Wednesday 1 July 2015

New Brighton

Wow has it been a hot day, I know it was forecast but I was not prepared for it! It certainly didn't help that our dog ate the paddling pool.

Today I took a trip to New Brighton with my friend, her little lad and Oscar. 
I've never been there before so didn't quite know what to expect, apart from the usual sea side things like amusements and doughnuts, every beach trip needs doughnuts and ice cream in my view. 

Anyway New Brighton isn't too far from us, it's an easy 1hr away. We travelled in my friends car, both the boys in the back and chatted away, we soon arrived.
We parked up and at first had a bit of a panic as the tide was in, which meant no beach! After walking on the seafront we did however find a nice sandy spot with a couple of lifeguards on duty, it was a small corner next to Fort Perth Rock which is an old coastal defence battery that was used during the Napoleonic period to protect the docks of Liverpool, I'll have to visit it next time for sure!

Once we hit the beach my friends boy was in the water straight off, Oscar yelled ouch and ran out never to go near it again. We kept ourselves busy by making a few sand castles and he knocked them down like a scary monster. I think we stayed on the beach for and hour and a half before we decided to go for lunch.

New Brighton has undergone a massive redevelopment to pull tourists with a new cinema, travelodge, casino, ice cream parlour, chimi changas, prezzo, Starbucks and many more restaurants too. I hadn't seen it before this developement, my firend told me it just used to be a large grassed area. To me before it must have been a nice small seaside town, the attraction was the beach, still is,  and it wasn't over shadowed by amusement arcades or towering buildings. The new changes to me fit in nicely, I coudn't really imagine it without as the new restaurant/bars looked really popular. It has gven the area something for everyone, it's on the promenade too so you can easily spend a day or even more there, espcially with the new Travelodge.
Even with so much choice for lunch we still went for the traditional Seaside Cafe.

The Seaside Cafe. Source wirrelwebsite.co.uk

We ordered fish and chips, the kids had chicken nuggets, chips and beans. The meal came to us really quickly, the portion sizes we brilliant and it was so delicious, a proper seaside fish and chips. I was stuffed and had to pass on pudding, which is usually unheard of for me. The whole meal inuding a tea for two (kids meal came with a juice) was £17.80 and for the portion sizes I'd say this was a  pretty fair price. 

After lunch we decided to head home, I noticed an arcade and small amusement park on the promenade as well as a super bowl and laser quest. I've always enjoyed laser quest but with two young ones in tow it wasn't to be! 

We came in through Wallasey so for drive home we took the coastal road and I spotted a cute looking miniature golf which I'm sure I'll visit next time I'm that way. My two eldest children love crazy golf, their not too good at it but they do enjoy it so it'll be somewhere to visit with them!

Having never been to New Brighton I was pleasantly surprised, it's nice and small but had plenty to do and explore and there weren't crowds of people. I didn't visit the amusements arcade or the amusement park but from today's impression I'll be back to explore some more! I'd definitely be up for crazy golf and laser quest with my eldests, if I can get them off the beach that is! One things for sure though, I'll definitely be going back to The Seaside Cafe, good food and great value.

I'll leave you with this picture of Oscar, he loved the sand just not so much the cold water! 


Where do you like to visit the seaside and what's your favourite thing about it?