Brighton

Brighton has more beds per head than almost any English city outside London, which is good news for choice and unhelpful for narrowing things down. The first decision is not really price but position, because the city is small enough that everywhere central is walkable and different enough between districts that the wrong choice can colour a whole weekend.

The seafront along Kings Road is the classic option. Big Victorian and Regency hotels face the water, sea-view rooms cost noticeably more than those at the back, and everything a first-time visitor wants is within ten minutes on foot. The trade-off is noise: the stretch closest to the Palace Pier is busy until the early hours at weekends, and rooms at the front catch traffic as well as gulls. Ask for a higher floor.

Just behind the front, The Lanes and North Laine put the restaurants, bars and independent shops on your doorstep. Hotels here tend to be small, converted and full of character, with narrow staircases and no parking whatsoever. They suit short city breaks where you intend to walk everywhere and eat late.

Kemptown, east of the pier, is where Brighton's guest houses and B&Bs cluster, in the grand Regency crescents around Sussex Square and Lewes Crescent. Prices are lower than on the seafront proper, breakfasts are usually better, and the walk into the centre is a pleasant fifteen minutes along Marine Parade. Regency Square and the western seafront offer a similar mix of converted townhouses with the considerable advantage of a large car park underneath the square.

Hove is the answer for families and anyone staying more than two or three nights, with quieter streets, the lawns and the beach huts, and easier parking. Brighton Marina and the residential streets around Preston Park are cheaper again but need a bus or a longer walk. Whatever you choose, book well ahead for May, for August, and above all for Pride weekend, when rates across the city roughly double and the cheaper places sell out first.

The classic seaside attractions sit within a few streets of each other, with the Downs and the coast path beyond.

• Royal Pavilion - George IV's seaside palace, remodelled by John Nash between 1815 and 1823 into something Indian on the outside and Chinese within. The domed banqueting room and the music room are the high points, and the kitchens with their cast-iron palm-leaf columns are worth as much time.
• Brighton Palace Pier - opened in 1899 and still working for a living, with amusement arcades, a fairground at the seaward end and doughnuts fried on the deck. Walking to the far end for the view back at the city is free and takes about ten minutes.
• The Lanes - the surviving street pattern of the old fishing town, now a knot of narrow passages lined with jewellers, antique dealers, small restaurants and pubs. It is easy to get pleasantly lost and impossible to stay lost for long.
• North Laine - the wider grid north of Church Street, with record shops, vintage stalls, cafes and the rambling indoor market of Snoopers Paradise. Saturday mornings are the liveliest time to see it.
• Brighton Museum and Art Gallery - in the former stables of the Pavilion estate, covering fashion, decorative art, world cultures and the social history of the city, including a frank account of its seaside and queer past.
• Volk's Electric Railway - opened in 1883 and the oldest operating electric railway in the world, running along the beach between the Aquarium and Brighton Marina in small open-sided cars.
• SEA LIFE Brighton - housed in a Victorian arcaded hall of 1872 and the oldest aquarium still working anywhere. The architecture of the vaulted main hall is as much of a draw as the tanks.
• Devil's Dyke - a deep dry chalk valley in the Downs about five miles north of the city, owned by the National Trust, with long views across the Weald and a pub at the top. There are buses from the seafront in summer and a stiff walk up from Hove for anyone feeling energetic.

Seafood is the obvious starting point. Sussex day boats land plaice, mackerel, brill, cuttlefish and, in winter, Rye Bay scallops, and much of it appears on menus within a few hundred yards of the beach. English's of Brighton has been selling oysters and fish from the same buildings in The Lanes since 1945 and is the most old-fashioned option; Riddle and Finns runs a marble-topped champagne and oyster bar nearby; and The Salt Room on the seafront grills whole fish over coals. Cheaper and just as good, several of the arches along the fishing quarter sell dressed crab and cockles to eat standing up.

Brighton also has the strongest vegetarian tradition of any English city outside London. Terre a Terre on East Street has been cooking elaborate vegetarian and vegan food for more than thirty years and remains the benchmark; Food for Friends in The Lanes is the long-running everyday alternative. Beyond that, 64 Degrees serves small plates from an open kitchen in the old town, and there is a deep bench of Japanese, Middle Eastern and Italian places aimed at residents rather than day trippers.

For self-caterers and browsers, the Open Market on London Road has produce, fish and cheese stalls under cover, and there are regular farmers' markets across the city. Seaside classics survive intact: fish and chips eaten on the shingle, sugared doughnuts fried on the pier deck, sticks of Brighton rock and a great deal of ice cream.

To drink, Sussex is now serious wine country - Ridgeview at Ditchling and Rathfinny near Alfriston both make sparkling wine that appears on local lists - while Harvey's, brewed at Lewes eight miles away, is the standard local bitter. Brighton Bier and Laine Brew Co supply most of the city's craft taps. For pubs, The Basketmakers Arms in North Laine is the one locals send visitors to, and The Cricketers in The Lanes claims to be the oldest in the city.

Brighton itself is a dense Victorian and Regency city with almost no undeveloped land inside it, so camping means pitching on the edge of the built-up area or up on the South Downs behind it. That turns out to be no hardship. The National Park boundary runs along the northern edge of the city, and within ten miles there are working farms, chalk downland and pockets of ancient woodland, all with regular buses or a short drive down to the sea.

The terrain is chalk, which matters more than it sounds. Downland drains quickly, so pitches dry out fast after rain and are rarely boggy, but the turf is thin over solid rock and long pegs are often useless - take rock pegs and a mallet. The ridges that give the views also funnel the wind, so guy everything out properly and think twice about a tall family tunnel tent in an unsheltered field. The woodland sites north of Ditchling are far more sheltered, at the cost of the views.

Weather along this coast is among the driest and sunniest in Britain, but the Channel keeps things changeable and evenings cool even in July. May to September is the reliable window, with June and September the best compromise between warm ground, long days and sensible prices. July and August fill up months ahead, and Pride weekend at the start of August books out every site within reach of the city.

Wild camping is not legal in England without the landowner's permission, and that includes all of the South Downs National Park - there is no Scottish-style right to roam here. The Downs are almost entirely farmed or grazed private land crossed by public rights of way, and walkers on the South Downs Way should book pitches in advance at the farms strung along it rather than chance a night out. Campfires are similarly restricted: several sites near Brighton allow them in supplied fire pits, but open fires on the beach or on downland are prohibited.