We’d been looking into other ways we could travel recently and I’d come across a Conde Nast article with 20 destinations to visit via train within 2 hours from London and there were a few places we hadn’t visited so we thought we’d check out the train times and give it a try!
We got the train direct from Cambridge to Brighton – 2hrs20mins – dead easy. Left around 8.30am and got home around 8pm. £48 return for the both of us. Faye’s still eligible for children’s tickets on the trains.
Brighton is so easily accessible via the train, the station is so centrally located and it’s far easier than trying to find somewhere to park which can be tricky and expensive. As a solo parent, it was also much more relaxing to hop on the train rather than the 4.5 hours of driving. You can walk from the train down to the beach in under 15 minutes.
We hopped off the train and headed about 8 minutes behind the station to the Open Market, a small undercover market with food, candle, record and clothing stalls. We had some tasty homemade sausage rolls from The Flying Saucer.
Top on Tripadvisor for kids was the Brighton Toy and Model Museum so we headed there after lunch and spent an hour browsing around – a great spot for any age we would say, with interactive trains and looking at how toys such as Lego, Meccano and Hornby has evolved over time.
Next on our whistle-stop tour of Brighton was a stroll down ‘The Lanes‘ which is mainly jewellery shops but it is a cute place to wander around nonetheless. We also stopped in the gardens of the Royal Pavillion which is super tranquil if you need a breather from the busy hustle and bustle.
We ended the day down at the beach for a stroll – obviously, Faye was enticed by the flashing lights of the Brighton Pier so we got sucked into the arcade for an hour! We finished with dinner at Al Duomo on the way back from the beach, just off the Pavillion Gardens for an Italian feast before getting a train and snoozing all the way home!
A couple of other places I would like to have gone were the Upside Down House slightly further up the beach and also the Volk’s Electric Railway which runs along the seafront… next time!!!
OUR TRAVEL DIARY 