Make the airport your last and only stop! (Luton in General)

Member Name: jaylad

Product:	Luton in General
Date:	14/05/01 (103 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The airport?!

Disadvantages: Unattractive, Boring, Traffic systems a nightmare

Luton is a very large industrial town located in Bedfordshire on the Hertfordshire borders.
Luton is quite well known for its airport, London Luton and if you werent aware - hat making, although this has been in decline for some years now. Luton is also home to Vauxhall and the skyline is almost dwarfed by a huge Vectra factory in the centre on the town.

Luton, being the largest town in Bedfordshire has most things you would expect from a place this size, 2 shopping areas, 2 leisure centres, of course the airport and even its own football team - the Hatters.
The main shopping centre is The Arndale Centre. This is probably Lutons best feature and is vast. There are at least 100 shops and you have the choice of places like Disney Store, Debenhams, Argos, Tesco Metro, Topshop etc. There are also loads of sport shops. During the night when closed, the centre section is left open as a cut-through for people walking into the high street but this route should be avoided unless being confronted by a mass of beggers!
The high street is pedestranised and the choice of pound shops is unrivalled by any town! There is the town hall- probably one of the only half attractive buildings there, and you also have the new 11 screen cinema complex which houses an arcade, bowling alley and Brannigans nightclub - one of many nightclubs in Luton.

Luton has one of Britains newest universities, University of Luton, which is a large place teaching around 15,000 full & part time students.

Sadly this is where the good news ends, the town centre is not attractive, it is or should I say was an industrial town and this means lots of concrete. Concrete office blocks, concrete carparks, concrete bridges, concrete this, concrete that!
Then there is this awfully, and I mean awfully confusing traffic system in the centre (Park Square) which consists of many one-way roads and huge amounts of 'bus-only' areas! The first 5 times I went there I found it a
lmost impossible to not end up going down either a bus lane or driving up a one-way street!! Then there is the ringroad, oh the ringroad! This large concrete structure turns into a fly-over and you pass over many buildings and roads underneath. There are so many 'get in lane' junctions and they change which lane your meant to be in after each junction almost trying to trick you! The 30mph speed limit is hardly ever enforced even with the help of the fake speed cameras (yes we know there fake lol!!) which normally means you have some boy-racer in some XR2i trying to overtake you!

The main leisure centre - Wardown Leisure centre is terribly embarrasing, sure it has a swimming pool big enough to stage the olympic swimming finals, but is very dated and falling apart. There is even one of those 30 metre kamikaze diving boards that surely were banned years ago?! Your much better off visiting Hemel Hempstead for a swim, the leisure centre there is like Centre-Parcs in comparison.
The council have plans to build a new centre on the same site, which is surprising as the town has been starved of investment for years.

The airport is one of the best things about this town - sited on the hill, if there were houses up here, it would be the posh part!
Home to EasyJet, and other charter operators the terminal is brand new and features all the latest shops and a few cafes.

If you have to visit Luton for any other reason than going to the airport then make sure its short and sweet! I would love to give Luton a good review, but sadly the Vauxhall factory is closing down, the place is boring and unattractive and many of the staff working in the shops are rude and dont want to be there. I sadly get the impression that the people of Luton and its companies are intent on killing the town and worsening its reputation until its too late.

Summary: