The Brighton Weekender

Some of the best local places to eat, shop and explore...

Hello! Today I'm going to writing about my amazing trip to Brighton during early February. As a study abroad student based in London, exploring some of the nearby cities was so important to me. Due to COVID-19, I unfortunately had to leave the country early. I wanted to write this post to share my favorite places and to inspire anyone else who is dying to start traveling again. This is a must visit!

Saturday

After an early morning visit to Victoria station, and a few hour bus ride I arrived in Brighton. To say I was ready to visit Brighton would be an understatement. The seaside town has been on my travel-list since I decided to study abroad in London this semester. In all honesty, I’ve been aware of it since my Zoella megafan days, and also have a soft spot for cities set by the sea. My pre-planning was minimal, I bought my bus ticket, my hotel room and arrived with a backpack with clothes for the next day (it excluded many necessities such as face wash but my glittery purple eyeliner had made it -- can you tell I’m not the best packer). 

Some of the research I had done before arriving included some googling of the best local  food spots and the largest tourist attractions in town. I found an amazing post on the Zoella.co.uk blog that shares the team’s top picks for vegan spots. Additionally, I found the list of the best to-go places through a simple google search. 

Breakfast @ The Plant Room: Apple crumble pancakes & a vegan latte.

First off The Plant Room! This is straight off that Zoella post and is right by the bus station. The plant room is a small vegan cafe located in a courtyard in the Lanes. It's a very quiet and intimate place that is the perfect sanctuary from the spring rain. I’m very happy to report that this cafe quenched my coffee and food needs all the while in a cozy spot. I had the apple pancakes that I ate probably within fifteen minutes and have been dreaming about ever since. 

After brunch, I walked through the lanes stopping at almost every shop. I found the clothes shopping in Brighton to be very unique and eclectic -- with a huge selection of amazing retro fits. My friend and I were especially excited to visit the @HazyDayz shop which we’ve loved since discovering it on Insta! This shop has a top tier variety of sixty and seventy inspired pieces. A must visit if you are interested in vintage or sustainable shopping! 

Some of our other favorite spots were: 

Papersmiths I @paper_smiths

The stationary supplies here was amazing! The location we visited in the North lane had very kind employees and the most amazing variety of Notebooks.

Tidy Print I @Tidyprint

This shop is the cutest both inside and out! The shop, which is located in the North Lanes, specializes in screen printing. What really caught my eye was the eye-catching screen printed clothing that were so original. If you want well crafted and original clothing -- this is a must-shop location in Brighton. 

Record stores

Through our walking tour of Brighton we found so many cute record shops. My friend is a huge music fan and loves collecting vinyl. We always made sure to pop into all the shops we saw. Some of our favorites were: Resident Music (large, open, and airy record store with huge variety of records) and Cult Hero (smaller record store with more albums from current stars). 

We grabbed a cheap dinner at an Indian buffet and headed to our hotel, The Travelodge Brighton, to relax for a few hours before going out. I had an awesome experience at this hotel and due to our early booking we got a free upgrade to a king size bed. I would recommend a hotel closer to the lanes though as we ended up doing *a lot* of walking.

That night we ended up going to Chalk’s “dead to disco” night and had a fun night dancing to 80’s beats. 

Sunday 

Lunch @ Purezza / Chai break @ The Cornish pasty Shop / A sweat treat from Glaze Doughnuts

After a lazy morning, starting off closer to the afternoon than the *actual* morning, we headed to Purezza for some vegan pizza. I stuck with the classic marg pizza with a cucumber lime green juice on the side. Delish! This was the perfect place for vegans or those with dietary sensitivities as they allow you to totally customize your pizza. 

We spent the day walking around the city and stopping at spots along the way. 

We stopped into Glaze doughnuts to avoid the rain, and enjoyed a quick bit before heading to a local pub -- The Prince Albert. This was almost like a scene from a movie as we drank ciders and listened to live folk music in the coziest pub around. 

Then it was off to catch our bus back to London! 

Have you ever been to Brighton?