Liverpool a city bristling with delights

Rock around the dock.

Hipsters. They’re everywhere, right? With their beards and their skinny jeans and their tattoos and their chunky glasses.

You can barely walk 20 yards these days without tripping over a hipster.

So when my wife told me she’d booked us into a hotel in a “hipster” area of Liverpool I groaned and went into a childish sulk.

Problem is, as a flabby 40-year-old dad I’m about as hip as a Sydney Devine LP at an Ibiza superclub.

There was no way my Primark wardrobe would cut the style-mustard and even if I squeezed really hard I couldn’t grow a foot-long beard in the short time I had. And scraggly bum-fluff simply isn’t acceptable in Hipsterville.

I was going to HATE this holiday, I decided petulantly, throwing my Action Man across the room and kicking my Lego spaceship to bits in a rage.

I’d been to Liverpool twice before, but only to the Matthew Street Festival.

Since cancelled, this music extravaganza saw large areas of the city centre cordoned off and turned into open air venues, with stages in most of the major streets.

Great fun, but not the best way to get a feel for a city in “normal” circumstances.

This time we were heading down from Scotland on an Autumn Sunday, planning to stay until the Wednesday.

Our accommodation was to be in the self-catering Epic Apart Hotel on trendy Seel Street, right in the heart of the city.

We arrived after a long journey with two hyperactive teenage girls (my daughter and her pal) in the back of the car. What fun!

Oh, how I needed out of the tin can on wheels to lie on a comfy couch with a cold beer and silence for company.

When we finally found the hotel following a jolly game of “Let’s Try All The Wrong Streets” with my satnav I wasn’t immediately filled with confidence. Seel Street has an air of, how can I put it, shabby chic. Without the chic.

Or at least that’s how it seemed at dusk after five hours on the road.

Happily, the apartment itself was modern, comfortable and warm, with large stylish rooms (one en suite), a huge couch, interactive TV and well-appointed kitchen/dining area.

We decided to relax for the evening and re-energise for some touristy behaviour the following day. When daylight arrived we hit the streets for a recce. What kind of area were we in? Was it as hip as we’d been led to believe? Well, yes and no.

There was definitely a high Hipster Quotient (HQ), measuring around 8.3 on the Beard Scale, but not to the degree that the unfashionable among us (ie me) felt intimidated.

It soon became clear that the Epic is perfectly placed. There’s a large Tesco on the corner, ideal for stocking up on essentials and goodies for the apartment, and just a two-minute walk away you find yourself in Liverpool One.

This enormous development includes pretty much every high street fashion, home and department store under the sun, as well as an Odeon multiplex cinema and more eateries than you can shake a breadstick at.

My heart sank as fast as my wife and the girls erupted in whoops of unbridled joy. We agreed to separate (no one likes a grumpy old git shuffling along behind them moaning, thankfully) so they could shop and I could wander aimlessly, which is something I do very well.

Make no mistake, Liverpool is an absolutely fantastic city. It has everything culture, shopping, nightlife, heart and soul. The people are warm and friendly and the architecture is magnificent.

On day two my wife and I visited the Museum of Liverpool, which is fascinating and, for a “local” museum, enormous. The girls did their own thing (sleeping mainly, followed by shopping and cinema) and we met again each day for dinner.

The food options around Seel Street are superb and we had everything from Mexican at nearby Lucha Libre on Wood Street to burgers at eclectic and spacious The Shipping Forecast bar on Slater Street, just a minute’s walk from the apartment.

For drinks later the area was bursting with superb pubs, from stylish bars (Alma de Cuba) to comfortably tatty boozers (Heebie Jeebies).

On our final full day we hit the Albert Dock for a trip round The Beatles Story (fab) and the Maritime Museum (ship-shape) and then back into town for a wander from the old cathedral to the new one.

By the time we piled into the car for the journey home, all of us teens and adults alike were tired after all that walking, but very, very happy.

Lovely, lively Liverpool has rocketed into my top three UK cities and when I go back (which I surely will) I’ll be staying in fun, lively, perfectly-placed Seel Street again.

Next time, though, I’m definitely growing a beard.

Epic Apart Hotel, 25-27 Seel Street, Liverpool, epicliverpool.co.uk or call 0151 709 1719.