Month: August 2023

After the wholesome week in North Wales, week two of our holiday was loud, fun and busy. Blackpool rocked and we made very happy memories.

The first day was a bit of a nightmare, the weather travelling to Blackpool was awful, biblical rain and wind and with petty arguments in the car, we were all pretty fed up by the time we arrived. We then walked into a filthy caravan, which took all afternoon to sort as it was so bad it had to be fully deep cleaned by a whole team of staff. We did receive a decent compensation for the inconvenience but it was just a rubbish day.

Fortunately, we had a week fully planned and on Tuesday, we started with the Blackpool Tower. We did the Blackpool Eye experience which involved a 4d cinema introduction to Blackpool and then a trip to the top of the tower. It was so much fun and I thought the glass floor was a brilliant touch. The day was so bright and clear that we had amazing views all across the town and sea. We then went out for a meal, we have joked that the week was sponsored by Tesco as the tower trip, Bella Italia meal and Pleasure beach were all paid by our Tesco points, its a great little scheme which helps gives the sparkles to special times.

By using our Tesco points, we had to book all activities in advance and as the Tower and Pleasure Beach were weather dependent we became avid forecast followers for the preceding two weeks. Amazingly, the weather all week was great, with the best day being Pleasure Beach day! The Pleasure Beach was brilliant, the children loved the adrenaline filled rollercoasters and did so many rides. I joined for a few, Valhalla which was wild and wet and had me crying with tears of joy, the Ghost train and Wallace and Gromit. Mostly Mr S and I loved just watching the children having so much fun and simply embracing the family time.

When we had been planning our week, we had not known about the water park but discovered it on one of tram journeys and booked a trip. It was another brilliant session, there are so many slides and features, including the longest inside water slide in the world. As you can read, Blackpool was pretty full on!

Another highlight of our week was a trip to Manchester for the girls and a return to Anfield for the boys on Saturday. In an amazing stroke of luck, my son’s team were playing Liverpool away and they got tickets to the match. It was such an experience for them both, a truly memorable day to be treasured. As we had been to Liverpool the previous week, my daughter and I decided catch a train to explore Manchester. I was keen to see the Lowry exhibition and the new Media city. I love to plan, so organised our train travel, sorted the tram routes and our day’s itinerary. The Lowry exhibition was brilliant, it started with a 20 minute film which explained so much about the artist and his work and then the opportunity to see the pictures referred to in it, made them so much more interesting. There was also an exhibition adjacent on the work of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, we did pop in and saw some of the original notebooks and sketchbooks and learnt about the creativity and process of writing. After the Lowry, we walked over to Old Trafford and posed for a few photos to send to my football mad son before returning to the city centre. I did find the city centre mighty impressive with its grand old buildings (and Emily Pankhurst’s statue) but also felt it was such a contrast to the works of Lowry we had just seen with their depictions of poverty. We also visited the shopping area too, but there was less on the shopping list after our Liverpool trip and it was more browsing. My daughter was keen to go to Selfridges and was in awe of all the designers and being able to see Chanel bags, Laboutin shoes etc on display, she has a wish list for when she is older! As a treat in Selfridges, we lunched in San Carlo Bottega and had a delicious meal in a delightful setting. I did buy a lip gloss so my daughter could have an ionic yellow bag as a memento of our trip. As the boys were later than us in getting back to Blackpool, we explored party Blackpool on a Saturday night as we waited for them to get back in, my daughter loved it and is planning a return trip with her friends in a few years time (scarily she’ll be an adult then)

Our final full day was Sunday and we were in Blackpool early to watch the Women’s World Cup final, sadly it wasn’t to be this tournament but the Lionesses have achieved so much. It was lovely to see the pubs busy with everyone tuned in to the match and such a positive atmosphere. We then did a final walk along the promenade and bought rocks and gifts for family and friends before heading back to the caravan and packing.

