Sandcastle Waterpark

Sandcastle Waterpark is almost as much of a part of Blackpool’s South Shore scenery as the Pleasure Beach with primary-coloured tube slides protruding from the building in rather frightening-looking swirls like a marble run on steroids.

It’s not cheap but it will keep you out of the rain. It won’t stop you getting wet though. There are so many different attractions, it’s more like a theme park with the added bonus of a swimming pool.

Younger children will enjoy the interactive water play at the Caribbean Storm Treehouse and the not-too-adrenaline-filled tube slides at Fort Riptide and HMS Thundersplash – the names are more frightening than the attractions themselves.

There’s family fun to be had in the wave pool of Typhoon Lagoon and on the Thunderfalls water slides and the Treetops water chutes which both up the ante but not too much. The parallel chutes are great fun for racing down together.

There are a number of slides with ‘big ride’ energy, as thrill-seeking as any rollercoaster. There are a massive five dare-you destinations in the Hyperzone White Knuckle ride section. That says it all really.

From the dark drop of the Aztec Falls raft ride to Master Blaster, the world’s longest indoor rollercoaster water slide, it’s pretty seat-of-your-trunks stuff. Vertical drops, hairpin aquatic slaloms, 360⁰ spirals – it’s all there – if you want it. For many of the more hair-raising slides, the minimum age limit is eight years old.