We Went To Eastbourne… Is It Actually Worth The Hype?

Eastbourne has just been named in Britain’s Top 10 best seaside resorts by Condé Nast Traveller so we paid it a visit to see what all the fuss is about!

Join us on the south coast of England as we hike to the iconic Beachy Head cliffs, indulge in some of the town’s top rated fish and chips, explore Eastbourne’s promenade and pier and set foot on it’s award winning beach.

Is Eastbourne really one of Britain’s best beach towns or is it all just over-hyped?

We’ve also visited another seaside town that made the top 10 list so why not join us there next

#eastbourne #seaside #sussex #uktravel #uktravelvlogs

Eastborne just made the top 10 seaside towns in the UK. But before we pack our bags and move in, we had to see if it’s worth the hype. We’ll be hiking to the iconic Beachy Head Cliffs, sampling one of the town’s top rated fish and chip restaurants, and encountering more seagulls than we anticipated. Millions upon millions of seagulls. So, I’m glad we didn’t come here and eat our fish and chips. Is Eastborne Britain’s best seaside town or just really good at PR? Well, that’s possibly a contender for world’s smallest museum. This pier feels a little unstable. Just look how wonky that building on the pier is. A pevery beach. It should be a sandy beach. Sandy beaches are better. That thing is creaking. And I know the feeling cuz I am too. Let’s find out. Good morning from Eastborne on the south coast of England. And oh my gosh, what a glorious day we have picked to come and visit the seaside. This has just been named once again in the top 10 seaside resorts in the country. And we haven’t been here for a while, so we thought why not make the most of this weather and get out and explore. And already I’m like, wow, don’t know where I was going with that. No, I mean like the view I’m looking at right now is is quite nice. It it is absolutely beautiful on the seafront here. It’s always full of color with the flowers and everything. And we can see the white cliffs of the Sussex coast off in the distance. That’s how we’re going to start our day. We are going to do the walk up to the very famous Beachy Head. I think it’s the highest chalk cliff in all of England. Oh, cool. And it’s got like the iconic lighthouse at the bottom. We’re going to hopefully get a glimpse of the seven sisters as well. But we’re doing that first before it gets too hot. Yes. If I remember correctly, there was an ice cream truck at the top. But more importantly, when we come down, we’re going to get some fish and chips. We are going to have fish and chips later. But that is much later. I have bribed him by telling him he can get an ice cream if he makes it to the top of Beach Head again cuz from what we remember, it’s quite steep. Having said that, we have just started our day with some food and drink. We went into a coffee shop called Urban Ground. I think it’s like a local chain. We went into the one on South Street. Had ourselves some poached egg on sourdough, which was really nice because those poached eggs were just perfect. Yes, I know. We started off very healthy. We did. And the coffee was really good as well. Standard Americano for us. Something nice and strong with a bit of punch to get us going in the morning. And now here we are walking along the Prominard in Eastborne on our way to Beachy Head. We can see the White Cliff in front of us, but not the one we’re going to. In shorts and a t-shirt. In shorts. Summer’s here, baby. We’ve just been passed by Doto, the land train that runs all the way from this end of East all the way down to Sovereign Harour. Now, we done that last time we were here. We don’t know if we’re planning on doing it again today, but the reason we done it last time is cuz once we’ve done the beachy headwalk, we were knackered. We were knackered. I do remember it took about 45 minutes from this end all the way down to the harbor. It goes for miles and from what we remember it’s quite reasonable. So, we may jump back on Doto later. Maybe. We’ll see. We really like these old thatched shelters. We don’t know what they would have been. Would they have been like little shops selling stuff? Were they just like changing places or I don’t know. I mean, we’ve counted was that the fourth one so far? I think so. Yeah. I’m curious to know. Comment down below if you I mean, you see lots of shelters and things at the British seaside, but you don’t normally see thatched ones like that. We’ve made it to the foot of the cliffs right in front of us. And we’re going up that steep path to the right hand side. I say steep. That’s nothing compared to what we’re going to face shortly. But it’s all uphill from now. It’s always uphill. It’s never down. Good job. I fed you first, isn’t it? [Music] Oh boy, I’d forgotten just how steep that is. I think we should get some water from