The hotel
A red-brick Victorian pile right on the promenade, a few minutes' walk from the Tower and the Pleasure Beach. Sea-view rooms face straight out over the water, and the glass-fronted restaurant on the ground floor shares that same view at breakfast.
The gaming floor
The hotel's old ballroom arcade was converted into a proper gaming floor decades ago — roulette, blackjack and a bank of slots, open late most nights and busiest on weekend evenings when the promenade itself is loudest.
Getting there by train
Blackpool North is the station to aim for, a direct service from Manchester in around an hour; from London, that usually means a change at Preston.
Good to know
Dress code here is noticeably more relaxed than the London end of this list. 18+ ID is still required at the door, and stag and hen weekends are a regular feature of Blackpool nightlife — worth knowing if you're after a quiet evening.