Each year, around a quarter of a million people make the ambitious journey up to the summit of England’s third highest peak.
Most hikers know what they’re getting themselves into with Helvellyn.
As the highest point of the Helvellyn range – which is a north–south line of mountains to the north of Ambleside in the heart of the Lake District national park – Helvellyn is the third tallest mountain in England, just behind Scafell Pike and Scafell, and as you can imagine, given that it tends to be one of the peaks on the list for walkers to tackle before they get to the country’s tallest, it’s a pretty popular.
With several different routes able to be trekked, it’s believed that around 250,000 people make it to the top of Helvellyn every year.
While reaching the summit is what matters most, the journey to the top can be just as important – but it seems some aren’t as keen on that journey as others, and two viral TripAdvisor reviews that’ve been left recently couldn’t prove that more.
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One reviewer literally claimed it was the “worst experience of my life”.
Tourist moans one of Lake District’s tallest mountains is ‘too hilly’ in ridiculous review / Credit: Flickr
Taking to TripAdvisor in February, one review, quite literally, said Helvellyn was “far too hilly” and claimed that “spoiled a nice walk”, before adding that “there were also no facilities at the summit, not even a coffee shop.”
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Expanding on the sentiments of that review further, the other review blasts the mountain even more, taking aim at the lack of facilites, again, and then even pointing out how “smug” the other walkers up there were.
The review reads: “I had to go to the bathroom halfway through the hike and there were no facilities. I ended up having to go behind a rock and it was extremely inconvenient. I mean, how could they not have a single toilet on this entire hike? Do they expect people to just hold it in or something? Ridiculous.
“Secondly, all the other hikers on the trail seemed to be annoyingly competent and made the hike look way too easy, bunch of smug gits.”
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Another reviewer said climbing Helvellyn was “the worst experience of my life” / Credit: Flickr
To top it all off, they then claimed the view from the top was “mediocre”.
“The views from the top were not even that impressive. I mean, seriously? That’s all we get after all this hard work? A mediocre view of some hills and a lake? I’ve seen better views from my backyard. I would not recommend this hike to anyone.
“Save yourself the hassle and just stay at home. Trust me, you won’t be missing out on anything.”
Well, you can’t please everyone, can you?
Featured Image – Wikimedia Commons
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‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Benson Boone has announced a headline gig in Manchester – and it’s a big one
Danny Jones
American pop sensation and unrivalled king of unnecessary front flips, Benson Boone, has just announced his first-ever headline Manchester arena gig as part of a new arena tour.
The solo artist and acrobatic chart-topper has seen a meteoric rise in the US and, as is usually the case across the Atlantic, he’s become increasingly popular over here too.
Benson may have performed here in Manchester before as part of the 2024 MTV EMAs and for a small show at The Deaf Institute, but now big fans have the added Boone of getting to watch a standalone show at one of Europe’s leading indoor entertainment venues.
Announced on Friday, 30 May, the 22-year-old will be making his way across the pond from Washington for a limited run of UK concerts, with a date at Co-op Live arena being one of just five dates.
Extending his ‘American Heart Tour’ ahead of the release of his eponymous sophomore record, with this autumn leg, Co-op Live will mark his individual visit to 0161.
The Grammy-nominated artist has earned several nods of recognition already for his first album, Fireworks & Rollerblades, which was released just last spring.
He has been described as among the current trend of male singers who fit into the American Idol and ‘Voice audition pop’ genre (a term recently coined online), along with the likes of Teddy Swims, Shawn Mendes, Alex Warren and others.
Regardless of the slightly tongue-in-cheek term, he’s become a huge hit around the world and landing him is still a big coup for the venue that has already welcomed similarly massive pop contemporaries like Swims, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo and more.
In case you’re wondering just how big a deal he is over in the States, even this early in his career, his domestic headline dates sold out in seconds, quite literally…
The last time he visited Co-op Live was to perform at the most recent MTV EMAs
Benson Boone is coming to Manchester on Monday, 27 October and will be playing just two other British venues: The O2 in London (two nights) and the Utilita Arena in Birmingham.
Safe to say you don’t want to miss this one if you like soaring vocals and lots of flipping.
General admission tickets go live at 10am on Thursday, 5 June, but Co-op Members can gain access via the arena’s official pre-sale window from the same time on Tuesday (3 Jun).
Emily Sergeant -
17th February 2023 
