cosmictanya wrote:

A short haul budget flight and a cheap hotel is almost always cheaper.

Oh yes, and that is of course what killed the British seaside resort. However much I'll defend Blackpool and similar places to a certain extent, I certainly wouldn't advocate spending two weeks there. To me it's an enjoyable day trip place. But then I'm not sure I'd want to spend two weeks in some of these cheap and tacky Spanish resorts that Brits flock to either. I'd rather have the rain of the Lake District!

Butterfield wrote:

cosmictanya wrote:

A short haul budget flight and a cheap hotel is almost always cheaper.

Oh yes, and that is of course what killed the British seaside resort. However much I'll defend Blackpool and similar places to a certain extent, I certainly wouldn't advocate spending two weeks there. To me it's an enjoyable day trip place. But then I'm not sure I'd want to spend two weeks in some of these cheap and tacky Spanish resorts that Brits flock to either. I'd rather have the rain of the Lake District!

Yes, I'd rather go to the Lake District than most of the big Spanish beach towns too. Well, not the Lake District for days on end, but the South Downs certainly. I find beaches in general kind of overrated. Beach holidays aren't really something I ever do.  

I'd say budget airlines are only partly what killed the British seaside. It's very largely self inflicted because so much of it is grotty, ugly, crumbling, chilly, irredeemably dowdy, abandoned by central government, and was never all that nice to begin with.

The nicer exceptions are all pre Victorian, but the British for some reason are obsessed with Victorian stuff and consider it historical, attractive, and glorious. More often than not its heavy lumpy trash. They were more destructive than the Luftwaffe.

If the UK had a genuine love of actual history as opposed to myth, a tradition of philanthropy, wasn't intimidated by beauty, and didn't insist on disgusting peculiarities like carpets in bathrooms, then more of its coastal areas might stand a chance.

If a culture isn't sensual to begin with, then it's starting from a disadvantage when it comes to appealing to the senses. It might be more productive for Britain to reflect on that, rather than blaming Easyjet for the truth that Clacton is simply a f***ing dump.

Saltfleet and Fleetwood.

Yeovil & Ludlow

Basildon and Basingstoke.

Did I say this already?

Switzerland and Austria. I've been to one of them yet still get them mixed up.

I sometimes even forget which one I've been to.

Someone can be having a conversation about Austria and I'll think "I've been there" before realising that it's actually Switzerland I've been to.

Oh, Switzerland and Sweden too. Someone can be having a conversation about Sweden and I'll......

Chapel-en-le-Frith and Chester-le-Street.

Yeovil and Frome.

Dunstable and Whitstable. Despite having been to Dunstable, and stayed in the Premier Inn there, I still think of it as being on the south coast, when it's actually next to Luton.

I used to think that Dunstable was in Devon.

I might have been mixing up Barnstaple and Dunster.

Selby and Thirsk.

Ooh, I hate that bit of the A1(M), it's so boring.

Whitby and Whitley Bay.

Butterfield wrote:

Selby and Thirsk.

Selby and Trump.

The Call of the Wendigo wrote:

Whitby and Whitley Bay.

Yes, for years whenever Whitley Bay was mentioned I'd think they were talking about Whitby.

But these days I read Whitley Bay in a Geordie-ish accent.

The Falkland Islands and the Shetland Islands.

....When I was younger.

But what about Shetland and Orkney?

They're still at war with each other.

I disambiguate them by remembering that the Orkneys are neyrer to the mainland.