Eastbourne

Introduction

Eastbourne is a seaside resort town in East Sussex, in South East England. It sits immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the larger Eastbourne Downland Estate, so the downland and the cliff edge are right on the town's doorstep. Brighton lies to the west and London to the north, making the town a straightforward base for exploring this stretch of the south coast.

Before you go

Eastbourne sits at the eastern end of the South Downs, where the chalk hills meet the sea at Beachy Head, the highest chalk cliff in Southern England. Inland to the east lie the low-lying Pevensey Levels. The town has a long-standing reputation as a quiet retirement destination, though most residents are younger and you may not notice much of that reputation on a visit. The main shopping centre has been undergoing renovation to bring in better-known shops.

Part of the town's appeal is its largely undeveloped seafront, free of the amusements and noise associated with Brighton to the west. The front is composed mainly of Victorian hotels, and the 1935 bandstand still hosts traditional seafront concerts every day during the holiday season, with deckchairs for those content to listen and laze. The calm is broken in mid-August by Airbourne, the South Coast's biggest free air display, held over the sea across four days, with the RAF Red Arrows regular visitors and live bands at ground level. Check the Visit Eastbourne website for visitor information before you travel.

Getting there

By train, Southern Railway is the principal company serving Eastbourne. There are direct services to London Victoria calling at Clapham Junction and East Croydon, running two to three times an hour with a journey of roughly one hour twenty minutes to one hour forty-five minutes. To the west, trains link Eastbourne with Brighton; to the east, with Bexhill, Hastings and Ashford International, the latter connecting to Eurostar services to France and Belgium. If you fly into Gatwick Airport, you can pick up the same Southern train that runs on to London Victoria, with the journey from the airport taking about fifty minutes to an hour. Trains from Bedford via St Pancras and Gatwick Airport run into Brighton rather than Eastbourne, so change at Haywards Heath or Brighton for a separate connection. For fares and timetables, consult the Southern Railway website or National Rail Enquiries.

Eastbourne's main station sits in the town centre on Terminus Road, with a taxi rank and pick-up and drop-off point outside; a taxi freephone is also available via another exit. A second station, Hampden Park, is the better choice if you are heading for Willingdon, Hampden Park or Langney, though for most attractions and hotels it is easier to arrive at Eastbourne station and continue from there. By car, the A27 runs west towards Brighton and the A259 east towards Hastings, while the A22, joining the A27, heads north towards London.

Getting around

Eastbourne is compact, and the Victorian seafront, the pier, the theatre and the town centre all sit within easy reach of the main railway station on Terminus Road, so walking covers much of the core. For longer hops, Stagecoach runs the town services and the country routes out to Tunbridge Wells, Heathfield, Uckfield, Willingdon, Polegate, Pevensey Bay, Hailsham, Bexhill and Hastings. The old art deco bus station has closed, but almost all services now stop in a buses-only area of the main shopping precinct at Terminus Road, near the railway station. There is no formal bus office in the town centre, though timetables are posted at stops in the central area and limited bus information is available from the Tourist Information Office on Cornfield Road. Hailsham, Pevensey Bay, Polegate and Willingdon fall within the local fare zone, which has an unlimited day rover and a weekly ticket available from the driver; town and out-of-town services are numbered separately, so check the route number before boarding.

• Brighton is served by Brighton and Hove Buses, whose all-day ticket includes the return journey between the two towns plus unlimited travel in Brighton and Hove, and costs less if bought in advance online.
• If you want unlimited local travel in Eastbourne as well as a day in Brighton, an Explorer ticket bought on a Stagecoach bus covers most services in Kent and Sussex for a day, including Stagecoach, Arriva and Brighton & Hove; the same ticket costs more from Brighton and Hove, so Stagecoach is better value.
• Black cabs are rarely seen on the streets, but licensed taxis are readily available at ranks on either side of the railway station; the main firms are 720 Taxis and 726 Taxis, with 746746 Taxis also operating.

Where to stay

Hotels line the seafront in an almost unbroken run along the promenade, so you won't struggle to find somewhere to sleep. Most of the town's 4- and 5-star hotels sit on the seafront, generally towards the Meads end of town. The Hydro on Mount Road once featured in a TV Agatha Christie adaptation, while The Grand Hotel on King Edwards Parade is a classical five-star hotel run in a friendly atmosphere. The da Vinci Hotel & Art Gallery on Howard Square claims to be the UK's first art hotel.

For those on more modest budgets, there are plenty of family-run, welcoming small hotels. The Atlanta Guest House sits on the seafront close to the pier, while the Devonshire Park Hotel and the New Wilmington Hotel are both near the main theatres. The Royal on Marine Parade is a historic guesthouse on the seafront near the pier, one of Eastbourne's few remaining original Sea Houses, popular with tourists and walkers, modestly priced and dog-friendly. You'll also find many bed and breakfast establishments, self-catering flatlets such as Beachside Guesthouse and Self-Catering Apartments, and campsites on the edge of town such as Fairfields Farm. The town's Youth Hostel occupies a very picturesque spot on top of the Downs going out of town westwards, near one of the golf links. Further out at Beachy Head, the Belle Tout Lighthouse — the first lighthouse at Beachy Head until 1902, and shifted back from the eroding cliff edge in one piece in 1999 — is now a stylish B&B with one room in the light tower and five in the adjoining house; no children under 15 or dogs.

