Brighton
A seaside you look at rather than swim in, and a city that's better for it
- When to go
- September 16° · 12 rainy days
- Per day
- €€€€price 4 of 5
- How many days
- 1days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 36 km Gatwick · 75 km Heathrow
- Right now
Brighton has a sea but not a beach in the sense you're used to: the shore is coarse shingle, the water barely clears eighteen degrees in mid-August, and not many people get into it. Which is why nobody comes for the swimming. They come for everything else, and there's a full day of it, an hour by train from London.
Two lines come down from London: Southern from Victoria, Thameslink from London Bridge and St Pancras, with the fastest services doing it in a shade under an hour. Booked ahead, an Advance single starts at €9.30 and ties you to one train; a ticket bought on the platform is flexible and priced accordingly. From the station it's ten minutes downhill, straight ahead, no turnings, and you're at the water.
The city splits into two areas visitors constantly confuse. The Lanes are a tangle of eighteenth-century alleys, jewellers and pubs where you edge between the tables. North Laine is a few streets further up, with record shops, second-hand clothes and cafés. The first is prettier, the second more interesting, and both fit into one afternoon. Between them stands the Royal Pavilion, which looks like nothing else in England.
Brighton's queer scene sits in Kemptown around St James's Street, and it runs all year rather than in season — the bars keep the same hours in November. On the first weekend of August the city hands itself to Pride, when trains and rooms are booked months ahead. Book in spring if you want that weekend, or avoid it entirely if you don't.
What to see in Brighton
The Royal Pavilion
George IV's seaside palace, finished in 1823 to John Nash's design: Indian domes outside, Chinese rooms inside. Entry is €25 and valid for a year; open 9.30 to 5.45 from April to September, 10 to 5.15 from October to March. The kitchen, with its cast-iron palm-tree columns, explains the building better than any reception room.
Brighton Palace Pier
The 1899 pier, with arcades, a carousel and rides charged separately. From March to October there is an admission of €1.20 for anyone over two, dropped in the evening once rides and kiosks start closing. Best just before sunset, when the lights come on and the day crowd thins out.
The Lanes and North Laine
North Laine sits between the station and North Street, The Lanes south of it towards the sea — both off to the left of the straight walk from the station to the water, so one fits in on the way down and the other on the way back.
The beach and the West Pier
Bring something to sit on and shoes that cope with stones. The West Pier, opened in 1866, burned in 2003 and what's left is a black iron frame standing in the water.
Kemptown
The quarter east of the pier, along St James's Street: bars, small shops and terraces of nineteenth-century houses in pastel colours. It takes its name from Thomas Read Kemp, who began the Kemp Town estate of grand seafront houses here in the 1820s.
- T
The Seven Sisters
The white chalk cliffs east of the city. Buses 12 and 12X run along the coast from the centre and reach the Seven Sisters country park in under an hour — half a day out, there and back.
Two things you probably did not know
The Royal Pavilion is an Indian palace outside and Chinese inside, built for the Prince Regent in the early nineteenth century. The kitchen has columns shaped like palm trees with cast copper leaves at the top.
A network of nineteenth-century sewer tunnels runs under Brighton and can be walked on guided tours in summer. The town was a fishing village until a doctor from nearby Lewes published in 1750 that sea bathing was healthy.
Ready for Brighton?
Within reach from here
Places sorted by straight-line distance from Brighton — day trips or weekends.
All 277 places we write about sit on one page — narrow them down by continent, country, price or what you are travelling for.
Within reach from here: London, Stonehenge and Étretat
See how much of that actually suits you — or pin Brighton if you have been.
Front row for the next trip
Leave your email and we'll let you know when a new destination or story goes up.