Brighton

Brighton sits on the Sussex coast about fifty miles due south of London, at the point where the chalk ridge of the South Downs runs out at the sea and breaks off into cliffs and a long grey shingle beach. It began as Brighthelmstone, a fishing town that had lost most of its boats and half its lower streets to storms by the early eighteenth century, and it was rescued by fashion rather than industry. A Lewes physician began prescribing sea bathing as a cure for almost everything, the Prince of Wales came down to try it in 1783, and within forty years he had built himself a domed and minaretted palace a few hundred yards from the water. The railway arrived in 1841 and turned a resort for the wealthy into a resort for everyone, and Brighton has been arguing about which of those it wants to be ever since.

The result is a city with an unusually distinct character for somewhere this close to London. Regency terraces in cream stucco run east and west along the front, some restored to the last railing and some pleasantly worn by salt air. Behind them the twisting alleys of The Lanes and the wider grid of North Laine hold several hundred independent shops - records, vintage clothing, secondhand books, tattooists, jewellers - and very few chains. Two universities, a large creative and digital sector and one of the oldest and most visible LGBTQ+ communities in Britain give the place a young, opinionated, faintly bohemian temperament that is obvious within about ten minutes of arriving.

Brighton and Hove has been a single city since 2000, and the two halves still feel different. Brighton is dense, steep and noisy; Hove, immediately to the west, has broader streets, mown lawns, a run of painted beach huts and a calmer pace. The beach itself is shingle rather than sand, which keeps it clean and makes swimming easy but rules out sandcastles. The South Downs National Park comes right up to the northern edge of the built-up area, so it is possible to be walking on open chalk grassland twenty minutes after leaving the seafront. Almost nothing a visitor wants is more than a half-hour walk from anything else, and a car is more nuisance than help.

Top things to do in Brighton

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.

Getting to Brighton

Brighton is one of the easiest coastal cities in Britain to reach without a car. Fast Southern services from London Victoria take about an hour, trains from London Bridge take roughly the same, and Thameslink runs through St Pancras, Farringdon and London Blackfriars in around an hour and a quarter, which is useful if you are coming from the north on a through ticket. Gatwick Airport is only about half an hour up the line, so Brighton works well as a first or last night before a flight. Coastway services connect east to Lewes, Eastbourne and Hastings and west to Worthing, Chichester and Portsmouth. The station sits at the top of a hill and it is a downhill walk of ten to fifteen minutes to the seafront.

By road it is the A23 and M23 from junction 7 of the M25, about fifty-five miles and usually an hour and a half, though summer Fridays and bank holiday weekends can double that on the final stretch. The A27 runs along the back of the city and links to Lewes and Eastbourne one way and Worthing and Chichester the other.

Parking is the one genuine difficulty. Almost the whole of central Brighton and Kemptown is under resident permit control, on-street charges are high and hotel parking is rare and often off-site. The practical options are the multi-storey car parks at Regency Square, Church Street and The Lanes, or the car park at Brighton station, and a park-and-ride operates at Withdean for major events. If you are only visiting the city, leaving the car at home is almost always the better decision. For the airports, Gatwick is thirty minutes by train, Heathrow about two hours by coach, and the Newhaven to Dieppe ferry leaves from twenty minutes along the coast.

Best time to visit Brighton

Spring is arguably the best-value season. April and May bring the Brighton Marathon, the month-long Brighton Festival and its enormous Fringe, and The Great Escape, which fills small venues across the city with new bands over a single weekend. The Downs are at their best in May, before the grass dries out, and hotel rates have not yet reached their summer level.

Summer is when the city is at full volume. June to August is warm, busy and long-lit, with the sea reaching around seventeen or eighteen degrees by late August, which is as good as the Channel gets. Brighton Pride takes over the first weekend of August and is the single busiest period of the year - rooms are booked out months ahead and prices rise sharply, so either plan for it deliberately or avoid it deliberately.

Autumn suits people who want the seaside without the crush. September often holds the warmth, the water is at its warmest of the year, the beach empties after the schools go back and rates fall noticeably. The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run finishes on Madeira Drive on the first Sunday of November and is worth timing a visit around.

Winter is cheap, blustery and rather good. Storms drive spectacular surf against the shingle, the Pavilion grounds take an ice rink over Christmas, and the restaurants and spas are easy to get into. Some seafront kiosks and rides close or run reduced hours between November and March, and the wind coming off the Channel is genuinely cold, so this is a season for eating, drinking and gallery-going rather than sunbathing.

Where to stay in Brighton

The seafront along Kings Road holds most of the larger hotels and nearly all the sea views. It is the obvious choice for a first visit, within a few minutes of the pier, the Pavilion and The Lanes, though the stretch nearest the pier is loud late on Friday and Saturday nights.

The Lanes and the old town put you closest to the restaurants, pubs and small galleries, in a handful of characterful hotels tucked into buildings never designed for cars. North Laine, just north of it, suits younger visitors and short stays, with independent shops on the doorstep and the station five minutes away.

Regency Square and the western seafront are a good compromise: Regency townhouses converted into boutique hotels, facing the remains of the West Pier, with a large underground car park beneath the square itself. Kemptown, east of the Palace Pier, is where the Regency crescents and squares are grandest and where most of Brighton's independent guest houses and B&Bs are found. It is quieter, better value, at the centre of the city's LGBTQ+ life, and about fifteen minutes on foot from the middle of town.

Hove is the choice for families, longer stays and anyone who wants to sleep. Wide streets, lawns, beach huts and a calmer seafront, twenty to thirty minutes' walk or a short bus ride from central Brighton. Brighton Marina has modern apartments and easy parking but feels cut off, and the residential districts around Preston Park and Seven Dials offer cheaper rooms within walking distance of the station.

Food and drink in Brighton

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.