that kiosk. I agree. And I also think I should have worn a dark t-shirt cuz you know, sweat, water required, £120 a bottle. Not too shabby. Not too shabby shy. I think we’re going to be pleased we’ve done that though by the time we get halfway up. I think remember last time we didn’t get any water and we was a bit like we really should have. Also, I’ve just realized we’re both wearing pink. We’ve got a habit of doing this. Unintentionally matchy matchy. I just think I just thought sunshine summer pink. Never mind. Anyway, we need to stop stalling and we need to just get on with this. It doesn’t look long. It’s just super steep. Yay. [Music] Nearly there. Are we? No. But we’ve got a long way to go. Yeah. View’s not too shabby already though. Shibly shab. All right. Come on. Off you go. Trying to fall. [Music] Wow, that view back down across the town of Eastborne is pretty incredible. You can even see the nice gold domed pier, but we was just saying we can’t remember what’s on the pier. I really can’t remember. I mean, if we get time, we’ll go down and have a look at it. We’ll have to pay it a visit once we get back down there. Yeah, definitely. There’s got to be food. I’m knackered. I’m knackered. I think we’ve done the worst bit, though. We’ve still got a long way to go, but I think we’ve done the steepest bit. I don’t mind walking the distance. cuz I just don’t want to walk the incline. Luckily, it’s all downhill on the way back. Although, we’ve just seen an American couple going downhill and she’s just said to us it’s harder on the way down. I’m not surprised. [Music] Hey, what? Hey. Oh, they’re worse than mine. But whether you like it or not, we are finishing this walk. You are not bailing on me now. Hey, that was a really bad joke. You can’t just keep using the word hey. Um, nope. Got nothing [Music] else. I don’t know how well this is coming out on camera because they’re in the trees shading themselves from the sun, but there’s some ponies or horses. horse ponies, whatever they are. They’re cute. They’re cute. I don’t know if you can see this. There’s a pheasant right over there. There was two. I don’t know where the other one’s gone. All of a sudden, I feel like I’ve turned into David Atenburgh. In the wilderness, there is a pheasant. Now, if you’re thinking to yourself, “What are you doing? I go to the seaside to relax, not to climb a mountain.” Well, Beachy Head is Is it a mountain? It bloody feels like it. Okay. I don’t think it officially is. No, but it feels like it. But Beachy Head is the top attraction here in this area. It is iconic. People come from all over the world to see it. However, if you don’t want to do the hike, you can drive up here and park, but be warned, it gets very busy during the summer. Alternatively, there’s a hop- on hopoff bus that you can get from Eastborne that takes you on a big circular route and one of the stops is up here. I didn’t tell him that before we started the walk. He never does. He never tells me any of the useful information. Oh, look, if we’d have paid for the hop on hop off bus, we wouldn’t have had the money for your ice cream. Fair. I’m intrigued to see the price of it now. I’m sure it was £4 when we last did this 2 years ago. The ice cream, not the bus. Yeah. Happy now? Are we very creamy as well? Really good. Good. I didn’t go for that. I went for an almond mac. No, a single was £3 and a double was £450. So, I think it’s gone up 50p. But nice view to sit and enjoy your ice cream with. Found a little bench. Shout from the wind. Yep. And I’m facing that way. And it’s worth noting as well, there is other facilities up here. So, we’ve just been and used the Lu’s as well, which are currently free, but it looks like sometimes they charge a pound for them. Yeah, there’s a cafe up here as well. So, if you want a coffee or something more to eat or something, there’s a cafe here where you can sit and come and sit on the little bench. Look at the sea views. Happy days. [Music] Well, we were just having a conversation that we don’t remember walking this far around last time. No. And Josh has just found the photos from the last time we were here. And we definitely didn’t. No, we think it’s further that way. So that means we could, excuse me, we could have taken our photos been halfway back by now and we just walked an extra 20 minutes that we didn’t have to. It’s beautiful though. It’s beautiful, but it’s not the iconic lighthouse we were looking for. It’s making my nose run because there’s a lot of pollen going around. It’s like, come on then. Let’s head back. I’m sure some of you can relate to that. Yeah. Let’s head back up and see if we can find it the other way. Well, last time we were here, we stood over there somewhere and we were trying to do one of those pictures where you get your finger to rest right on top of the lighthouse. Yep. Now, two years later, you