Visit Lancashire

Our Lancashire is Your Lancashire

Visit Lancashire is interested in your holiday experience. We're currently looking into the best way to show the stories, videos and images that you send us.

Meanwhile we're also thinking about running a competition based around YOU and how you see Lancashire. You could be a local taking a day trip. You could be someone from France touring around the Northwest for a week. Whatever your trip to Lancashire there's one thing for sure... you'll have an opinion on it.

Watch this space for the launch of our YouTube/Flickr/Blog/Twitter/Facebook competition about YOUR holiday.

If you have any thoughts .. please leave a comment here for us to take into account while we set up our competition.

Sarah Lundy

Fun on the Farm

I visited Thornton Hall farm Country Park on Friday for a brief visit (I was invited to talk at the Pendle Tourism Association meeting which was held in their conference room) and I have to say how impressed I was with the attraction.

The main play barn and animal pens were immaculately clean, with really innovative ways for kids and animals to interact together with a straw maze, big slides and sand pits. I’m easily distracted by cute and cuddly animals and so couldn’t resist taking a peak at some of the animals which included;  friendly goats, cute calves, barking puppies, a llama (I think - with lovely long eyelashes), chickens & fluffy chicks, bleating lambs, pigs and squealing piglets! I also saw the biggest rabbit I have ever seen (bigger than a large domestic cat).   Well worth a visit (especially for those with kids).

Secret #TASTY event food gift

For the launch of the Lancashire Producers Month we are holding an event for you!

When: 3-5pm, 1 October

Where: Secret Location in Lancashire (we'll let you know on 30 September)

It's a secret location because there's something special about it.

Also this is a special event for people who TWEET. Follow @VisitLancashire on TWITTER. You will find a link to the #TASTY food gift voucher.

All those who turn up to meet us will recieve a food gift (as long as we know you are a tweeter!) and you get to meet us.. the VisitLancashire Twits.

For more info, check out: http://www.visitlancashire.com/site/gubbins.../tasty

Cheers and happy tweeting.

Polish Delight in Blackpool

The Federation International of Volleyball brought the under 21 junior world beach championships to Blackpool this weekend. It being a gloriously sunny day I thought a nice tram ride along the promenade and a quick sit through a game or two would be a pleasant way for the family to spend the afternoon. None of us knew anything about volleyball – beach or otherwise so we weren’t sure what to expect or how complicated the rules might be – I need not have worried.

Fabulous Flavours

I’m becoming a real fan of Mrs Dowson’s ice cream. The peardrop flavour is so authentic it transported me back to my childhood and just the other day at Thompson Park in Burnley I sampled ginger biscuit ice cream containing chunks of ginger snaps. Biscuit, Ice cream and Ginger – BIG yums!!

 

Barbara Howorth

Tangerine Delight

Last night I was lucky enough to be one of the nearly 10,000 people in Bloomfield Road who watched a truly magnificent game of football, which for those dressed in tangerine, ended with the perfect result ( 2 – 1 to Blackpool if you’re interested).

Watching the away supporters I suddenly realised that far from taking the three hour journey home many of them were booked into local accommodation so they could make the most of the opportunity to spend some time in Blackpool and enjoy its other facilities and attractions.

Woodland Wonder

My brother was visiting us with his family from Northern Ireland this weekend so, like last week, we had another Sunday morning dilemma - four adults and five children ranging from one year old up to nine, what shall we do? Luckily it was Heritage Open Days weekend and there were lots of events taking place around the county so plenty of choice. We settled on the Towneley Heritage and Woodland Festival in Burnley.

As it was fine, we spent all our time outside in the park, although Towneley Hall, home to the Towneley family for over 500 years, was offering free entrance all weekend and is worth a paying visit. Every hour, against the backdrop of the hall, there was a re-enactment of the civil war along with musket fire although we weren’t able to watch the show as the bangs were too much for my youngest who complained, with her hands stuck theatrically over her ears, that it was “too woud!”

The Big Bang (s)

With the weather being so great last week I thought it would be the perfect time to go along to Blackpool and watch the Irish leg of the World Fireworks Championships. My partner and I parked up at one of the central car parks and wandered into town. The whole resort was teeming with families and people enjoying the last of the day’s sunshine. As we headed over to North Pier (which is the best viewing place this year while the seafront building work is still going on by Central Pier), the sun was just beginning to set over the horizon and the most amazing red sky lit up the Prom.

Round the Hills

An 18 mile Sunday Stroll.

 

Sunday morning, decision time – shall we go on the 18 mile Rossendale Round the Hills walk (beautiful scenery, good exercise, fresh air) or shan’t we (uphill climbs, mud, unpredictable weather)? What clinched it was the enthusiasm of our nine year old daughter who desperately wanted to give it a go for the first time, particularly as she could use it to raise money for the RSPCA.

Oysters & 5,500 Pints of Guinness

Start saving now and book early for next year's Oyster Festival at Guy's Thatched Hamlet...it's so worth it! I experienced it for the first time last week (4th September) and was truly impressed.  Not just by the amazing food (which I'll get on to) but by the scale of the event.  It was incredibly well organised though, with all these large-scale functions, I'm sure there was someone, somewhere, having kittens about something that had gone array – trust me nobody noticed! On entering the marquee, what I thought was an illusion (created by a wall of mirrors) actually turned out to be a further marquee attached to the one we arrived in - ample space for the 1,000 guests (100 tables of ten).