Keen to be green? Leave the car keys on the kitchen table and enjoy a few carefree family days in Sussex without the wheels.
Whether you live here already or plan a visit from London or further afield, the coastline, countryside, towns and ancient villages of Sussex offer a delightful medley of outstanding natural beauty, historic interest and fun activities for all the family.
Train travel
Two major Sussex seaside towns are easily accessible by train. Both the north-south and east-west routes to Hastings and Brighton are well-served by rail, so let the train take the strain and avoid fuming in traffic jams.
London Charing Cross to Hastings takes about 90 minutes without changes, and you can travel from Victoria, Charing Cross, London Bridge, or London St Pancras to Brighton, in just over an hour.
The rail route across West and East Sussex is particularly lovely as it follows the coast from Chichester and then shadows the line of the South Downs, tracking across stunning countryside from Brighton via Lewes and Glyndebourne, en route to Eastbourne and Hastings. (This line also goes to the Eurostar station at Ashford, in Kent.)
Hastings
Famous for the battle of 1066 (a visit to Britain’s first Norman Castle, built by William the Conqueror, is a ‘must’), Hastings was, until the early 1800s, a traditional Sussex fishing village. Today, the beach with its distinctive tall, dark huts for drying nets remains a prime summer attraction.
Renowned for its large number of shipwrecks visible at low tide, the town has a fascinating ‘Shipwreck Centre’, which tells the tragic tales behind the skeletal evidence. ‘Smugglers Adventure’, with its labyrinth of tunnels used 200 years ago to bring contraband goods into Sussex, the popular ‘Fisherman’s Museum’ and the ‘Blue Reef Aquarium’ all offer further sea-related experiences, and if your under-12s just want more physical fun, then head for ‘Clambers Play Centre’ with its supervised climbing frames and slides, rope ladders, paddling pools and more.
Brighton
The first passengers to emerge from Brighton Railway station in September 1841, will have realised with joy that they could walk anywhere in the town within 10 minutes.
When you arrive in Brighton, take a moment to admire the station’s Victorian architecture, then pause to pity the poor folk in the queue of cars snaking uphill to the multi-storey, as you trek carefree, down to the beach.
At the sea-front and on the famous Brighton Pier are fairground rides and giant trampolines, fish’n chippies and kiosks of curiosities, as well as music venues which come alive after dark.
Nearby is ‘Brighton Sea Life Centre’, and along the promenade runs the miniature ‘Volks Railway’, which the kids will love to take to ‘Brighton Marina’, where you can gaze at expensive yachts, go tenpin bowling or take your giant tub of popcorn to the movies.
Brighton’s quirky ‘Lanes’ comprise a warren of crooked alleys and ‘twittens’ (old Sussex name for narrow pathways), crammed with funky boutiques, market stalls, antique and junk shops, pavement cafes and street performers. Of course, a family day out to Brighton would not be complete without a trip to the weird and magical, regency Royal Pavilion.
South Downs National Park
Fancy fresh air and open countryside in an area of outstanding natural beauty?
Leave the train at Hassocks (south of Gatwick on the London to Brighton line), and walk, take the bus, or cycle the couple of miles to the Downs at Jack and Jill Windmills. There, the views are stunning across the Sussex Weald to the North Downs, and south to Brighton and the English Channel; if it’s breezy, don’t forget the kite.
Follow the several thousand years old route of the South Downs Way another couple of miles east to its highest point at Ditchling Beacon, where an easy half-hour stroll will take you down to the village of Ditchling, as mentioned in the Doomsday Book, which has oak-beamed pubs with inglenooks and dark tales of Highwaymen, fine food, a great deli, tea rooms and an internationally famous Sussex Arts and Crafts Museum.
Still feeling energetic? Then explore Ditchling’s gem of a nature reserve, Stoneywish Country Park.
Yvonne Hennessy is the editor of Sussex-SouthDowns-Guide.com, the comprehensive travel guide to the South Downs in Sussex, England. Find more tips for family days out in Sussex at her site.
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