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To commemorate the Smithsonian Presents Travels with Rick Steves magazine — now on sale online, and at newsstands nationwide — Rick is blogging about the 20 top destinations featured in that issue. One of those destinations is Blackpool, England.
I was in Las Vegas recently. While immersed in the fun with people from all walks of life, I couldn’t stop thinking about England’s Blackpool. Both resorts provide their country a place where a strata of society can get down to the basic mission of life — mating — and then offer an affordable escape for that same gang to enjoy an invigorating break from a life of meaningless work.
Kitsch, gaudy hotels, leggy temptations, and lots of lights. Blackpool extends its season into the winter with its Illuminations festival. Vegas is bright as day all night. Strolling each resort, you mingle with people in love, families awestruck at dancing water shows, and gangs of friends letting loose. You also see lost souls, the consequences of a lifetime of bad diet, people who can’t afford limos in limos, and lots of booze. Gambling offers even perennial losers a chance to win. Blackpool, like Vegas, tried to become a family destination. But apparently adult distractions are more profitable. So, Vegas sidewalks are littered with playing-card-sized call-girl ads.
Las Vegas and Blackpool each have their own Eiffel Tower (where you can “see Paris” without really leaving home) and a busy schedule of dazzling shows that keep big stars big long after their general sales potential has ebbed. Blackpool employs the British equivalents of Cher, Barry Manilow, and Donnie and Marie — who are all still in their prime on The Strip. (I was marveling at giant billboards of Marie Osmond — several stories tall. Her big smile was everywhere. Then I noticed rice or something clogging the little triangles between her whitened teeth.)
In Vegas, people seriously compare the buffets. (For $24.95, you can eat as much as you want for 24 hours. The shrimp is great at the Mirage.) And in Blackpool, people talk about fish-and-chips as if it’s high cuisine. “Hen parties” roam, the bride wearing her veil and slowly sucking her way through a crude lollipop. Both Blackpool and Vegas make your next stop either more dreary…or more pristine.
I loved Blackpool. It’s working-class English. The women are lovely in a sleazy way. I remember lots of cheap perfume and of course the wonderful smell of greasy fish and chips all in a mist of neon and booze! What could be better?
Second.
A bit off topic, I know. But we’ve just returned from Venice, and talking to some of our friends (who only vacation in Disneyland and Hawaii) about our gondola tour of a few quiet canals in Venice offered the following. “Been there, done that – why go to Venice when you can get the same experience in Las Vegas?” Ouch!!
Lived in Las Vegas for 17 years. It is NOT like being in another country. Not at all. The hotels/casinos are not encouraging folks to enjoy or explore another culture or area. They are encouraging you to overeat and blow your money. This is fact.
Try exploring outside of Vegas…Red Rock Canyon, Mt. Charleston, Boulder City…maybe try the winery in Pahrump, on the other side of the mountains from Vegas. Run on a shoestring, but nice and interesting.
I had to just stop here at this post and say Gawwwd, I love your writing style.
I enjoy your show and you possess the kind of writing style I envy. Thanks for all that you do to make the world a bit closer for the rest of us.