a bonus and there is also free wifi in the apartment.

It seemed rather a shame that as I was out for most of the time at the Travel Bloggers Unite conference, I didn’t get the chance to have a few friends round for dinner or throw a wild party. I was sharing with fellow blogger Abi King, who was coming down with a nasty cold, so we were rather the party poopers and used the apartment as a convenient base, rather than making the most of all the space.

Laystall Apartments from staymanchester.com

Laystall Apartments from staymanchester.com

If there were any downsides it might only be that the location is down a quiet side street and I felt a little nervous walking back to late at night, although on the plus side it’s only a 10 minute walk from the Picadilliy train station and 10 minutes the other way into the Northern Quarter. There is an Aldi supermarket close by where you can stock up on necessities, but otherwise you’ll have to walk at least 10 minutes to get to any coffee shops or restaurants.

The other thing to be aware of is that Manchester is known for its nightlife, so if you’re not a party animal I’d suggest you request a quieter apartment on a higher floor or facing away from the street as groups of clubbers coming back late (or early depending on how you look at it) can be noisy.

Now I’ve tried the serviced apartment experience I’ll be seeking it out more regularly, especially when travelling with friends, and I’d definitely recommend the Laystall Apartments from StayManchester.com as a stylish and comfortable alternative to a hotel. I received a discounted rate from StayManchester.com but the normal rate for our 2 bed apartment was around £159 per night, which is excellent value if shared between 2 couples and certainly cheaper than a hotel of a similar standard.

You can check prices and book Laystall Apartments from StayManchester on their website here

Read what my flatmate Abi King had to say -StayManchester.com – An Independent Review

 

 

www.flickr.com heatheronhertravels’ Manchester photoset

 

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com – Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

You’ll also find our sister blog with tips on how to build a successful travel blog at My Blogging Journey

Don’t miss out – subscribe to Heather on her travels

Blogging tales from Travel Bloggers Unite in Manchester

We met, we networked, we partied (some more than others) and we loved Travel Bloggers Unite in Manchester, best known for football, nightlife, shopping, a great creative scene and now blogging.

The venue was the Studio in the Northern Quarter, spiritual home of Manchester’s impoverished, arty types and more vintage shops than most cities can muster within a few blocks. I loved everything about the Studio, the colourful decor, the crazy sculpture made of recycled stuff, the Fairtrade coffee and range of fruit teas, the break out rooms and the open area for us to circulate and network (should have remembered to restock my business cards!). They even had Wifi that worked – all the time. The only downside was no corner shop nearby, so we had to miss out on blogging chit chat to go in search of breakfast.

I arrived from Bristol by train on Friday with just enough time to leave my bag at the Laystall Apartments from StayManchester.com where I was sharing a fab modern penthouse pad with Abi of Inside the Travel Lab who had taken to her bed with something nasty and flu-like. I grabbed a taxi and dashed to the other side of town for the party at the People’s History Museum, sponsored by Visit Manchester and Creative Tourist. Last time I was in Manchester it was as a guest of Creative Tourist and with my hubby I explored as many free museums as it’s possible to pack into one weekend, enjoying everything from Lowry to Leonardo. Sadly things were just winding up at the People’s History Museum, but we convened to the bar to chat with other bloggers for a while and then I decided to be sensible and turn in for an early night in order to enjoy the next day without a hangover.

Keith Jenkins speaking at Travel Bloggers Unite 11

Melvin, Kash, Matt and Karen at Travel Bloggers Unite

On Saturday Keith Jenkins from Velvet Escape opened the conference with a great presentation about his journey in taking his blog from a fun hobby to a full time and money making venture. Now he’s making an income out of the blog and working harder than he ever did in his life, but having more fun too. I made a mental note of some of his tricks, such as asking other bloggers to guest post on his blog about what their ‘Velvet Escape’ would be – getting fresh content as well as reinforcing his brand. I also wondered whether I’d have the nerve to use Keith’s other trick of going into his local Apple store in Amsterdam and putting his blog home page up on all the screens as a traffic building exercise!

