Oh I do like to be beside the seaside
Over 20 years since I was last in Blackpool, I'd tried to get MOTS and the boy to go last year but didn't manage it with other things on around the time of the illuminations. We're just back from a couple of days there, after finding a cracking hotel.
We'd been looking at hotels, and MOTS' only stipulation was out of pure snobbery - if we're doing Blackpool she wants a decent hotel. Not a small hotel on the prom full of stag and hen parties, but a more upmarket and hopefully quieter affair. Fair enough request, given the family status and not wanting the little guy woken up by hoards of drunks.
De Vere Heron's ReachThere's a family oriented hotel right next to the Pleasure Beach, looks superb. But at £170/night it was way over budget. Are we staying in a Premier Inn at £65 by the time we've added Breakfast? So I set off in search and found most hoteals at £100+ a night. Until I checked the hotel booking service offered by my packaged bank account, finding the De Vere Heron's Reach at £66.50. Hang on, £1.50 a night more than the budget Premier Inn for a 4* De Vere? OK, let's get the bags packed and don't forget the swimming gear!
The hotel was superb, after an initial panic over whether we'd get a cot or not (no guarantee, allocated at check-in) - sorted out by asking the travel agent to release the booking details to the hotel before their normal 72 hour approach. The rooms were a little dated in terms of furniture, and a modern hotel should really have in-room safes, but the investment in the public areas was second to none. So we made full use of the health suite, over the two night stay we had 3 swims, the boy's introduction to the bubbles (jacuzzi set in one side of the pool), and Daddy managing to squeeze in a couple of saunas. Not bad for an extra £3. Not to mention the walk around the golf course perimeter, the full-on breakfast with every possible combination (except champagne, that's been limited to the Pheonecian in Valetta). My eyes have been opened to private health facilities, it's just not going to be the same going back to our council pool and having the lad looking in vain for his bubbles.
Outside the hotel was slightly different. Blackpool is a sad old girl, there's investment in the promenade with new sea defences going up and new public areas being built into them making the whole front a building site, but the investment seems to be stopping there. A walk along the prom and it was clear that anything not in direct sight of the sea wasn't really attractive. There's a clear lack of love for what was once a premier resort, and the stag & hen destination it's become doesn't help.
But, with plenty to do in close vicintiy, she could be great again, as long as the council invest in attracting more than weekend binge drinkers.
We'd go back just for the hotel. And a tram ride. And the Pleasure Beach. And fish & chips (as we didn't have any this time).
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