Cycle Blackpool
St John's Square, Pleasure Beach, South Pier, Central Pier.
Get a different view of Blackpool by bike with Cycle Blackpool, the resort's own 24-hour, on-street urban bike-hire scheme (think London's Boris Bikes) with hundreds of bikes available at over fifty locations, including near all of the main attractions, car parks and train stations. Useful town-centre ones include St John's Square near the Winter Gardens, and by the Pleasure Beach, Sandcastle, South Pier and Central Pier. It's a pretty flat part of the world, and thus largely tailor-made for cycling, and Blackpool has also been investing in bike lanes, so as well as riding up and down the Golden Mile there are well-signposted routes up and down the coast and to inland destinations like Stanley Park. The rental scheme is for locals and visitors alike – online or by phone you buy either temporary membership (for 7 hours rental, valid for up to 30 days) or permanent membership, and get a PIN and card which you then use at the bike stations to release the bikes. All the pricing details are on the website, but the basic rental cost is £1 per hour – permanent members get the first 30 minutes of any rental free. Best reason of all to saddle up is the annual Ride the Lights event – a few days before the big switch-on of the Illuminations each year, the prom is closed to all traffic except bikes for a ride-by evening preview.
