What on earth has happened to Rhyl?

swingaloo

Spent last week in North Wales and had fabulous weather and some lovely places to visit.

But what on earth has happened to Rhyl. I remember wonderful family holidays there as a child and when my kids were born we continued to go there occasionally.

Went last week and the place is terrible, dirty, dilapidated and in a real sorry state.
Public toilets closed and half the shops boarded up or empty. The children's rides on the promenade were all closed.

I asked at the visitor centre if there were any dog friendly pubs or cafe's and was told 'No, but there is a place down the road near the travelodge that allow dogs inside and do lovely food. 
So walked down only to find the 'lovely food is only served at weekends. Nowhere else could we eat with the dog with us.

They seem to be doing so much work on the promenade and it looked as if they may be improving the place but then I saw the work was for improving the sea defences. It has been paved nicely but there is simply nothing there.

Half an hour down the coast you have Conwy which is beautiful, lots of lovely shops and cafes to wander round. Boat trips, nice pubs and the visitor center there gave me a list of dog friendly places to eat and shop. Around 20 places we could eat at.

A little further on is LLandudno which again is beautiful, granted it has a pier while Rhyl does not but it also has lots of shops. pavement cafes, a beautiful promenade, bus tours, boat trips and it is clean and well cared for.

What has happened to Rhyl that it doesnt compete to get the holiday makers?

born_again

Sounds like the same as the vast majority of traditional seaside resorts these days. Many of which do tend to close up after the school holidays finish.

swingaloo

born_again said:

Sounds like the same as the vast majority of traditional seaside resorts these days. Many of which do tend to close up after the school holidays finish.

I understand a lot of places are dying but theses places were all visited the same week. There were plenty of children on the beach in Llandudno and on the pier. 
It just seems crazy that less than 20 miles apart one is a busy holiday place full of people while the other is neglected. Its even noticeable in the shops, I went in 2 shops in Rhyl and the staff were either rude or surly but in Conwy everyone seemed helpful and friendly. 
Its such a shame.

daveyjp

No different to lots of the UK coast resorts.  People go to nicer popular places so they remain busy and popular, they avoid the not nice resorts, they don't get custom, they get worse.  Saltburn is lovely, Redcar isn't a place many flock to.

carly

Rhyl has never really been in the same league as Conway or Llandudno though. 

hugheskevi

I used to go on holiday to Rhyl as a kid back in the 80s. 

It just never managed to change with the times and keep itself relevant. Even in the 1980s it was mostly amusement arcades, but did have a fun fair to go with the extensive caravan sites and bingo.

I remember some nice nightclubs back in the 1990s, but looking at Google Maps now suggests there are only a few cheap clubs nowadays, with cheap alcohol a key selling point. There was also a good bowling and laserquest centre back then, which doesn't seem to have survived. The funfair closed a long time ago and for years was derelict land. There appears to be an Aldi and a car park there now, which is at least an improvement.

Nothing much was ever done with the seafront, pleasant to walk a dog along, and maybe something like crazy golf but little reason to venture across the main road separating the sea front from the amusement arcades and the rest of town. It looks like the main source of development there is in car parks.

The Sea Aquarium was about the only modern development, but that has closed down. There is a large interesting building called SC2 which I haven't seen before, but seems to be primarily a kid's waterpark, but has been closed since January due to the high cost of utilities looking at the reviews.

The area has been blighted by drug use for a long time. The High Street has a lot of discount shops and pound bakeries, as well as a CEX shop - hardly high-end tourist attractions.

Looking on Google Maps showed zero cafes along the front, other than the greasy burger type places attached to amusement arcades, and I never remember there being anywhere memorable. Looking at the reviews of cafes today suggests the business model that survives is large piles of cheap food.

There still appear to be lots of caravan parks just out of town, those have survived. I just wonder what the revenue per tourist is from those though.

It seems that for decades it has been trapped in a downward spiral - the returns just aren't there to build anything nice and modern, so cheap and cheerful proliferates, there isn't a great deal for tourists to spend money on, and little to attract higher spenders in the first place. 

marcia_

 We went to Prestatyn yearly up until a few years ago. Often traveled to Rhyl for the day swimming.  Other than that activity the place is desolate like you say. Everything shut and looking very dilapidated. 

Edited to add....

spotted this on Facebook didn't know this was there https://www.rhyljournal.co.uk/news/24597904.north-wales-nature-reserve-gets-national-recognition/?ref=socialflow&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR00YOyMwtXfwNngkYqF1JUEyN-Un6p-KItt73WYRSxKtLsdnO6EHB9JQ64_aem_YSkL3TGU2ael1y1yXdfsjQ

LightFlare

I remember the Rhyl Sun centre in the 80s

Like a lot of seaside towns,its failed to keep up with the times and has suffered from cheap foreign travel