I loved exploring north Wales and the North West on this holiday, its been so different to other caravan holidays and the trips to Manchester and Liverpool were brilliant. It’s made me want to do more city trips around the country and my planning has started.

Over the past few years we have visited a number of Haven holiday parks around the country, Cornwall, East and West Sussex, East Anglia, Kent and Tenby and shown our children some of the beautiful beaches and countryside the UK has to offer. This year we decided to do something different and combined stunning beaches with some city trips too. We spent our first week in North Wales, for the outdoor experiences and then the second in Blackpool for the explosion of fun, fairgrounds and bright lights.

As it is a long journey we stayed a night at Trentham Gardens in Stoke. This was a lovely stop with easy access to the shopping and dining experiences, a beautiful warm evening walk and conveniently close access to the motorway. It was the best en route stop we’ve done and helped us be fresh and ready for our caravan stay. We had an early check in and started the holiday straight away, whilst I collected our food shopping the children were already in the pool, exploring and making new friends.

When we were planning our holiday, one of our priorities was a trip to Liverpool as our football made son wanted to do the Anfield tour, this needs to be booked in advance and the date available was the first full day on site, Tuesday. It did feel a little strange to unpack and then spend the first whole day away on a little adventure, but boy was it worth it. For me it was one of the best days of the holiday. We travelled through to Liverpool on the train, it is really simple and took about 90 minutes. This may seem a long trip on a holiday, but for us, who live in a very rural part of the country, its a typical journey time for a day out. Nothing is close to home! Whilst I am a football fan, I knew it wasn’t the ideal itinerary for my daughter so after breakfast together, the boys and girls split up, with the girls heading off to do a walk to some of the key sights in Liverpool before doing the Beatles open bus top tour. The bus tour was amazing. When I was planning our day it was the trip which kept on being highlighted for its 5 star rating and I had booked us on. My daughter was initially bemused by the trip, but was won over within minutes. We had a brilliant guide, who not only showed us the sites significant to the Beatles story but gave an excellent social history of the city too. Beatles music is played throughout the tour, with the guide playing relevant songs and also taking requests from the passengers, it is the ultimate feel good trip with lots of singing. We also alighted the bus at Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields for the tourist shots! I had dressed to complement the tour too, wearing my favourite long, pink and red skirt and strawberry straw bag, it was a fun thing to do and sometimes I think you need to embrace the moment. Following the tour (for which I did do a trip advisor 5 star post) we headed over to the Liverpool Eye, another great and enjoyable activity. The views on the eye were amazing as we were treated to blue, clear skies and could see lots. My daughter was keen to hit the shops and spend her birthday money, I was really impressed by the shopping in Liverpool and a very successful shopping trip ensued! We then met up with the boys who were so happy with their day too and headed back on the train. I loved how happy we all were about our Liverpool trip, it really was the best day.

After the busy day in Liverpool we then took some days to enjoy the holiday park. There were lots of activities swimming, the ‘Big Jump’, crazy golf and on Saturday we hired bikes to ride from Presthaven to Rhyl, a 13 mile return journey along the prom. I liked the simplicity of the holiday, wholesome activities enjoyed outside in the sunshine. We were so lucky with the weather, after the most miserable start to the summer holidays, we had two holiday weeks of blue skies and sunshine. Although we stayed mainly on the park, we popped through to Prestatyn a couple of times, headed into Rhyl on Friday night for a cinema trip to see the Haunted Mansion and then on Sunday drove through to Llandudno and Conway. Llandudno was gorgeous and I liked the cuteness of Conway with the castle, the smallest house in Britain and delicious Welsh cakes.

As the children are now older, we did use the evening entertainment too, the highlight being a stunning Tina Turner tribute. We also discovered that the local fish and chip shop did battered Mars bar and we surprised the children with one as a supper treat. I chose not to try it but the verdicts were positive!

I found North Wales to be a stunning place, the beaches were wild and natural and there was lots of outdoor activities to enjoy, a peaceful first week of the holiday before the fun of Blackpool.