My son starts at his 6th form college tomorrow so we decided to grab a final summer getaway as a last minute escape to the seaside. I love Brighton. My Grandmother lived there for years so I have lots of fond memories of rollerblading up and down the promenade trying to find friends on our summer holidays back to the UK from Hong Kong.
The Lanes are so cool these days – full of wonderfully quirky, individual shops. Lots of Ye Olde English Sweet and tea shops but also there is now a predominance of men’s clothes shops – catering, I presume for the huge gay community who congregate in Brighton these days.
We stayed at a very sweet little boutique hotel called Drakes Of Brighton, right on the sea front. I treated my son and his girlfriend to his first “fine dining” experience, which they enjoyed at the hotel restaurant, but there are so many great restaurants in Brighton now we should have stayed an extra night and gone out and about.
The view from the entrance to the hotel:-
Loved my little room with a view:-
Our fine dining experience was fantastic:-
Breakfast:-
The shopping is great, and as a seaside resort, I don’t think it’s tacky at all as seaside resorts go. Neither is it faded glory, it’s just moved with the times and become uber cool. We walked for hours. Didn’t try out the i360 Tower, the new tourist attraction which opened last month and is the world’s first vertical cable car, lifting guests 450 feet into the air for a 360 degree view of the coastline – which was just as well as the day before it got stuck and visitors were stranded in midair for over two hours after it had broken down which must have been scary.
Coffee at a cute little place in the lanes called the Marwood Coffee Shop – we were a bit worried about that hanging weight in the background!:-
We went to Sea Life which has also had a bit of a face lift since I used to go back in the day, which we loved.
The glorious rainbow hall:-
A successful trip to TK Maxx as well as you can see:-
Lots of educational space:-
My favourite has always been the elegant seahorse:-
Our 24 hours in Brighton “was the best car journey ever” said my son on our return.