just can’t get close enough to even see the full lighthouse. lady that let alone do that picture because the cliffs have eroded so much. The barrier’s been moved back. It’s not going to be that long until you can’t get a view of that at all. Unless you’re on a boat in the sea. It’s a shame, but it’s no joke. It is what it is. I don’t know if maybe where them people are down there, you can kind of get a bit more of a view, but we’ve got to go that way anyway, so we’ll find out. We’ll see. [Music] Well, we did manage to get a glimpse of the iconic red and white lighthouse in the end. There’s no way we’re going to be doing photos with our fingers on the top anymore. No, we we actually managed to get a glimpse from where the World War II memorial benches and everything are, but I think probably now you’re best actually sticking to the lower routes because you can probably get a bit of a better view around the coast to it from some of those lower paths. Note next time we don’t have to walk all the way to the top of the hill. Now that is a show. Only issue is there’s no ice cream van on the lower paths. No. Or no toilets. Unless you want to pee over the cliff. Lovely. Anyway, fish and chips. Fish and chips. That’s all I’m thinking about is fish and chips. Well, we’ve got a little walk back yet, but let’s go and find some. [Music] Real quick, if you are enjoying the video, then do us a favor and make sure you subscribe to the channel. We have got loads of videos already on the channel from right across the UK and further a field. And we’ve got some really big things coming up in 2025 that you are not going to want to miss. Right, fish and chips. [Music] So, we’ve made it to our fish and chip restaurant of choice. This is Pelican Fish and Chips. It’s got really good reviews online, so we’re trusting the Google on this one. Yeah. Hopefully, we’re going to be able to sit inside and eat them properly so we don’t get attacked by seagulls. We’ve seen quite a lot of seagulls, obviously. And hopefully, they’re really good because I think after all that walking, plus the extra walking we’ve done, we deserve this 100%. [Music] Well, that fish and chips was decent. Not the best I’ve had, not the worst. It was okay. It’s definitely better than the one we had last time we came to Eastborne. And we went to one down at Sovereign Harbor and it was absolutely awful. Yeah. But that was actually decent. So, next time we come though, I think we want to try this French beastro called Beastro Pierre on the seafront. We was going to go in there. We was like, “No, we’ve already picked our place. We’ll go there.” But it looks really nice and there’s views out across to the sea. So that would be really cool to do. And we’ve just been and had a look at the Martell Tower that’s now just behind us. Now, we’re familiar with Martell towers. They’re old fortresses, old defense defense systems. But um there’s 74 of them along the coastline. So we’ve seen a lot. This one, however, is called the Wish Tower. So I wanted to go up and see why it was called the Wish Tower. And I still don’t know. No. Did you make a wish? I I didn’t make a wish. I don’t think you meant to, but But I saw they tell like ghost stories in there and do live performances cuz apparently the acoustics and everything are really good. Oh, that would be really cool. It would be cool to see. We can’t see today cuz it’s shut. But we’re going to hope that we can get onto the pier cuz that’s where we’re heading [Music] now. It’s one of the old AA boxes there that they used to stand in if you needed help. What do you mean? You know, like the AA the breakdown people. Did you know that was a thing? Nope. Yeah, there’s an old AA box right there. And then also there’s a tiny little lifeboat museum and shop. So, I think we should have a little nosy little butchers in there. Yeah, let’s do it. [Music] Well, that’s possibly a contender for world’s smallest museum. It was cool though. It was cool. There’s an interesting story at the back from 1966 when the RNLI had to go and rescue the lighthouse keeper from that beachy head lighthouse that we saw earlier when he injured his legs which was quite fascinating. Uh but it is more of a shop. They had some really cool things in there like the little ducks in yellow RNLI wellies and they had the little wooden boat thing I used to collect. Well, I didn’t used to collect them. I used to have them when I was a kid. Used to love them in the bath and try and sink them. [Music] Well, how about that for a fancy looking band stand? It had lights and everything. It did. I don’t think it’s a band stand like you normally think of one. I think it’s a band stand with a difference cuz I noticed they’ve got a Dolly Parton tribute coming up. Oh. Oh, that would have been quite cool to say. And a Spice Girls tribute. [Music] Well, we’re on Eastborne Pier and the