Next there was a panel discussion on Making Money from your blog, fielded by Melvin of Travel Dudes, Kash from Europe Budget Guide, Matt from Travel with a Mate and Karen of Europe a la Carte. The most popular monetisation methods appeared to be selling banner ads, with the more honest admitting to selling the odd text link (shhh don’t tell the big G) along with sponsored posts. Affiliate programmes seemed to be having mixed success, but the recommendation was to add affiliate links within your posts rather than as side banners. None of the panelists had gone much into selling their own products, although Matt has started in this with his e-book on How to start a successful site with WordPress.

Andy White presenting at Travel Bloggers Unite 11

Lewis Shields from Flagship Consulting

The rest of the day was taken up with three expert sessions;

Me PLC! – Brilliant Branding by Sophy Norris and Lewis Shields from Flagship Consulting
In the know SEO from Mike Briggs at Caliberi
Take Control of WordPress – how to build a better travel blog by John O Nolan from WordPress

I liked the fact that you could rotate around each of the speaking events in turn and didn’t have to make any difficult choices on what to attend and what to miss, only to hear afterwards that you’d missed something fantastic. All the speakers gave really professional presentations packed with practical information and they all clearly knew their stuff.

Brilliant Branding

Sophy and Lewis did a great double act, promoting the idea of personal branding for your blog to engage the audience with your pearls of wisdom, witty chatter or whacky adventures. They were preaching to the converted as far as I was concerned – now you know why I post so many photos of myself at Heather on her travels, it’s not pure vanity, you know!

Read Lewis’s take on the conference here

In the know SEO

Next Mike from Caliberi shared his expertise on In The Know SEO, talking us through how he launched a niche site on caravanning employing all the SEO tricks in the book, in order to pay for his dream wedding in Mauritius. He covered everything from keywords to themes to WordPress settings to link building although when he admitted that his wife got a bit cross with him for bringing his laptop to bed, I did wonder whether blogging is a recipe for divorce rather than marital bliss. The effect was rather spoiled when he admitted that his site crashed and burned at the hands of Big G when he overdid the SEO, but no doubt by then he’d got a better paid job selling his new found SEO skills.

Read Mike’s presentation on In the know SEO here

Build a better blog with WordPress

John O Nolan just about managed to keep his expletives under control in his presentation on WordPress (note the capital P) where he works as a designer, although he didn’t have much good to say about the Thesis theme that I use over at My Blogging Journey. John did a good job of convincing us that WordPress was the biggest and best blogging platform ever and why would you ever think of using anything else? I’m already sold, having started out at Blogger and moved to WordPress after a year of blogging. We took a whistlestop tour through WordPress functionality including some features that I never realised were there and then the principles of good design which boiled down to less is more. He showed us the Miscrosoft designs the ipod video. Enough said. When it comes to the inner working of the website and all that scary code, I liked John’s analogy of the car – HTML is the bodywork, CSS is the Paint job and PHP is the engine – paint it all the pretty colours you like but don’t mess (he used a naughty word) with the engine.

Read John’s presentation on Take Control of WordPress: How To Build a Better Blog

After we’d soaked up all that information it was time to party with drinks and canapes hosted at Mint Hotel Manchester, where there was plenty of space to circulate and win some fun prizes. We took a quick tour of the rooms noting the fresh, clean decor (Mint, get it?)  and after checking out the suite we were all keen  to enter our business cards into the draw for a weekend stay at one of the Mint Hotels, won by Cailin from Travel Yourself, lucky girl. Two other prizes on offer were a Volunteer experience in Romania sponsored by Oyster Worldwide and won by Natasha from Glampacker and two weeks around India in a glorified lawnmower on the Rickshaw Run sponsored by The Adventurist and won by Candace Rose Rardon. After the reception, we convened to the cocktail bar where I managed to collar Andy White, whose Internet Marketing podcast I enjoy, for some free personal consultancy to improve my own Travel Podcasts. I even managed to record a podcast with him the next day which you’ll be hearing very soon. Once again I decided like Cinderella to leave at a reasonable hour although some of the bloggers continued partying till late and were suffering with sore heads the next day.

