After our few days in London at the NFL game we made our way down to Brighton for the last leg of babymoon!

Hotel

Malmaison Brighton

It took me ages to book the hotel as I was checking out lots of sites and considering booking an AirB&B but eventually based on reviews, I booked this hotel. When we arrived in Brighton station we got into a taxi to the hotel, and the taxi kept driving further and further from the city centre. Eventually we got to the cliffs out by Brighton Harbour and saw our hotel down below – neither of us were very happy and even more so when we got dropped to the entrance of what appeared to be an exceptionally tacky nightclub, but unfortunately was our hotel. We went to check in and the couple next to us, were equally as pissed off as we were! The room was pretty small and the hotel was located between a giant ASDA and a multi-storey car park. I don’t have anything good to say about the hotel apart from the fact there is a bus running every 7 minutes into the centre of Brighton.

Restaurants

The Plotting Parlour

We found this tiny little place on our first night and we were the only people there. I felt really cool in a cocktail bar with a pot of tea 😦 but Sean got some pretty cool cocktails, and the Flight of the Buffalo which was Buffalo Trace’s new make and two styles of cocktails made from it.

The Breakfast Club

We walked into Brighton the following morning and decided to check out the breakfast club for some well, breakfast. This little place is unbelievable (we ended up going back the following morning too!) – the first morning I got the pancakes below, and were the best pancakes I’ve ever had. The second morning I went for a healthier option of a full English breakfast (obviously was eating clean while pregnant!)

Il Bistro

As our last meal out on our last trip away before baby arrived, I booked into Il Bistro as I saw good reviews for the steak. I ordered it medium well but it came out totally pink – I asked for it to be cooked a tiny bit more as I was pregnant and a bit cautious, it came back to me almost burnt to a crisp. From what I could tell, the steaks were great and I would love to go back and not have a burnt steak.

L’Atelier Du Vin

Before we were due to head to the airport we went for a walk around the city and ended up in this little French wine bar. Sean got a couple of cocktails which looked really good – I asked for a non alcoholic cocktail but pretty sure he still added in some booze. We were the only people in the place (the bartender was outside smoking when we arrived and didn’t realise for about 15 minutes that he had customers) . I loved this little place and would certainly return for lots of wine, cocktails and a tasty charcuterie board.

Things To Do

Brighton Pier

Probably the most iconic part of Brighton is the pier, and the walk out to the end is quite nice (even in the cold!). We were walking through the amusements and can see how it would be exceptionally busy during the summer, but on a cold day in October it was quite nice and peaceful!

Brighton Harbour Walk

We decided to walk (twice) from our hotel out in the middle of nowhere into the city centre which was from the harbour along the seafront, right down to the pier. It was quite a refreshing walk of about 45 minutes. Apparently if you start at our hotel and walk in the opposite direction, there is a pathway at the base of the cliffs out to a tiny English village.

Brighton Pavillion

We had a couple of hours to kill before going to the train station on our last day and Sean wanted to visit the Brighton Pavillion – I wasn’t too keen (pretty much just wanted to leave Brighton at that stage!) but we went anyway. I was delighted we did – it looks like a very random building from the outside, but the inside of it is unbelievable. One of the first rooms we visited was the grand dining hall, and the decor was out of this world! I would highly recommend a visit, and spending 2-3 hours here, we didn’t have that much time but it was still great to see!

North Laines

On our only full day in Brighton we took a stroll through the North Laines which was actually quite nice, there was some great art work along the buildings and the streets were very cute with some really interesting shops and really nice little cafe’s to stop off in!

The Laines

We visited the Laines after our first trip to The Breakfast Club, the streets are very cute, narrow and windy but there is very little there but jewellery shops – had we not gotten married last year earlier it would have come in really handy!