Our Tourist Telescope is set on the coast – more specifically, Morecambe Poetry Festival, back for a fourth year with an impressive line-up now spread over two venues: the wonderful
From £65.00Step into the majestic Blackpool Tower Ballroom for an experience like no other. With stunning architecture, live music and treats galore, Afternoon Tea here is highly recommended.
From £60.00Come face to face with SEA LIFE Blackpool’s hungriest resident. This unique experience gives you the chance to feed Phoenix the green sea turtle and learn about this endangered species.
From £75.00Blackburn’s Confessional Festival turns ten, celebrating with two days of live music set beneath the stained glass and vaulted stonework of Holy Trinity Church.
From £20Opera North bring the uplands landscape to life with a sound walk combining new music, Bradford born canonical composers and the sound of the uplands themself.
Free entryTake in the expansive views of the moorland as you explore four large-scale artworks, accompanied by a bespoke soundtrack created by Opera North.
Free entrySteam-powered storytelling at its very best and perfectly staged for Bradford 2025, this much-loved classic is pulling into the station in spectacular style this summer.
From £10.00Poetry at the Dusty Miller is a now regular night with invited readers, organised by poets Carola Luther and Ian Humphreys in the Coiners’ Room in the Mytholmroyd pub.
Free entryFamous collection of Gillow furniture and objets d’art, plus gardens and woodland walks. Educational ‘bee corner’, ‘woodland hotel’ and ‘caterpillar maze’ for children.
Carnforth Station is the famous setting of the film Brief Encounter. As you stand on Platform 1 with its vintage suitcases and railway posters, you can almost imagine the era when steam trains frequently passed through.
Independent restaurant, cafe, baker, and deli in the Lake District.
At low tide, the exposed bed of the Irish Sea connects the Lancashire coast with the Cumbrian hills across Morecambe Bay, allowing crossings over the sands.
Sister restaurant to Simon Rogan’s two Michellin starred L’Enclume – more low key but just as tasty.
Morecambe gallery which showcases and sells contemporary works, often by artists from the area, which are varied and beautiful.
One of Cumbria’s finest historical sites, Holker Hall and Garden offers a gloriously asymmetrical pile of rambling galleries and green spaces.
Opening in 2024, Morecambe bay will become a centre for eco tourism with the exciting arrival of the Eden Project North.
A beautiful Elizabethan manor house, featuring the oldest surviving example of a topiary garden – a joy to wander in.
The Westmorland County Show is a traditional county fair dating back to 1799, where tourists and shoppers mix with agricultural professionals and chefs.
Keegans Coffee & Sandwich Shop is little Morecambe café selling homemade sandwiches, salads, hot drinks and homemade cakes.
Chocolate fountains, beautiful batiks and medieval marginalia - this month's supersized Exhibitions Guide has it all.
August brings a huge LGBTQ+ film festival, plus a reggae classic and a spotlight on Japanese animation.
From outdoor shows to drama in the dark, our theatre guide celebrates genre-pushing work, new writing and contemporary performance.
From Lyra Pramuk’s sacred synths to the sugar rush of YAANG, our latest music picks bring ritual, rebellion and ridiculous levels of fun.
"Tours, tours, tours!" If this month's Tours and Activities guide were a sentient speaking person, this is what it would say.
Take some eating-out tips from our August guide to food and drink in Manchester and the North.
Our latest round-up features plenty of one-off live literature events to wrap your ears about, so get those diaries ticking over...