Beer, Brothels And More Beer (Blackpool in General)

Member Name: GodToldMeTo

Product:	Blackpool in General
Date:	13/05/02 (5005 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fun, plenty o girls

Disadvantages: seedy

Like any self-respecting northerner I have spent many a holiday up in sunny Blackpool. From back as a child some of my earliest memories are of being pushed down the promenade while kicking back in my pram eating candyfloss. Riding the tower top ride and getting wet on the log flumes Blackpool had more to offer than I could see in a week and I loved it.

Now a few things have changed, for one I don’t like candyfloss anymore. I find it a bit messy so I swapped it for a new obsession, alcohol. And when you mix alcohol and Blackpool you won’t believe some of the possibilities you’ll be faced with. I still love it as much as ever.

This is also my perfect opportunity to play up to the dooyoo golden rule, writing about personal experiences. When you put four teenage boys in a seaside resort crammed with clubs and give them money for beer expect a story to bring a smile to your face when you read this. I’m smiling already.

It was one sunny July morning and my friends and I embarked on our adventure to fun capital of the north, Blackpool. Trains were pretty frequent from Manchester Piccadilly to Blackpool North and we arrived at about mid-day.

We decided, for some strange reason, which we ultimately, or rather my friends regretted, to walk. And it’s not the easiest of journeys. We wanted to go from Blackpool Tower up to the Pleasure Beach. The difference between the two locations was nearing two miles but we’d made our decision and off we went.

Okay, for those of you who are not familiar with Blackpool (shock horror if this included you) then let me summarise it the best way I know it.

Blackpool is a seaside resort much like Brighton (a nice little comparison for the southerners reading) and caters for everybody. Whether this is the family having a day out, young adults out for a boozy weekend or just dirty old men loitering the strip bars (I have to say, we did everything on this list)
if you want it, Blackpool has it.

So, as I was saying, we were walking up the Promenade, which is the walkway adjacent to the sea. The Promenade is pretty much Blackpool in that it has everything you want. Here you’ll find plenty of people prepared to take your money and give you little in return. This is where my friends came a little out of pocket.

You’re probably familiar with that game where you have five plastic balls that you roll up a slope. The balls then fall down into little holes, which are numbered with a score. The man in charge counts your score and promises you if you get the same score again you can win whatever you want from his collection of goodies behind the stall.

Well, the promise of a playstation 2 was too much and if think in total they lost about £60 between three of them. The game should be illegal but obviously isn’t. If you ever come across it, stay away.

Well we arrived in our hotel which was easy enough to find, only £15 a night, which included breakfast and was about a two-minute walk from the pleasure beach. Blackpool has hundreds of B&B’s and if you look around you’ll be sure to find a nice place at a reasonable price. The only problem with our hotel was, despite it’s great location for the Pleasure Beach, most of the clubs were down at the other end.

Next time I think we’ll strive to get somewhere a bit more central.

The bars Blackpool has to offer are, from my experience, quite enjoyable. At night expect security on most doors especially clubs located on the promenade.

While walking we came across about seven karaoke bars, four strips clubs and about twenty gay bars. Predictably we ended up in the strip bar. I think it was quite fun but I’m a little unsure. I drank quite a lot that night but I know that nude ladies were involved so it must have been entertaining if not anything else.

Blackpool is pretty seedy, an
example being I ended up being asked by some stranger whether I wanted to visit a brothel. But it does have an excellent nightlife. Of course there’s sometimes a little bit of trouble but people on the whole are friendly and there’s that much security watching the clubs that it rarely gets out of hand.

The Pleasure Beach is world renown and has some of Britain’s finest rides. Example being The Pepsi Max, a word of warning though, don’t ride if you’ve been drinking too much. The people behind you probably won’t appreciate it. Also if you plan on spending a day the day at the Pleasure Beach then I recommend buying a wristband. For £25 you have unlimited access to the rides. To show how good the saving is one ride on the Big One is £5.

Blackpool Tower is reasonably entertaining but only really good if it’s raining outside or if the Pleasure Beach is packed. Other than that Blackpool is a place everyone should make a boozy pilgrimage to.

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