A fun way to spend a spare hour is walking over the beach side Comedy Carpet - a platform inscribed with various jokes and one-liners, some well-known classics, while others still perhaps able to draw a chuckle. The carpet is best viewed at a distance, from atop the Blackpool Tower.

For nature lovers, Christmas Island National Park provides fantastic opportunities to observe unique plants and animals in their natural habitats. The park covers about two thirds of the island. As an isolated oceanic island, distant from other land masses, Christmas Island is home to a high proportion of endemic species. Several are endangered. The park protects significant ecosystems including much of the island's uniquely structured rainforests and two wetlands of international importance, the Dales and Hosnie's Springs. In and around the national park you will find a host of native sea and forest birds, unique marine life and land crabs — including tens of millions of red crabs, famous throughout the world for their spectacular annual breeding migration.

Alice Springs Desert Park is a great introduction to the plants, desert habitat and animals of the area, and you will definitely need a full day to explore it all. Also, learn more about Aboriginal culture, and do not miss the free staff talks, the birds of prey display or the hourly film. Check the park's website for tour and feeding schedule.

Join the Ghost Walk guided by the very author of the book "Haunted Blackpool" and learn all about the mysterious side of the quaint town - eerie narratives of the locals, blood-chilling stories of haunted houses, and various events in the city's history that yet remain to be explained.