Keith, Lezann and Kash at Travel Bloggers Unite 11

Nellie, Karen and Simon at Travel Bloggers Unite 11

On Sunday, there were two more expert presentations;

The Power of Podcasting from Andy White of Wire World Media
Travel Writing at Ground Level from Lola Akinmade of Matador

The power of podcasting

I really enjoyed Andy’s talk about Podcasting which is a media that still has a long way to go in the travel blogging sphere – I can count the number of travel podcasters I listen to without using up all my fingers. Andy took us through all you need to know about podcasting, from what your podcast should contain, to the equipment you might need, to the ways you might get your podcast out to your audience. I listen to loads of Travel and Internet Marketing podcasts as I walk to and from work, getting entertainment and useful information to fill the dead time when I would otherwise be wondering what to cook for dinner that evening and other dull stuff.

View Andy White’s presentation on The Power of Podcasting

Travel writing at ground level

The presentations were rounded off nicely by a talk from Lola Akinmade about Travel writing at Ground Level. The central message was that the best writing shows the reader what you see rather than telling them what to think. Cut the cliches, the exotic, the sun-kissed and the must sees. Replace them instead with your own personal voice and tell the reader what you see so that they can judge themself what to feel. In this way you show more respect to the people and cultures you are describing, letting them be what they are.

Read Lola Akinmade’s presentation on Travel writing at Ground Level

Dan, Oliver and Candace at Travel Bloggers Unite 11

Nim and Oliver at Travel Bloggers Unite 11

The final session of the day was a presentation from Dru Bryan from Gosh PR on how PR folk and bloggers might work together more closely. The over-riding impression that I also picked up at the TBEX conference is how most PR folk don’t really know how to deal with bloggers and are still finding their way in this area. Although they are all keen to use the power of blogging and social media to promote their clients, they are often having to educate their clients as to why they should be interested in this new medium that is so difficult to control or to measure. There was plenty of discussion from the floor both from the PR folk and the bloggers and I was interested to hear about the constraints of budgets and ROI that PR folk have to work within, while we bloggers are used to doing whatever we like without an editor looking over our shoulder. But then most of us aren’t doing it for the money so commercial considerations are an afterthought.

I really enjoyed Travel Bloggers Unite, and I feel that the small scale was especially successful, even though there were still loads of people who I left without getting a chance to connect with – still that’s what Twitter & Facebook’s for and then we can always meet again in September in Innsbruck. Hats off to Oliver Gradwell for his great organisation of Travel Bloggers Unite and looking forward to meeting all my new blogging friends at future events.

What the other bloggers said about Travel Blogger Unite 11

Lola Akinmade – Photo Blog – Travel Bloggers Unite in Manchester
Top Backpacking Destinations – The relationship between SEO and PR
Chloe Sometimes – Serendipidy and Travel – Travel Bloggers Unite 11
Just Travelous – Club91 The place to be in Manchester
Wild Junket – The best of the Travel Bloggers Unite Conference
The Quirky Traveller – Can you make money from your blog?
John O Nolan – TBU11 Roundup
Europe a la carte – Where are travel bloggers heading beyond the next free trip?
Lewis Shields – TBU11 A call to action
My Postcard From – What I gained from TBU11
Art of Backpacking – Uniting with Travel Bloggers at TBU
Europe Travel Guide – #TBU11 takeaway – 9 ideas to share
This non American Life – Travel Blogging thoughts from TBU
Glampacker – The TBU11 Conference in Manchester – Where I won a volunteer trip to Romania
Candace Rose Rardon – Making the most of Manchester
Jungle Princess – Why I travelled 5070 miles to go to TBU

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com – Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

You’ll also find our sister blog with tips on how to build a successful travel blog at My Blogging Journey

Don’t miss out – subscribe to Heather on her travels

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