Something for the weekend

For those of you coming to the celebrations in Brighton, here are some tips on coming and staying...

Getting here
Brighton is well-connected to London by train, with the fastest trains coming via Victoria/Clapham Junction/East Croydon. For info on timetables, click here.

If you're flying in, the easiest airport by far is Gatwick. For Heathrow, the journey is about 2.5 hours by coach or trains. Luton is further, but on a direct train line to Brighton. Avoid Stansted like the plague!

If you're driving, be a little warned...Brighton loves the car, hates the driver! Parking in Brighton is a bitch. But there are unmarked roads on the perimeter of Preston Park that are free to park in (at least as I write this there are) and BHASVIC has its own car park so the evening is all taken care of. Here is a site for details on how to get to Brighton.
Staying here
As we are getting hitched on Friday some of you might want to stay over in Brighton and make a weekend of it. In fact, it can be hard not to make a weekend of it, as the better hotels insist on two-night bookings on the weekend. We can give tips and advice on places (leave a comment or send an e-mail), but here are some links to accommodation ideas, going from the exclusive to the economical:

Here are ten rather nice/boutique hotels. (Be prepared to be asked to stay two nights.)

Here are links to non-boutique, big hotels, including the Old Ship and the Queen's Hotel, both on the seafront. (Probably two nights again.)

Here are some bed-and-breakfasts.

Here is a link to cheap but cheerful backpacking-hostel-style places (the North Laine Grapevine is just by our old flat and always seemed nice).

In terms of where you'd like to be, all of the festivities are in postcode BN1. Ones that have a 1, 2 or 3 after BN1 (after the space that is--i.e. BN1 1xx, not BN11 xxx!) are going to be closest to us, the centre of town and the sea. Ones that start with BN2 but have low numbers after the '2' will probably be in Kemptown, which is B&B central. That's not too far from us, and by the sea.

It has not been possible for us to block book in a hotel, so we cannot guarantee any availability of any of these places. So, if you want to let others know which places are safe or bad bets, please leave a message with info in the comments. And if you need any help or suggestions, please get in touch.

Being here
There is LOTS to do in and around Brighton, so it's a bit beyond us to put it all in here. So instead we'll send you to this tourism site. The one thing not to miss, if you haven't seen it before, is the Royal Pavilion.

Near to Brighton are:

London - you've probably heard of it. 1 hour north by train

Arundel - has a castle (home of the Duke of Norfolk, the highest ranking Catholic in the UK) and a Catholic cathedral. 1 hour west by train

Elsewhere in Sussex, you have Lewes - the county town and home of a Norman castle and Anne of Cleves' house (20 minutes east by train) and Hastings - home of 1066 and all that (1 hour east by train).

Do let us know if we haven't answered any questions you have about coming here!