LOCAL ATTRACTIONS

Camber Sands

LARGER TOWNS

Hastings (45 mins) is a revitalised seaside town with a strong sense of character, where the narrow streets of the Old Town sit beside a working fishing beach, the distinctive black huts and long promenade. The town mixes traditional seaside charm with a contemporary edge, thanks to its independent shops, lively bars and the striking seafront art gallery that anchors the cultural scene. It is also the gateway to 1066 Country, with historic sites and coastal walks close at hand.

Lewes (20 mins) is a historic market town wrapped around a Norman castle, its steep streets lined with flint cottages, Georgian townhouses and independent high‑street shops. Known for its bookshops, antiques and interiors stores, as well as a thriving café culture, it has a relaxed but distinctly creative atmosphere. Regular markets, seasonal festivals and its famous Bonfire Night give Lewes a strong sense of tradition and community.

Brighton (40 mins) offers a more bohemian, urban energy, combining classic seaside fun with a vibrant arts and music scene. The opulent, exotic Royal Pavilion, lively theatres and year‑round programme of festivals sit alongside the famous pebble beach and pier. In the maze‑like Lanes and North Laine you’ll find boutiques, vintage shops and excellent restaurants, making it a dynamic day or evening out.

  • Hastings

  • The Lanes, Brighton

  • Brighton Pier

  • Tunbridge Wells

  • C15th Bookshop, Lewes

  • Hastings Old Town

  • Hove

LOCAL VILLAGES

The Downs give you that rare mix: proper walking country, small villages, and the sense of being in landscape rather than simply near it. Expect changing light, chalk paths, and the kind of horizons that make even a short walk feel special.

Medieval Alfriston (30 mins) with its timber-framed houses and village green on the Cuckmere (40 mins) is a must. Firle (30 mins) with its flint cottages beneath the Downs is like something out of a fairytale, and East Dean (40 mins), a classic downland village close to Birling Gap and the Seven Sisters cliffs.

Rye (60 mins) has a distinctly artsy feel, with a cluster of contemporary galleries and studios, including the long‑established Rye Art Gallery and creative hubs showing work by local painters, printmakers and ceramicists. The cobbled streets are also lined with characterful antique, vintage and interiors shops, where you can browse everything from mid‑century furniture and retro finds to quirky objet trouvé and art-led homeware.

  • Rye

  • East Dean

  • Firle

  • Alfriston

CULTURE

East Sussex has a surprisingly rich cultural scene, from world‑class opera at Glyndebourne (20 mins), where summer audiences picnic in the gardens before performances, to the modernist, Bloomsbury‑group interiors and vibrant exhibitions at Charleston (30 mins), just outside Lewes.

Closer to home, Uckfield’s independent Picture House cinema, (5 mins) with its historic early‑20th‑century character, offers an unusually stylish setting for new releases, live-streamed opera, ballet and theatre, adding an art‑house feel to this part of the Weald. It has received numerous local, national and European cinema industry awards and being voted “best independent cinema in the UK,” as well as winning “Cinema of the Year”

Another standout cultural highlight is the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill‑on‑Sea, (45 mins) a striking modernist seafront landmark that combines contemporary art exhibitions, live music and performance with beautiful sea views from its sweeping terraces.

  • Glyndebourne

  • Charleston

  • Picture House, Uckfield

  • De La Warr Pavillion

NOVEMBER 5th IN SUSSEX

Lewes’s famous Guy Fawkes celebrations are spectacular and historic, with torch‑lit processions, marching bands, costumes and dramatic bonfires created by the town’s six Bonfire Societies. It can be intense and very busy, so it’s generally better suited to families with older children who will enjoy the noise, crowds and late‑night atmosphere, while younger ones may prefer smaller local events that offer more space and a gentler experience.

Across East Sussex, many towns and villages host their own bonfire nights and firework displays through the autumn, often with funfairs, food stalls and family‑friendly torchlight parades in places such as Hastings, Eastbourne, Uckfield, Crowborough and nearby villages like Buxted. Families can also enjoy a full calendar of festivals and seasonal events, from child‑focused weekends like Elderflower Fields near Uckfield to summer arts, music and food festivals in coastal towns and historic market towns across the county.

TRADING BOUNDARIES

Trading Boundaries (15 mins) is a bit of an East Sussex gem: a big, beautifully eclectic showroom in a former coaching inn near Fletching/Sheffield Park, packed with Indian furniture, textiles, gifts and art—the sort of place you go in “for a quick look” and emerge an hour later. Just 15 minutes away.

It has a licensed café-bar (dog- and family-friendly, with outdoor seating), and in the evenings it often turns into an intimate live-music venue with concerts and dinner-and-a-show nights. Depicted - a recent concert by Steve Hackett.

It’s also the UK home gallery of Roger Dean—the iconic artist and album-cover designer behind some of the most instantly recognisable imagery in progressive rock—where you can view and buy limited-edition prints and original work (and, occasionally, even bump into Dean himself)

CHILDREN

There is a lot on offer for tiny humans too. Wilderness Wood is just ten minutes drive up the A272. It is a family-run woodland where kids can roam, build dens, follow trails and use the play areas; it’s very free-range childhood. Current half-term activities include felt-making, woodworking and printing. A pretty fine cafe too.

Bluebell Railway – twenty minutes drive - one of Sussex’s best-loved heritage days out: steam trains through beautiful countryside, stations to explore, and plenty to keep children engaged.

