Arguably the most famous landmark in Brighton, the Royal Pavilion was the playhouse of George IV. He helped make Brighton the popular seaside resort it is today.
The entrance fee is around 7 pounds, though there are discounts for students. Well worth the money is the hand-held audio tour guide. It gives interesting history about the building.
Built in a combination of quasi-Indian and Chinese style architecture, the Pavilion has onion domes and spires outside and dozens of golden dragons inside the building. The most impressive room is the dining room that seats over 100 and features a massive chandelier.
3/4 of the way through the tour is the Queen Adelaide tearooms, where cakes, food, and drinks are on sale for slightly but not ridiculously high prices, and in good weather you can sit and eat on the balcony overlooking the Pavilion Gardens.
The gardens are planted with the same types of plants that would have been there during the time of the Prince Regent. Palm trees and flowering plants abound and the gardens are a popular place for tourists and locals alike to nap, eat, and listen to the street musicians.
Allow a few hours to wander around to feel like you've gotten your money's worth.

Since the prince regent (later King George IV) first visited Brighton in 1783, his fantastic seaside palace, the Royal Pavilion, with its Indian domes and minarets and its Chinese style interior, has become a landmark not to be missed (it's impossible to miss!). And, thanks to his influence, some of the finest examples of Regency architecture in England can be seen in Brighton.

For a second, I felt like was in Morocco, but I was just in Brighton! With little time to go inside, I was able to just take pictures of the outside, but the tour guide was very informative and I enjoyed looking at it all the same.

It's hard to miss the Royal Pavilion. Basically, if you are walking towards the Channel to the pier, you will pass it!

The Royal Pavilion was commissioned by George IV when he was Prince of Wales, in 1815. George regularly frequented Brighton, England’s first seaside resort, and as the years progressed, wanted a more fitting place for a royal "to party in." So, in 1815, John Nash was employed to totally revamp the royal residence into a Royal Palace in the style of the Taj Mahal. It was completed 7years later and has remained unaltered throughout its life, ceasing to be a royal property when it was sold by Queen Victoria to Brighton.

Before you enter the lavishly designed buildings, make sure that you enjoy a saunter around the gardens. These have had extensive work done to them over recent years, giving careful attention to Nash’s original design – they are colourful and give tantalising glimpses of the pavilion as you progress, and the view is impaired by the mature plants.

Inside, there are some great rooms to view. The banqueting room, with a massive crystal chandelier shimmering in the light and supported by a fire-eating dragon, is a fantastically "busy" room. The long gallery is more than a "link corridor" and was originally well used as a "play area" for royal visitors. It, too, is lavishly decorated, and we particularly liked the mounted Chinese figures that guard the entrance and the painted glass panels that provide light for this room. Again, a superb chandelier has pride of place.

The music room is another extraordinary room despite two devastating acts of God – in the 1970s, a fire severely damaged the room and its contents, and after a sensitive restoration, all was well. That is, until a hurricane dislodged a stone roof decoration in the late 1980s. Now the room is as described in Nash’s original design. It’s stunning, with superb chandeliers, the brightest of colours, and a hand-knotted reproduction Axminster. Just imagine the king’s own musicians serenading him with the likes of Handel or Bach.

Less ornate but still incredibly impressive is the huge kitchen. The walls are lined with wooden shelving, a mighty "range," and an enormous spit roaster. The high ceiling is support by cast-iron columns culminating in metal palm leaves at the ceiling, and above this is a further space with windows, giving the kitchen a real airy feeling

And, finally, give yourself plenty of time to admire the splendour of the royal bedrooms. The aptly named Yellow Bows Rooms are garrulously decorated in bright daffodil yellow, but they have been faithfully restored using fragments of the original wallpaper to recreate the original setting. The mahogany four-poster in Queen Victoria’s bedroom has been reproduced from the description in the final inventory taken just after Victoria left Brighton. This room has the stateliness and sophistication that you’d expect of Queen Victoria.

And, of course, as you’re leaving the building, you will be able to investigate the pavilion shops – there you might find the odd souvenir or two!

What is THAT doing here? Called the most extraordinary palace in Europe, it is an oriental confection. Built for King George IV when he was the Prince of Wales and expanded through the period of the Regency and into his monarchy, the house evolved into its present shape by 1824. It is a palace dedicated to the excesses of the Regency age. Its style is East Indian . . . its interiors are extraordinarily lavish reaching their epitome in the Music Room. It is hard to believe today, that the room was attacked by an arsonist in 1975 causing extensive damage and closing the site for 11 years.

This is a self-guiding tour that covers approximately half of the rooms on each of the two floors open to the public. You will see everything worth seeing, the King's apartments, the kitchen, the banqueting room, Queen Victoria's apartments, etc. In the summer, if you need a break, there is a tearoom on the second floor.

For a thorough explanation of each room, follow a bus tour, but the pamphlet provided will do for many people. You will need about an hour. Like to know more before you go? Try royalpavilion.org.uk.

The Royal Pavilion, King George IV's former seaside residence is a stunning piece of architecture with onion domes and minarets, that harken references to the Taj Majal. Surrounded as well by lovely gardens, the former royal residence is more like a park.

It took him and architect John Nash 30 years and £500,000 to complete, starting in 1783. The residence is close to other attractions in Brighton, such as the Laines shopping area, so it's hard to miss. In fact, the train station is right nearby. The day I visited, the grounds were filled with locals and tourists sunning themselves amongs the beds of roses and shade trees. A few fine outdoor restaurants are nearby. Tours of the residence are available, and they are handicapped accessible, with tours available in sign language as well as recorded tours for the blind.

Admission is £4.90, under 16 £3.00; family rates and guided tours available. Open daily, except Christmas and Boxing Day (Dec. 25 and 26). The telephone number is +44 (0)1273 290900