Blackpool

Neon stutters along the Golden Mile, the Tower pierces the cloud line, and a ballroom as vast as a hangar still fills on a Saturday night with couples who know every step. Blackpool is England's most unapologetic seaside resort — brash, loud, and entirely sincere about the business of pleasure.

Blackpool Tower, raised in 1894 in open homage to the Eiffel, stands 158 metres over the promenade and holds the Tower Ballroom — a rococo confection of gilt and mirrors whose sprung maple floor has been danced on since 1899, a mighty Wurlitzer rising from the pit for the tea dances. The Illuminations stretch six miles of seafront into a tunnel of a million bulbs each autumn — kitsch elevated to genuine spectacle — while the Pleasure Beach has been thrilling families since 1896, its Big One coaster once the tallest in the world. Three piers punctuate the sands, and the promenade tramway, running continuously since 1885, is the world's oldest electric street tramway still at work. No British seaside resort draws more visitors, and none apologises less.