UK’s biggest waterpark opens

ALPAMARE SCARBOROUGH – which claims to be the Britain’s biggest waterpark – has opened.

The attraction has ‘adrenaline inducing waterslides’, a giant indoor wave pool, an infinity pool with massage jets, an area for younger children, a terrace overlooking Scarborough’s coastline, and landscaped gardens with sunbeds, pool bar, and a restaurant.

The alpine-themed waterpark, overlooks Scarborough’s North Bay and represents an investment of £14 million. It’s hoped the attraction will play a key role in the strategy to retain Scarborough’s status as the second most visited town in England after London.

Anton Hoefter, chief executive officer of Alpamare said: ‘We are introducing state-of- the-art technology, unique in the UK, and we take great pride in delivering the highest standard of enjoyment and safety so people get the very best experience they can.’

Cllr Derek Bastiman, leader of Scarborough Borough Council added: ‘This is the most exciting thing we have seen open in Scarborough in recent years. We have been working extremely hard over a long period of time to secure this development and the addition of this unique attraction will help cement the borough as being the Queen of the Coast”.

www.alpamare.co.uk

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They do like to be beside the seaside …

MORE than half (58%) of Britons are expected take a holiday or short break on the coast this summer, according to the annual Travelodge holiday index. The report also claims that Britons will spend more than ever on their UK holidays this year. 

It estimated they will spend an average of £729 on their breaks ‘to give the UK economy a welcome boost of almost £20 billion, up from £16.5 billion last year’.

The report – which has surveyed 3,000 British adults for the past six years – shows that 2016 is set to be the biggest year for seaside breaks since the study started.

Coastal locations dominate the list of most popular destinations, with Cornwall rated top for the second consecutive year, followed by Devon (3rd), Blackpool (5th), Brighton (8th), and Scarborough (10th).

After seaside holidays, the second most popular type of UK trip is the city break, with the top locations including London, Edinburgh, Manchester, York, and Liverpool.

The third most popular type of holiday is in the countryside. Among the rural holiday hotspots for 2016 are the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, Scottish Highlands, Norfolk Broads, and the Cotswolds.

The study claims more than two-thirds (67%) of Britons are taking a staycation break this year.

The average British family is taking a one-week holiday supplemented by four short breaks throughout the year.

A Travelodge spokeswoman said: ‘A new trend we are seeing is more Britons taking a three-in-one holiday. This includes taking a city, rural, and coastal break as part of a one-week holiday.’

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Bournemouth tops seaside search league

TRAVEL interest to UK coastal destinations has increased by up to 64 per cent according to new data from hotel comparison site trivago.co.uk.

Hotel searches made during the hottest days (June 29-July 1) were compared to searches made the previous week. #Bournemouth emerged as the UK’s favourite seaside resort, followed by Blackpool, Brighton, Scarborough, and Whitby.

The most expensive coastal destination in July was St Ives in Cornwall, where an overnight stay cost an average of £160. This was followed by Poole (£140), Portsmouth (£127), Newquay (£117), and Brighton (£116).

The cheapest prices were found in Blackpool (average of £60 per night during July 2015), followed by Skegness (£62), Scarborough (£79), Weston-super-Mare, and Southend-on-Sea (both £82).

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Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/33143245@N02/20232427329">Ocean City NJ</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(license)

The golden age of the British seaside

David Kernek has been enjoying a new book about a long gone British institution

SOME of the most unclouded memories of my childhood in a gritty, post-war inner London borough were of annual one-week holidays in Great Yarmouth on the Norfolk coast. I remember the beaches – most of them newly-cleared of WW2 mines – the end-of-the-pier shows, the ice cream and hot dog stands, the tea stalls on the prom, candy floss, chips served up on pages from yesterday’s Daily Mirror, the stench of boiling hops from the town’s brewery and, of course, because it was July, the relentless east wind, rain, and the icy sea.

Great Yarmouth’s brewery has long since gone – there’s a supermarket on the site now –just as the world of the Great British #Seaside experience has vanished. It was the product of the 19th century railway boom that carried the toiling masses and their children from the dark, satanic cities to their weeks by the sea, creating a coastal network of towns – many of them previously small fishing ports – whose principal business was the provision of pleasure. Its end came a little more than a century later, done in – year by year – by the growth in the 1960s of the foreign package tour industry. The toiling masses could have their funfairs, hot dogs, chips, and tea in Benidorm, plus the things the Blackpools, Brightons, and Butlins’ couldn’t guarantee: sun and a warm sea.

Beside the Sea: Britain’s Lost Seaside Heritage by Sarah Freeman is an affectionate and informative history of the rise and protracted decline of this island’s coastal pleasure towns, from #Blackpool, #Brighton and Bangor and Scarborough and Southport – the towns that gave us holiday camps, donkey rides, knobbly knees and beauty contests, deckchairs and funfairs, and the great piers stretching out into the oceans. It was in the pavilions at the end of the piers that the entertainment stars of the 20th century laid the foundations of their fame.

Max Miller began his career on Brighton’s – now destroyed – West Pier. The Rolling Stones played the Tower Ballroom in New Brighton in 1964. By 1963, the Beatles had played at that venue 27 times. My first adolescent crush was on Helen Shapiro, a very young blues and pop singer. She topped the bill at a variety show in Great Yarmouth to which I was taken. I’ve never forgotten her!

Beside the Sea: Britain’s Lost Seaside Heritage by Sarah Freeman. Aurum Press, £25.

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Picture Credit: Eastbourne Bandstand - geograph.org.uk - 256414 by Colin Smith. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons, Courtesy of Beside the Sea: Britain's Lost Seaside Heritage.