NICKELODEON LAND/BLACKPOOL PLEASURE BEACH

Blackpool blackpoolpleasurebeach.com

Blackpool might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but 17 million visitors can’t be wrong. That’s how many tourists flock to the Las Vegas of the north every year, making it easily the most popular seaside resort in the country.

A good few million of those visitors also make it to the family-run Pleasure Beach, where they can ride on attractions like The Big

One (Britain’s tallest roller coaster), Valhalla (which has been reimagined for 2022), and Avalanche, not to mention the classic wooden Big Dipper which has been causing stomachs to lurch since the 1920s. Technically the Pleasure Beach is an amusement park rather than a theme park, but 2011 saw the opening of Nickelodeon Land, which, as the name would suggest, is themed around the kids’ TV channel.

For the uninitiated, Nickelodeon is the home of SpongeBob Square Pants and, when you enter this part of the park it feels like you’ve just stepped into an episode of the cartoon. Like the show, the whole place is in vivid technicolour, with bright yellows, blues and pinks everywhere.

The rides are all aimed at children, so there’s nothing massively scary, but there’s enough to keep young (and not-so-young) thrill-seekers happy. The big rides are Avatar Airbender, the Streak roller coaster and the Rugrats Lost River log flume but there are other attractions themed around TV favourites like Dora, Diego, the Wonder Pets, the Backyardigans and, of course, SpongeBob and friends.

The park reminded us of Disneyland in miniature, especially with characters milling around meeting young fans and the Nickelodeon shop selling just about every piece of SpongeBob memorabilia imaginable. We visited on a glorious Saturday in November and it was still very busy, but getting there early meant we had a couple of hours of short queues before the crowds arrived in force.

One of the big advantages of Nickelodeon Land is the fact that it is part of the Pleasure Beach, so you have access to all those ‘grown-up’ rides, too. You are almost in the centre of town so can take advantage of everything Blackpool has to offer, as well.

Wristbands giving you access to the Pleasure Beach and unlimited rides on all the attractions can be bought in advance online or at the park on the day. It’s usually cheaper to buy online. Family wristbands are also available.