first thing we’ve seen is a crazy golf. I would challenge you to a game of crazy golf, but I’d just beat you anyway. So, no, I don’t want to do it. Is that what you’re saying? Not cuz I’ll lose. I just generally don’t want to do it. There’s an amusements as well, like you’d expect. So you can go in and do the old 2P pusher machine things. The oldfashioned uh whatever it is. There is also millions upon millions of seagulls. So I’m glad we didn’t come here and eat our fish and chips. I’m more concerned of getting pooped on there. Josh, you’ve been saying that you feel like you’re not in the UK. Maybe you feel like you’re in Greece. Do like a bit of Greek food. No, what I really want is a nice coffee right now. We’re trying to find somewhere. If there’s not somewhere on the pier, I’m sure there’ll be somewhere where we get off. There is a Victorian tea room down there, but I don’t know the Victorian’s done ice coffee. Sounds really good. Really [Music] good. Okay, I take it all back about this feeling like somewhere overseas. This pier is very British. Very British. The back end of the pier is basically just a massive bar and a massive amusement arcade where you send the kids off to occupy themselves while you sit and get pissed, which is what a lot of people are doing. And then there is a shop selling fudge to thank somebody for looking after your cat, selling rock, all the stuff that you expect with a British seaside. Rock is very British. I remember I used to always do that when we used to go to the seaside or somewhere. I didn’t buy any, but it’s still only 50p. That’s not bad. Not too bad, is it? Still quite cheap. But I’ve got to say this pier feels a little unstable. So yeah, some of it’s wooden and they’re kind of a bit bouncy. Some of it is even concrete slats and they are clonking as you walk on them. It looks like it needs a little bit of work. There’s a lot of things closed at the moment. Now I haven’t got the camera on an angle. Just look how wonky that building on the pier is. Oh my god. They do have gold hippos though. Makes up for it, right? So, there’s quite a lot of artwork under the pier, but this is my favorite. This little crab that says, “Steven would be really happy if you threw your chip wrappers in a bin.” And then I’ve just noticed that there’s a portion of chips down here wrapped in newspaper. And the headline is, “The hypnotic seagull strikes again. Woman loses her ice cream.” That is just about summing up the British seaside perfectly. Yes. That’s why we at our fish and chips indoors. Smart. Now, we’ve just seen outside of the Langam Hotel one of the old beach huts on wheels that like well to do people used to get changed in and then wheeled down to the ocean to go for a dip. We’ve seen one of them somewhere else that used to be used for royalty and we can’t think for the life of us where we’ve seen it. I can picture it in my head. I can picture us going. I feel like it might be Weimoth. Is it Wemouth? Maybe. I really don’t know. It was recent like within the last year and a half. If you know, comment down below and let us know cuz it’s bugging us. Make way for Doto the train. Oh, that was us last time sitting on the train, chilling, taking in the sights. Today, we’ve walked it all. I know. And I’m feeling it. Now, of course, every good seaside resort nowadays has an observation wheel, and Eastborne is no different. I was going to treat you to a ride on that observation wheel, but it’s £7 per person, which I don’t think is too bad. That’s fairly standard these days. Standard for these days, but I’d rather that £7 go towards a copy. That’s not the reason I’m not treating you to a ride on it. The reason I’m not treating you to a ride on it is cuz that thing is creaking. And I know the feeling because I am too. But the new Final Destination movie has just been released and I ain’t feeling it. There is one thing we have to do before we leave Eastborne though. We’re on the beach. Literally just on the beach. But we’ve done it. That’s enough. And yes, I know there’s going to be loads of people that go, “It’s a pebly beach. It should be a sandy beach. Sandy beaches are better.” I disagree. I love a pebbly beach. Hate sand. Put sun cream on you, you burn. and it sticks to your gets stuck in your hand. Sore trying to get it off. It gets into places that you haven’t even been able to get into for years. Pebble Beaches all the way. No, I I don’t mind either, to be fair. Whether it would make your top 10 or not, it’s easy to see why Eastborne is a popular seaside destination. But if you think there are even better seaside towns just waiting to be explored, then let us know in the comments. In the meantime, click the video on screen now to join us as we explore another seaside town off the list, Kent’s up and cominging seaside resort that has everyone talking, Folkston. We’ll see you there.