As I live in the North West I have always since I was young visited Blackpool Illuminations. This goes back to the 1970's when I would be taken there,by my Mum and Dad, in the back of our old Transit van. I still carry on the tradition today with my children, and it is our recent visit I will give you a resume of.

A couple of nights back we travelled to Blackpool. Our idea was to arrive at about 6pm and this is what we did. As we normally do, we bought some tokens for the rides, and this cost us £20 for 25 of them. As we were only visiting the rides on the piers the attractions were limited. However the children were really pleased and it all went off well.

We then went back to our car. We'd parked in a retail park, with a McDonalds in, and as we were now getting hungry, took the opportunity to have a nice warm drink and a bite to eat, before we went back to travel through the lights.

Okay so what about the lights. Well it took us about an hour to travel through the 4 miles of lights along the sea front. Apparently over the course of the season it will cost Blackpool 2.4 million to stage the lights with the lights alone being worth in excess of 10 million but when you take into account that it will attract 3.5 million visitors over 66 nights, I guess they will get their money back ten fold.

The lights themselves I think are a bit drab. It is more the occasion we go for. I would say that all were from previous years except the new Dr Who ones. None others stood out except maybe Robbie Williams. The kids also liked the mermaids. There were also all the normal cartoon characters etc. But like I say nothing that made you go 'wow'. Saying that it got the kids imagination enough, to want them to travel back through the 4 miles of lights again - so they can't have been that bad.

Along the sea front you will find hundreds of fast food outlets, as well as all the hotels, souvenir shops etc. I always buy rock from the shops to the disgust of my wife, who hates the stuff, and the effect it could have on our kids teeth, although it's never done mine any harm. I also treat us all to donuts as we sit and watch the horse and carts go by. If you arrive after 8pm parking is free.

So would I recommend. Well providing your expectations aren't too high,yes I would. It costs nothing to drive through. You could even take a picnic, if you are strapped for cash. It passes an evening and it is a nice safe evening out for all the family.

I'll be going back next year, and if you want to pass a few hours, then I'd recommend you do too.

Copyright stebiz 2010 - also on ciao.co.uk