Coronation Street The Tour

I'm pretty sure that if you live in the UK you'll have heard of the very popular Manchester based British soap opera, Coronation Street. Since the show moved over to new premises over at MediaCity back in 2013, the shows old filming location at Granada Studio's have been open for the public to visit. Personally, I've never actually seen a full episode of Coronation Street so this post is coming from someone who knows the bare minimum about the show.

The tour begins in the actors green room. This is the place in the studios which the cast members were able to socialise and relax between takes. Its a nice sneak peak at how actors days would begin before you're led down a corridor of dressing rooms then onto the wardrobe and make up room just like an actor in the soap would have done on their working day. The wardrobe room is full of iconic costumes from the shows history. Our guide also filled us in with information about how the characters get the clothes. For example how the younger characters clothes are mainly from high street stores whereas a character like Roy's come largely from eBay and charity shops.

From there you're moved into Studio One where filming took place and shown a short film showing some of the highs and lows of Coronation Street from over the years. It is from here where fans of the show will be in their element as you walk around sets from the show including Carla's flat and the Platt's living room. Although I didn’t recognise any of the sets, you're told secrets of the sets which is fascinating to hear as although I don't watch the show it was interesting to discover how and why certain things are done which interests even people who don’t know the set. The highlight of this section of the tour without a shadow of the doubt it getting to sit inside the Rovers Return pub. It is here that you're able to pretend to pull a pint behind the bar and get a souvenir photo taken. The photos are then available to buy for £7.50 or two for £10 later in the tour but it really is no obligation at all to buy your photo so it's worth doing regardless.

The next and final section of the tour isn’t guided so you are free to spend as long as you like roaming around and take as many photos as you want. It is the section when you are let loose onto the Coronation Street cobbles. It’s surprisingly smaller than expected and it’s fascinating that this was the actual street that they once filmed the show on. You can overhear many people on the tour pointing out the houses that their favourite characters live in or even excitedly explaining a scene that happened in a certain spot.

Although I am not a fan of Coronation Street in the slightest I still found the tour highly enjoyable. However, if you’re a fan of the show this tour is definitely a must visit for you. It’s situated just a 10 minute walk from Manchester town centre and a free bus runs from Piccadilly Station so it is highly accessible for visitors. For more information about how to visit the tour before it permanently shuts in December click here.

Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Doncaster is one of the last places you’d expect to go to see lions, tigers and polar bears but the Yorkshire Wildlife Park offers you the opportunity to see all of those animals and many more.

The park is huge. If you’re looking at the park map it doesn’t even come close to emphasising the sheer size of the park. If you go and visit you’ll soon see why this is the case, the enclosures for each and every animal are exceptionally big. You’re never going to be able to recreate a space as large as the animal’s natural habitats but Yorkshire Wildlife Park does a great job in giving them space to roam and in also recreating habitats similar to how they’d live in the wild. At the end of the day we all would like these animals to live in the wild but these are animals that wouldn’t survive there due to reasons like being highly endangered or have lived in captivity all their lives so the wildlife park is a great place for these animals to go and live. It is refreshing to see them in such open spaces compared to the cramp conditions of zoos that I have visited and truthfully the animals do look happy and so well looked after.   

For me the highlight of the park is the newest resident, 16 year old Victor the polar bear who is in retirement from the European breeding program. Victor is one of the biggest polar bears in Europe and he is simply one of the most beautiful animals I have ever seen. Victor is the first polar bear that I have ever seen in real life and to see him plod around his extremely large enclosure is a wonderful sight to witness. I’m sure the park offers an animal everyone in a family would fall in love with and could sit watching them for hours. From the big cats of the lions, tigers and leopards to the tall giraffes to tiny meerkats, the park has it all. 

It is certainly not like a zoo. The enclosures are extremely large which in some instances means that you can struggle to see an animal in the enclosure at all. I know on one of my first visits to the park after the arrival of Victor the polar bear; he was asleep in the cave in his enclosure meaning it was extremely difficult to see him. However, it is worth remembering that this is a wildlife park and it’s lovely to see them in such large enclosures and that animals aren’t going to be lively 24 hours a day. Unfortunately animals are unpredictable and you can’t assume they’ll just sleep when the park closes. It is for this reason, I would recommend the park for people of all ages but I feel that younger children may be less understanding of why the animals are sleeping. Despite this the park does have large play areas so it really does cater for everybody. The park’s pathways can be muddy and dusty in places depending on the weather so it’s worth dressing appropriately. 

Personally, I absolutely love the Yorkshire Wildlife Park. It is fantastic to see such incredible animals in Yorkshire. I recommend the park to everybody; it’s very much worth a visit. Seeing the animals, to the delicious Safari Cafe in the entrance courtyard to the gift shop where you can pick up a souvenir for all price ranges, it is truly a fantastic day out for the entire family. I for one am already planning my next trip to the park.  

For more information on the Yorkshire Wildlife Park visit the website by clicking here