Pooh Corner - twenty minutes drive. Hartfield is a charming village on the edge of Ashdown Forest, forever linked with Winnie‑the‑Pooh as the countryside that inspired A.A. Milne’s Hundred Acre Wood and the adventures of Christopher Robin and his friends. Families can follow waymarked walks through the forest to much‑loved story locations such as Poohsticks Bridge and “Eeyore’s Gloomy Place”, then return to the village for a cream tea or hot chocolate at Pooh Corner, a cosy tearoom, gift shop and mini‑museum dedicated to all things Pooh.

Drusillas Park is just under 30 minutes away. It is a classic East Sussex family day out: a friendly zoo plus rides and play areas—perfect for tiring children out properly.

Middle Farm - also just under 30 minutes drive. Set at the foot of Firle Beacon, Middle Farm combines the pleasures of a proper Sussex farm—animals to meet, a farm trail to explore, hay-barn play and an under-5s zone—with the added bonus of an excellent farm shop and a cosy tearoom for refuelling. 

Brighton Palace Pier - about 40 minutes away for classic seaside amusements, arcade games, and fairground rides with the sea right underneath you.

  • Middle Farm

  • The House at Pooh Corner

  • Drusillas Park & Zoo

  • Brighton Pier

  • Knockhatch Adventure Park

OUTDOORS

Seven Sisters and the Cuckmere Valley (35 mins) offer one of the most iconic coastal landscapes in the South Downs National Park, with sweeping white chalk cliffs, a gently meandering river and wide open skies.

Here, visitors can stroll along riverside paths from the valley floor out to Cuckmere Haven beach, or tackle the higher cliff-top trails for spectacular sea views and classic landscapes that have inspired artists and photographers for generations.

The area is rich in wildlife, from seasonal wildflowers and butterflies on the chalk grassland to migratory birds that feed and rest in the floodplain meadows, making it a favourite spot for walkers, nature lovers and anyone seeking a peaceful, unspoilt stretch of the Sussex Heritage Coast.

Cuckmere Inn with its classic country-pub atmosphere to cosy tearooms and independent spots like Saltmarsh Café offering homemade food, local produce and good coffee.

  • Seven Sisters

  • Firle Beacon

  • Cuckmere Valley

  • Saltmarsh Farm

From here it’s a short hop to Rye Harbour Nature Reserve (65 mins), where the iconic red‑roofed hut sits amid saltmarsh and shingle, a tiny splash of colour in a wide, wildlife‑rich landscape that’s perfect for walking, birdwatching and photography.

Alongside the stark, cinematic shingle landscape and bird‑rich nature reserve at Dungeness (85 mins), you’ll find an otherworldly mix of big skies, lighthouses, weather‑boarded cottages and scattered fishing boats that feel almost like a film set. Vast expanses of shingle give way to pockets of wildflowers in season, while bird hides and boardwalks let you get close to the marshes and lagoons without disturbing the wildlife. It’s a brilliant place for long, bracing walks, photography and stargazing, with the wide horizon and ever‑changing light giving it a quietly dramatic, contemplative atmosphere.

DUNGENESS

NOURISHMENT

This website was created by someone who makes their living in a creative industry. And one thing I stress time and time again is that creativity needs nourishment. Cognitive nourishment for sure - we need to feed the mental compost heap - but also proper, tasty sustenance. And East Sussex delivers that in spades.

What is particularly pleasing is the fact that Sussex is replete with proper country pubs. Privately owned establishments serving local Sussex beef and lamb, often from nearby farms, with roaring fires in winter and rambling beer gardens for long lunches in summer. Down by the coast and in the bigger towns you’ll find everything from laid‑back seafood shacks and beachside cafés to more elegant spaces. As well as an abundance of cosy village pubs, where you can end a walk with a good glass of wine, a local ale and something hearty and home‑cooked on your plate.

Hopefully it goes without saying that you will also find the best fish and chips on the Sussex coast.

A few tried and tested options:

The Hurstwood; High Hurstwood (7 mins) A classic Sussex country pub with a contemporary, food‑led twist, tucked away on the edge of the Ashdown Forest. It’s known for seasonal, locally sourced menus that feel more like a small restaurant than “standard pub grub”, all served in a characterful space with beams, open fires and a big garden.

The Griffin in Fletching (10 mins) is a much‑loved 16th‑century village inn with low beams, log fires and a famously large garden that looks out over rolling countryside towards Sheffield Park and the South Down. Prince Charles has visited and his portrait duly hangs on the walls. A focus on rugby and cricket as opposed to the arts but the food is so good we can’t hold that against them.

Gravetye Manor (25 mins) is a quintessential country‑house treat: an Elizabethan manor wrapped in exquisite gardens, with a Michelin‑starred dining room that looks straight out over its famous kitchen garden and borders. It’s the place people go for special‑occasion lunches and dinners, where the menus are driven by seasonal produce grown on site and the whole experience feels quietly luxurious yet warm and unstuffily English.

Flint Owl Bakery, Lewes (15 mins) Flint Owl Bakery in Lewes is a favourite local stop‑off: a small, stylish craft bakery on the High Street serving excellent sourdough, pastries and cakes, good coffee and a simple, fresh lunch menu, with a tucked‑away courtyard garden that makes it especially lovely on sunny days. Their bread and croissants are sold at Oast Farm - a five minute drive away (see below).

Oast Farm, Buxted (5 mins) Oast Farm in Buxted is a family‑run fruit farm with a friendly farm shop and café, tucked away in gently rolling countryside on the edge of the village. It’s the sort of place you pop to for really good local produce – their own fruit, juices and homemade pies, plus breads, cheeses and vegetables from nearby suppliers. I defy you to find a better bacon sandwich anywhere.

  • Flint Owl Bakery, Lewes

  • The Griffin, Fletching

  • Gravetye Manor

  • The Hurstwood, High Hurstwood

  • Oast Farm Cafe, Buxted