A Brighton beach day itinerary that doesn't feel touristy

Brighton on a hot weekend is one of two places. There is the bit that London-day-trippers see — the Palace Pier, the rock shops, the queue for fish and chips at Captain Hooks — and there is the bit locals do, which is mostly the same beach but used differently. This guide is for the second version.

The seafront is six miles long. Most tourists never leave the half-mile stretch around the Palace Pier. Once you go east of Black Rock or west of the i360, the beach is calmer, the food is better, and the day costs half as much.

For events on the seafront — beach concerts, sea swims, the smaller festival stuff — the Brighton seafront events filter on Rifio has them.

The route, top-line

1. Park or train arrival before 10am
2. Coffee at Pelicano or Coffee@33
3. Beach: stretch east of Black Rock or west of the i360
4. Lunch at Cyan Bar (Volks) or one of the Hove kiosks
5. Afternoon swim and lie-down
6. Drink at the Salt Room or Hove's King Alfred Tap
7. Dinner at Riddle & Finns Beach, The Salt Room, or 64 Degrees
8. Evening walk back along the seafront

You can run this in either direction depending on the wind and where the parking is.

Arrival

If you are driving on a hot weekend, you should be parked by 10am. The Brighton Marina car park is the easy option (£8-£12 for the day, walk into Black Rock from there) or the Hove Lawns parking which is £6-£9 and gives you the western seafront without the city centre tax.

If you are coming by train, Brighton station to the seafront is a 12-minute walk through the Lanes. Hove station is closer to the Hove section if that is where you are heading.

Coffee before the beach

Pelicano in the North Laine does the best coffee in the city centre. Coffee@33 is just east on Sydney Street and is the same conversation. Either is the right pre-beach stop. Pastry, flat white, ten minutes, then you head down.

Do not bother with the seafront chains. The coffee is not good and you have left a perfectly nice city centre behind to drink it.

The beach (the actual answer)

The bit that London-day-trippers do is the Palace Pier stretch — the busiest, the rockshop-iest, the most expensive-burger-iest part of the beach. Skip it. The beach east of Black Rock and the beach west of the i360 are properly different days.

East of Black Rock is slightly quieter, the pebbles are kinder, and once you walk past the marina the beach opens up properly. Walking east towards Saltdean, you will find proper space. The water is cleaner here than at the central section.

West past the i360 towards Hove, the beach is wider, the green Hove Beach Park is right there for picnic format, and you can swim from the Hove lawns end without the crowd density. The bit beyond the King Alfred Leisure Centre is where the locals actually go.

If you are a serious swimmer, the Brighton Swimming Club at the West Pier ruins is the historic local sea-swimming spot. Sea swimming year-round, properly serious, and on summer mornings there will be a crew of regulars in.

Lunch

Cyan Bar at the Volks (eastern seafront) is the breakfast and lunch spot. Properly cooked food, sea views, prices that have not gone tourist-mental. Order whatever the brunch menu says and the ploughman's if it is on.

Hove Beach Park kiosks are the western answer. Multiple kiosks ranging from properly good to passable; the "Hove Beach Box" is the best of them and does fresh seafood at fair prices.

For the proper sit-down lunch, Riddle & Finns on the Beach at the Hove Lawns end is the answer. Seafood, decent wine list, sea-facing terrace, expect to pay £30-£45 a head with a glass of wine.

The classic mistake is queueing 40 minutes for a fish-and-chips at Captain Hooks. Brighton has a dozen better fish-and-chip options and none of them are on the Palace Pier.

Afternoon

This is the bit most people get wrong. They sit on the central stretch in 28-degree heat with all the noise. Walk five minutes east or west, lie down on a quieter section of beach, and you are essentially on a different holiday.

For a proper afternoon swim, go in for half an hour around 3-4pm when the water is at its warmest. The English Channel is never warm but it is least cold then.

The Volks Railway runs along the eastern seafront and is genuinely the best 15 minutes you can spend on a hot day — open carriages, sea breeze, and it costs about £4 each way.

Drinks before dinner

The King Alfred Tap in Hove (Kingsway) is the local craft-beer pub on the western seafront. Proper beer list, a beer garden that catches the late sun, and it is properly local — none of the tourist-pub vibe.

The Salt Room has a sea-facing bar that is more polished if that is the night you are after, with good cocktails and the kind of view that justifies the markup.

Bohemia at the Old Ship is the eastern equivalent — small, slightly dated in the best way, sea-facing.

Dinner

Riddle & Finns on the Beach does dinner as well as lunch. The Salt Room is the more polished option, properly built menu around fish and meat with a sea view from the upstairs room. 64 Degrees is the city-centre option, a five-minute walk inland, doing one of the best tasting-menu experiences in the city for £55-£75.

If you want a properly casual dinner, Bincho Yakitori in the Lanes does Japanese skewers at fair prices and is consistently excellent.

Evening

Walk back along the seafront after dinner. Brighton at sunset, ice cream from the western Hove kiosks (still serving until 8 in summer), the kind of evening that explains why people put up with London prices the rest of the year.

The post-dinner pubs — The Plotting Parlour, Cantina in Kemptown, the Ginger Pig in Hove — are all worth knowing about for an evening drink.

What I would skip

The Palace Pier itself unless you specifically want the format. The rock shops. The fish-and-chip queue at Captain Hooks. The Lanes after 4pm on a Saturday in July. The seafront chains. The "donut bar" pop-ups.

Logistics

Beach kit: towel, sunscreen, layers (the wind picks up), £5-£10 for the Volks Railway, water bottle (refill at the various seafront fountains).

Pebbles: they are pebbles, not sand. Bring a sit-on mat if you have one. Flip-flops will get awkward — proper sandals or trainers are the move.

Children: the gentler swimming is at Hove. The eastern beach near Black Rock is steeper and the waves are bigger.

Tides: Brighton tides do not really matter for a beach day, the beach is always there, but the swim conditions vary.

Parking: book ahead through the Brighton parking app on a hot weekend or you will not park.

The full seafront events programme is on Rifio and the Brighton this-week filter will show you which beach events are on alongside the regular calendar. Untill the next properly hot weekend.