Food & drink

As a seaside resort, Eastbourne caters to all tastes and budgets. Terminus Road is the main restaurant street, with plenty of fast food outlets alongside a wide range of other cuisines. For traditional fish and chips, try Seaquel or Qualisea near the junction of Terminus Road and Seaside Road, or the Dolphin fish bar on Seaside. Fresh seafood and shellfish are available near the pier, and if you're self-catering you can buy local catches from the wet fish shops beside the fisherman's boat stores on the seafront walking east towards Princes Park. For a sea view with your meal, the Cafe Belge at the seaward end of Terminus Road offers a menu reflecting Belgian culinary traditions. Hotel restaurants are worth a try, as are the cafes and kiosks on the lower promenade — small establishments that are especially good in warm summer weather, including some in former seafront shelters — and several shoreline cafes and restaurants now open into the late evening. The Sovereign Harbour Waterfront development has a good choice of bars and restaurants, from big chains to smaller authentic spots.

Among specific places, The Beach Deck sits on the seafront just outside the centre; The Green Almond is a small vegetarian bistro whose menu changes monthly and which seats only around 21, so book ahead; Pomodoro e Mozzarella is a large Italian restaurant run by Italians, handy for the town centre and theatres; The Pilot Inn near the foot of the Downs is more of a food pub and also has rooms; Thai Marina at the Waterfront offers authentic Thai food with harbour views from outside tables in good weather; Old Dave's Gourmet Burger Co. is a small independent burger restaurant near the town centre with a wide choice of beers; and Fusciardi on Marine Parade is a popular ice cream parlour serving a very wide range of ice creams, sorbets and sundaes. For drinking, Eastbourne has plenty of pubs from traditional to trendy. The Marine on Seaside is recommended for local real ale and also offers an excellent restaurant and bar menu, all day on Sundays; The Terminus is a refurbished Harveys of Lewes pub in the town centre; and The Lamb in the Old Town is the oldest pub in Eastbourne, built in the 12th century. Most nightclubs are in Langney, Pevensey and Terminus Roads, though the Atlantis nightspot on the pier draws language students and young people in summer. If you want something refreshing but not intoxicating, there are plenty of stops for a cuppa and the usual coffee chains; the Pavilion Tea Rooms east of the pier are recommended for afternoon tea, often with a piano player adding to the typically English ambience. Urban Ground, just off the pedestrianised end of Terminus Road, gives you an egg timer with your pot of tea to tell you when it's properly brewed, and runs the cafe at the Towner Art Gallery, where you can sit on the balcony overlooking the sunset in the evening.

What to see and do

Start on the seafront, where the Carpet Gardens and Eastbourne Pier sit along Grand Parade. The pier dates from 1870 and holds a theatre, a camera obscura and a bar, plus cafes, a restaurant, shops, a fishing stage, a nightclub and a fish and chip shop, with fine views back over the town; paddle steamers once ran from here to Boulogne, and anti-aircraft guns were mounted on the pier during the Second World War. Inland, the Towner Gallery at Devonshire Park keeps several contemporary exhibitions running at once, including a permanent room devoted to the local artist Eric Ravilious, and the Eastbourne Heritage Centre, a short walk from the centre and just off the seafront, tells the town's history from a Grade II listed building. The Redoubt Fortress on Royal Parade, built in 1804 against a feared Napoleonic invasion, now houses a museum, gun parade, cafe and shop.

For the best of the landscape, head up to Beachy Head, a chalk sea cliff with a century-old red and white lighthouse at its foot and the earlier Belle Tout lighthouse nearby, now a B&B; on a clear day you can pick out Hastings, and you can carry on along the coast to Birling Gap or Cuckmere Haven. Keen walkers can pick up the South Downs Way where it starts on the western edge of town and follow as much of it as they like through the national park. Seven Sisters Country Park at Exceat, reached by bus from the town centre, offers cycle hire through Friston Forest, a cafe-restaurant and a visitor centre, with the Cuckmere estuary meandering to the sea; Birling Gap, owned by the National Trust, has a cafe, gift shop and small visitor centre, stairs down to the shingle beach, and a cliff-top walk back to Eastbourne. Families can ride the Eastbourne Miniature Steam Railway, and the Sovereign Centre has pools, a wave machine, fountains and a flume. In summer the Western Lawns host weekend events, among them the Airbourne airshow in August and the Beachlife extreme sports festival in late July and early August, while the pre-Wimbledon women's tennis tournament comes to town in late June.

When to go

Eastbourne has a mild maritime climate, with warm summers and mild winters, and it enjoys notably high sunshine levels for England. Summer brings the year's best weather and brightest skies, with July historically the sunniest month. This is the season for the beach, when the coast is at its busiest.

Winters are mild, and the town's coastal position keeps nights milder than in most of England. Frost and cold snaps are possible, but they are not the norm.

Three days in Eastbourne

Day one: Start in Eastbourne itself, getting your bearings along the seafront and the Victorian townscape before heading out to Beachy Head, where the chalk cliffs of the South Downs meet the sea. The Eastbourne Downland Estate stretches across the surrounding countryside, and the South Downs give you plenty of walking country above the town. In August the seafront hosts Airbourne, when the RAF Red Arrows display over the South Coast.

Day two: Head inland to the Pevensey Levels, or follow the coast to Bexhill and Hastings for a change of scene. Brighton is within reach for a longer excursion, and the South Downs offer quieter routes through Southern England's chalk country. Check Visit Eastbourne for what is on during your stay.

Day three: Use Eastbourne as a base for a day further afield. Southern Railway services run from London Victoria via Clapham Junction and East Croydon, and the line continues to Bexhill and Hastings and on to Ashford International, where Eurostar connections reach France and Belgium. If you are arriving by air, Gatwick Airport is served by Southern trains, and services also link to Bedford.