A couple of years ago I probably had the same negative opinion of Blackpool as lots of people. It had been around 25 years since I was last there, as a child on a trip with my Mum and a couple of aunt's and cousins. My memories included wet, grey and cold 'miserable' weather, finding the B&B we had booked into was awful (when the landlady answered the door with a black eye it was definitely a sign of things to come, and us kids were terrified when fighting broke out on the landing...we soon left and found another!), silver tinsel wigs, a Cannon and Ball show and a really grotty Pleasure Beach populated by equally grotty people.

And so it was definitely with some trepidation I decided to take my four year old daughter for a short break last year. It isn't somewhere I yearned to go at all, however I do remember as a child lots of seaside resort holidays playing on the beach, and have far fonder memories of those than the later foreign holidays with my parents. I decided to swallow my pride and snobbishness and go for it, as it's only a couple of hours away from where we live we could easily come home if it was horrendous.

I've recently just returned from our second trip, so you can pretty much gather that I didn't find it completely terrible at all. Blackpool, to me seems a lot better these days than as I remember twenty odd years ago, and I think with a little planning you can avoid the really tacky attractions and places and find it's still a great place to visit with the family.

I have been extremely lucky, in that on both occasions we were blessed with fantastic weather, and lets be honest... the sun makes a huge difference to any place. There are masses upon masses of outdoor and indoor attractions to visit, but let me tell you of our favourites.

The Beach

The Beach and promenade were undergoing massive redevelopement on our first visit, which made the promenade into a building site and access to the beach limited, although there was some. This year, while the redevelopement continues, the south beach area (nearest the Pleasure Beach) is now complete. When the tide is out, the sand stretches for miles and my daughter loves playing on the beach and in the little puddles left behind.

The beach is pretty clean, there is the odd bit of rubbish lying about, but it is only an odd bit so in general it would seem that they are kept clean and well maintained. The sand is quite muddy, perfect for building sandcastles, not so good for clothes and shoes. I would really recommend you wear old clothes (I've had to bin my daughters white shorts AND knickers as I couldn't get them clean) and flip flops/sponge shoes are a must.

The newly built promenade in this area is lovely, very clean and modern and there are stretches of steps/sea defences leading down to the sea interspersed with ramps for wheelchair and pushchair access. We were at the beach one lunchtime when the tide came in, very quickly. My daughter kept moving into an ever decreasing piece of sand, then eventually onto the steps where the sea came upto around step 6. It does get quite deep where it meets the steps as my daughter found out when she took a step into it. We had a moment of wild panic but luckily no harm done...but I'd advise other people with small children to avoid the seafront at high tide. Luckily it does go out very very quickly, by 3pm when we returned there was a huge expanse of sand again.

If you don't want to go on the sand, you can enjoy the sea view from the promenade where you can hire deck chairs for either on or off the sand. Of course the obligatory donkey's are here and no visit to Blackpool beach would be complete without it. The donkeys seem really well cared for and are very friendly. They are, rightly so, restricted in their hours of work so won't be there all day and are prohibited from working on a Friday...even the donkeys need a day off after all.

I really like the beach on a clear evening. The sun sets right into the sea and it's an impressive sight in the right conditions, with the sea sparkling and the sun bright red. If you would like a quiter beach without the Blackpool Glitz, Clevleys is lovely and a tram will take you there and back.

The Zoo

The zoo is fantastic. It's clean and green with a whole host of fascintating Animals. I've been surprised to learn that a lot of people didn't even know it existed. It's not at all tacky, as you may imagine at first, being in Blackpool. It's probably one of the best Zoo's I have been to and a really great day out...you will need at least 5 hours. I have written a full review of the zoo for those who are interested so I will keep it brief here. The Zoo, as with all the major attractions can be accessed by the open topped sightseeing bus.

The Tower

We didn't visit the Tower on our first visit, as to be honest I find the area around it really tacky and what I try to avoid. However this year my daughter had been mentioning she would like to see a circus, and so I had a quick look on the internet and got tickets very cheap. Just £18 for both of us included admission into the tower, access to all the attractions and a seats for the 2 hour show.

We got there quite late, so apart from a quick play in the massive Jungle Jims soft play (where I am pretty sure she would have stayed all day!) and a brief wander round the small and dissapointing aquarium we didn't see much of the tower as it closed at 5pm shortly after the show ended.

