Guide to resort's best picnic spots

Tourist organisation Visit Blackpool has put together a list of the best picnic spots in Blackpool just in time for the UK-wide celebration of the summertime tradition, which begins on Friday.

Topping the list is the town’s iconic Stanley Park, described as ‘the perfect setting for a picnic date, surrounded by beautifully landscaped parkland and historical splendour’.

Sean Gallagher, owner of the Parks Art Deco Cafe in Stanley Park, said: “It’s a fairly popular place to have picnics. There are ocassionally people who bring barbecues, but we should remind them that barbecues are not allowed in the park.

“We see quite a few in the summer bringing their food in and then coming into the cafe for tea and cakes to take away once they have done.

“There’s plenty to do in the park. The footfall year on year increases because it’s a fabulous facility.

“There’s the skateboard park and BMX track and a fantastic playground and boating lake.”

Second place on the list of prime places to picnic is awarded to the resort’s award-winning beach, which this year was given its second Blue Flag - making it officially one of the cleanest beaches in the world.

Blackpool Zoo, with over 1,000 animals, from lions to lemurs, in 32 acres of spacious parkland.

Nature-lovers cankeep an eye out for kingfishers, tree creepers, greater spotted woodpeckers and blackcaps at Salisbury Woodland, or look for dragonflies at Marton Mere Nature Reserve on Lawson Road. Blackpool Promenade and its historic Grade II listed North Pier also make the list, along with Devonshire Rock Gardens and the Solaris Centre.