Fun things to do in Brighton

If you'd like to have a great overview of Brighton & Hove, this is the best attraction for your trip! The Brighton Wheel is a big carrusel at the Brighton beach. It's open from 10am till 11pm on weekends. On the wheel, you're able to see the whole city and its beautiful beach and of course the Brighton Pier. Try to book it at a dry day with sun. For about 8£, the wheel turns 4 times around. The capsules have aircon and an audible guide.

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The Victoria Fountain in the Old Steine was inaugurated on 25 May 1846 for the 27th birthday of Queen Victoria. It was cast locally in Brighton and consists of 2 shallow basins supported by 3 cast iron dolphins over the large pool of water below. The base of the fountain is made of sarsen stones which were found in the Steine by workmen in 1823.

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The brighton Museum is set in the Royal Pavilion Gardens and contains an interesting collection of exhibits on local history, a small section on ancient Egypt and some art exhibitions. It's free entry but donations are, as always, welcomed.

The main hall of the ground floor is occupied by the 20th century art and design section - which is essentially a collection of slightly quirky furnishings. Not really my thing, but very interesting to some I'm sure. The best thing I found in this area was the building itself. Look up at the roof and balconies.

Also on the ground floor is the local history collection which is very interesting if you want to know something about how Brighton developed and became the special place it is today.

The World Art section is the only place where I have seen Buddhas displayed alongside a table football game. Typically Brighton quirky...

Upstairs is the space for tempoary exhibitions and the last few parts of the permanent collection. The area entitled 'Performance' has some interesting ceremonial costumes from around the world, and being Brighton...a Punch and Judy to go with them!

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Still looking spruce after it's £10 million refurbishment Brighton Museum and Art Gallery has an interesting assortment of exhibits, ranging from a wonderful Dali sofa based on Mae West's lips to tribal ethnic art, paintings, historical costumes and local history galleries. It is also the base for the Brighton History Centre where you can access all the local genealogical records as well as many other national birth marriage and deaths records via microfiche. Like so many museums nowadays it can lay claim to a rather nice café selling sandwiches, soups , salads, cakes and other delights and a small but perfectly formed trendy shop. Definitely worth a visit as it is absolutely free. (some special exhibitions might apply an entry fee)

Opening Times
Tuesday: 10am-7pm
Wednesday-Saturday: 10am-5pm
Sunday: 2-5pm
Closed Mondays, except public holidays 10am-5pm

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"o contemporary is one of the UK's top contemporary art spaces, showcasing a compelling and diverse selection of national and international artists' work"

Located in Trafalgar St in the north lanes, there is always something of interest to see at this gallery. Fast moving exhibitions have included artists such as Damien Hurst, Tracey Emin and the like.

Current Exhibition (10th Nov - 9th Dec '07) is "cor da rua" (street colour) a 2 month, 10-artist celebration of the best in Brazilian urban art, considered by many to be the most significant genre in the global urban art movement.

Tuesd - Frid 10 - 5.30 pm
Sat - 10 - 6 pm
Sund - 12 - 5 pm

A somewhat ecelctic mix of stalls can be found in the Ship Street market. It all had a rather bohemian and hippy feel to it, much in keeping with studenty feel of much of the town

Most of it was the usual collections of perfumes clothes furniture and trinkets imported from the developing world. One stall didi seem to stand out to me. The 'Twisted Tinkerbell' ( the fairy taylor (sic)) produced some truely outrageous clothes that were cobbled together from previously worn garments. Wonderfully green and funky, but probably not a great idea to wear one of her creations to a job interview.

Took my Mum for a very posh afternoon tea at the Grand Hotel.

Lots of cucumber, egg mayo and salmon sandwiches, all without crusts and all tasting very yummy - followed by an enormous amount of daintily decorated little cakes and the traditional British cream tea.

You can drink as much of a great assortment of teas as you like, or be even more decadent and order champagne.

Dress code is relaxed and you can sit and people watch in the comfy chairs after which you can recover from the huge amount of fat you have just devoured!

Take your Mum, she'll love it!

Recently took the Small Person for a half term treat and she loved it too. Amazingly, there were just too many cakes to manage at the time, we had to get a cake box to take the rest home before we popped !

Recently re-opened after a multi-million pound restoration this museum would be a lovely place to visit on a wet afternoon. Luckily for me it was sunny and warm! (But I would give it a visit another time!!!)