Blackpool Tower
The Tower Eye's glass floor 380 feet up, a proper circus that still knows how to play to kids, and the famous ballroom below for a fancy ice cream. Buy the attractions you want rather than the bundle you will not use.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach
Blackpool, Lancashire
The country's most famous amusement park, and Nickelodeon Land inside it is the best themed area for primary-age children in the North: proper rides scaled down, characters walking the paths, and the big coasters roaring overhead as a preview of being older.
Buy wristbands online - gate prices sting - and measure the children before you go: height limits decide everything here, and knowing them in advance prevents the day's great tragedies.
August queues are real. Ride Nickelodeon Land first thing, break for the beach across the road at the messy middle of the day, and return for the big stuff late afternoon when queues thin.
The 2026 headline is Aviktas, the new ride the park bills as the UK's tallest, and the coaster crowd who have ridden everything rate it. The other new-ish fixture is the evening: Late Night Riding runs weekends through summer with the park open to 10pm and fireworks, and the park stays open to 8pm on Wednesdays. Riding the Big One in the dark with the Illuminations starting up the coast is the best thing the park does all year.
The £25 Nickelodeon-only ticket is the quiet bargain for families whose children are all under about eight. You give up the big coasters, which they could not ride anyway, and pay £5 less a head than the full wristband. The £18 Flex Pass solves the grandparent problem: entry and the atmosphere without paying for rides they will not go on.
Hot Ice, the park's summer ice show, turned 90 this year, which makes it one of the longest-running shows of any kind in the country. It is air conditioned, it is an hour long, and it is exactly what a family needs at 3pm on a hot August day when everyone's feet have given up.
What it costs: Online: All You Can Ride from £30, the Nickelodeon Land-only ticket £25, and an £18 Flex Pass to walk the park without riding. Under-2s free. Gate prices are meaningfully higher.
Know before you go
- Height limits rule everything here - measure the kids before you promise specific rides.
- Do Nickelodeon Land first thing and the big rides after lunch - the little queues build fastest.
- Late Night Riding evenings run weekends in summer until 10pm with fireworks. Arriving at 4pm for an evening session beats arriving at 10am for the same money and half the queues.
On right nowchecked 2 August
- Aviktas, billed as the UK's tallest ride, opened this season and is running daily.
Looking for more adventure & rides near Blackpool?
What visitors say
★★★★★ 4.3 across 35,528 Google reviews.
Read all 35,528 reviews on Google - filter by star rating thereThe word this month
What people are actually posting about this place. Checked 2 August; videos play from the creator’s own account.
@inversian_ Full POV of the Big Dipper at Pleasure Beach.
“Best little weekend in Blackpool with my babies - we had so much fun at Pleasure Beach.”
“Blackpool Pleasure Beach is open for Twilight Thrills every weekend this summer, with fireworks on some evenings. The park is open until 8pm on Wednesdays! There is something for families with kids of all ages - make sure you visit the UK's only Nickelodeon Land.”
Also in Blackpool
Sandcastle Waterpark
The UK's biggest indoor waterpark, kept at tropical temperature: proper toddler pools and mini slides at one end, big flumes at the other. Rainy-day Blackpool solved.
Blackpool Zoo
Elephants, gorillas, giraffes and sea lions in 37 acres that are actually walkable with primary-age legs - big enough to feel like a full day, small enough that nobody ends up carried.
Sea Life Blackpool
A solid seafront aquarium with an ocean tunnel and rockpool sessions - the reliable wet-weather hour when the beach plan falls apart.
Stanley Park
Blackpool's grand free option: Italian gardens, a big boating lake, one of the best playgrounds on the coast and model boats on the lake. The antidote to a wristband day.
Blackpool Model Village & Gardens
A miniature world of tiny houses, castles and villages set in an acre of gardens next to Stanley Park. Gentle, old-fashioned and quietly magic for the under-9s.
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