The circus was brilliant and my daughter sat in open mouthed awe throughout. The show takes you through a hundred years of circus entertainment, with some breathtaking old fashioned trapeze acts, and then a futuristic spectacular with gymnastic aliens and people dangling from a swinging rocket. The only thing that really annoyed me where the amount of people selling tat before and during the interval. If you take a child and they already have a light stick at home I urge you take it with you and save yourself an extortionate £8

I would definitely recommend the Tower to others, but give yourself more time than we did....at least 5 hours. I was very disappointed at missing the famous tower ballroom, trip to the top of the tower, and the restaurant looked pretty good too. The entrance fee is very good for what you get, especially if you book on line and it's an ideal 'rainy' day attraction.

Pleasure Beach

I was very surprised by the pleasure beach on my first visit, and we went again this time round. It's a lot different to how I remember it, being run more like a theme park than a fair these days. Infact it's far superior than Light Water Valley, which is the only theme park I have visited recently to compare it too.

There are loads of rides for thrill seekers and little ones alike. It cost £44 for me and my 4 year old daughter, which is probably around the same or less than other parks, but my did she have her moneys worth! She must have gone on around 50 rides at least. The ride attendants are great, I must mention the fab old bloke who run's the 'zipper dipper' Kiddies rollercoaster. He was there both times we visit, and is really fun with the kids giving them all a 'Hi 5' as the coaster sets off. Make sure your little one sits on the right to catch their hi-5!.

We do go off peak and mid week so while busy, there were no cues for anything. The park is very clean and well maintained. I constantly saw people going round collecting rubbish, and even scrubbing down bins. The toilets are also immaculate with lockers available for bags at £1 a day. The food is limited to fast food pretty much (although there is an Italian restaurant) but cheap. We bought a huge hotdog and Coke for £3.50. The park was open 12-5 pm (later during peak) and we could have used another couple of hours.

The Piers

There are 3 piers in Blackpool, although I have only visited the central and south piers. South pier is all about fun, with more white knuckle fairground rides and a stomach churning bungee jump as well as a few childrens rides. Central pier is somewhat tamer, although is home to a gigantic ferris wheel my daughter insisted on riding. You can walk right to the end of this pier and the view is gorgeous. Both have family entertainment bars, we did get drinks at the bar on south pier one night, although the central pier bar was shut the night we visited (tuesday). During peak I believe they both open late with entertainment.

There are game stalls, palm readers and small shops selling rock, souvenir's and the like but again during the week these were closing as we arrived at 7pm.

Both piers are accessed through arcades, which as well as the big arcade games have loads of two penny slots. I let my daughter have a couple of pounds worth and we had fun putting them in, trying to push more out and ultimately loosing. There are loads of those thieving 'grab a toy' things, which after a few goes from her own purse even my daughter gave up on, brandishing them as 'cheats'. I prefer these two arcades and personally would avoid the others (as a rule I hate arcades full stop but kids like a go and it doesn't hurt once a year), as I found these clean and well supervised and we could have a little fun on our way off the pier.

Overall

Personally I have found that for a break with my daughter Blackpool is ideal, and to be honest I'm quite surprised. I'm not really a person who demands non stop brash fun, I prefer more sedate activities usually. However my reason for going was my daughter and I have discovered that underneath the bad image and the kiss me quick hats (which I have not seen once on my recent visits), there is still a nice seaside family atmosphere.

I have stayed in both a Haven holiday park and a very cheap B&B and both have been equally enjoyable. The plus side of the Haven Park is that it's near a nature reserve, so has a bit of a country feel and has free children's entertainment on site every night, as well as a swimming pool. The B&B was cheaper and nearer the attractions. There's a huge choice of accommodation though, so my advice would be to have a good look around the internet before deciding and check review sites for recommendations.

One assumption that a lot of people make is that going to Blackpool will be expensive, however I have found it's not necessarily the case. My last visit cost me in total less than £300 and that included travel by train, 2 nights accommodation, entrance to the tower, zoo and pleasure beach, all our food and plenty of spends for 3 full days here. I can assure you that we didn't scrimp either. Again if I can offer some advice it would be to book all the attractions you would like to see in advance as you can save a fair bit by booking on line. If your travelling by train book well in advance...our ticket only cost £12.50 return (on the day fayre is over £50) by booking 6 weeks in advance. Plan a daily budget and stick to it, I find that by taking out with me the amount of money I was happy to spend that day I was never tempted to go over.

And my final piece of advice would be to just enjoy it for what it is. Blackpool is full of friendly people, I have never once felt unsafe as a woman on my own with a small child. Yes it's tacky, brash and loud in places, but underneath all the muck there is a great seaside town with lots to do for the whole family.

(A couple of sites I found useful when planning our trip and booking attractions)

http://www.visitblackpool.com
www.attractionsblackpool.co.uk