Bexhill-on-Sea

Bexhill-on-Sea's hotels and guest houses are concentrated along its handsome Edwardian seafront, many occupying the same grand terraces built when the Earl De La Warr first developed the town as a resort. Sea-view rooms looking out over the Channel are common and rarely come with the price tag you would pay in Brighton or Eastbourne, making Bexhill a good-value base for exploring this stretch of the Sussex coast. The De La Warr Parade and the streets running off it hold most of the traditional options, from small family-run guest houses to larger hotels with restaurants and bars attached, all within a short walk of the De La Warr Pavilion and the beach.

Beyond the seafront, Bexhill's Old Town and the residential streets further back offer a quieter alternative, often in period townhouses converted into boutique-style B&Bs. West of the centre, Cooden Beach adds a handful of hotels in a more secluded, golf-course setting with direct beach access, a good choice for those who want the coast without the town-centre bustle. Self-catering apartments are also increasingly available in converted seafront buildings, well suited to longer stays or groups wanting flexibility. Whichever part of town you choose, nowhere in Bexhill is far from the sea, and most accommodation is within easy walking distance of the railway station, making a car unnecessary once you have arrived.

Bexhill rewards a slow visit. Its best attractions are within easy walking distance of the seafront, so a couple of days is enough to see the highlights without rushing.

• De La Warr Pavilion — the town's architectural showpiece, designed by Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff and opened in 1935. Free to enter, it hosts changing contemporary art exhibitions, a concert hall with sea views, and a ground-floor cafe spilling onto a sun terrace.
• Birthplace of British motor racing — a plaque on the seafront marks the finish line of the 1902 Whitsuntide races, when steam and petrol cars raced along the Earl De La Warr's private road at speeds unheard of on public highways. Bexhill Museum tells the fuller story of the town's motoring heritage.
• Bexhill seafront and beach — a long, flat promenade backed by wide lawns and colourful beach huts, with a shingle beach that gives way to sand at low tide. It is ideal for an easy walk, a paddle, or simply watching the Channel shipping pass.
• Bexhill Museum — a small, old-fashioned museum in Egerton Park covering the town's Victorian development, its motor-racing history and local natural history, a good rainy-day option.
• Egerton Park — a Victorian park just back from the seafront with a boating lake, mini-golf, tennis courts and a bandstand that still hosts summer concerts.
• Bexhill Old Town — the original village around St Peter's Church, predating the Victorian resort by centuries, with narrow lanes and weatherboarded cottages that give a glimpse of Bexhill before the Earl's development.
• Cooden Beach — a quieter stretch of coast just west of town, popular with windsurfers and dog walkers, with views across to Hastings on a clear day.

The De La Warr Pavilion's cafe is a popular spot for a light lunch with sea views from its terrace. On the seafront itself, Pebbles on the Beach serves modern British dishes with a large terrace looking straight out over the Channel, while Rocksalt on Sea offers a similar setting nearby. In town, Wickham Bistro is a small, family-run spot tucked down a side street away from the front, and Trattoria Italiana and Bentley's Steakhouse are popular for evening meals. For something more casual, The Works Cafe is a well-liked local spot for breakfast and coffee.

Bexhill-on-Sea sits on a stretch of the East Sussex coast where the countryside rolls gently inland towards Battle and the Weald, offering a good spread of campsites and glamping options within a short drive of the seafront. As with everywhere else in England, wild camping is not legal here without the landowner's explicit permission, so it's worth booking a proper site in advance — demand along this part of the coast rises sharply in the summer months. Most sites near Bexhill are set on farmland or in wooded valleys a few miles inland, offering a calmer alternative to the town itself while keeping the beach and the De La Warr Pavilion within easy reach by car.

The terrain around Bexhill is typically gentle and pastoral rather than dramatic, low chalk and clay hills, hedgerowed fields and pockets of ancient woodland, which suits family-friendly touring parks and small, quiet sites better than remote backcountry pitches. Facilities vary from simple grass pitches with basic amenities to fuller touring parks with electric hook-ups, shower blocks and on-site shops, so it's worth checking what's included before booking, particularly if you're travelling with a caravan or motorhome rather than a tent.

Glamping has taken hold in the countryside around Bexhill much as it has across the rest of Sussex, with bell tents, shepherd's huts and safari tents offering a more comfortable route into camping without sacrificing the sense of being out in the Sussex countryside. These tend to book up quickly for summer weekends, so early planning pays off. The best camping season here runs from late spring to early autumn, when the weather is most reliable and the days long enough to combine a day on Bexhill's flat, easy-walking seafront with an evening back at a quiet rural site. Outside those months, the coast can be exposed to wind and rain, so it's worth checking a site's shelter and ground drainage before pitching up off-season.