Blackpool Pleasure Beach
The big one. Nickelodeon Land covers the primary ages properly while the Big One and the wooden coasters wait for brave older kids. August queues are real; go in expecting them and it is a great day.
Showtown
Blackpool, Lancashire
Showtown is Blackpool explaining itself: the circus, the magicians, the dancing, the illuminations, the whole business of a seaside town that decided entertainment was the industry. It sits on Bank Hey Street a few doors from the Tower, it is a registered charity, and the galleries are built around doing things and not reading things.
Pricing is unusually sane for the Golden Mile. Adults are £9.50, children 4 to 15 are £4.50, under 4s and carers go free, National Art Pass members go free, and family tickets start at £17.50. Compare that with anything else on the promenade and it looks like a mistake in your favour.
Anyone paying council tax to Blackpool Council can visit free as many times as they like, provided they book a resident ticket in advance.
Entry is timed, so book. The museum suggests allowing at least an hour and a half. There are toilets on both floors including a Changing Places with hoist access, baby changing upstairs, free lockers at reception and a buggy park, but no cafe, which is the one thing to plan around. Snacks and drinks are sold in the shop.
Know before you go
- If you pay council tax to Blackpool Council, everybody in the family gets in free, but you have to book a resident ticket online in advance. Turning up and explaining yourself at the desk does not work.
- There is no cafe on site, just drinks and snacks in the gift shop. Eat before you go in or plan to come out for lunch.
- The museum recommends allowing at least an hour and a half.
- It is the rare Blackpool attraction that is genuinely better in the rain. Save it for the washout day.
Looking for more museums & science near Blackpool?
Also in Blackpool
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.
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.