Two Nights in Brighton

Well situated within walking distance of all the major tourist spots, Quality Hotel was our hotel for 1 night.

Quality Hotel belongs to the chain of Choice Hotels, and we were once again able to get an incredible Internet discount of GBP21 for a double en-suite room that would normally cost more than GBP100. We would not have paid GBP100 for this room, but at GBP21, it was a steal.

The room had instant coffee and tea-making facilities, a small coloured television, and a bathtub in the en-suite bathroom. The room was reasonably clean--there were a few coffee stains on the floor, and the wallpaper looked as if it had seen better days, but our linens were clean and the furniture was comfortable.

The hotel was situated very near the West Pier, which we liked, as it was in a quieter part of the tourist hub, away from the noise of the bars and the restaurants.

To check for Internet discounts, check out the website of the Choice Hotels group at http://www.choicehotels.com.

Perhaps it was because it was a weekend in the summer, but Brighton's more affordable hotel rooms were fully booked the first night that we were there! We had been checking the Internet for a week before our trip to Brighton, and finally my cousin booked rooms at Chatsworth Hotel in Worthing, a 20- to 30-minute drive along the coast from Brighton.

Chatsworth Hotel was a typical budget business hotel (3-star); in fact our room looked almost identical to the Quality Hotels we had stayed in elsewhere. The room was clean with the requisite teapot and colour television. We paid the discounted Internet price of GBP50 for an ensuite double room we stayed in (rack rate was GBP99), inclusive of an full English breakfast.

My husband and I were happy with our room on the 2nd (3rd, for American English speakers) floor; my cousins had a few complaints about being right by the bus stop which they could hear from their 1st floor (2nd in American) window.

The breakfast was standard 3-star hotel fare, just what we needed to get us going the following morning.

Worthing itself looks like a sleepy little town along the coast. We weren't sure but we guessed that the residents here were mostly retirees. There was a row of shops five minutes away from the hotel, but since we were there on a Sunday evening, most of the shops were closed (a common practice in England, we learned, and in this sense, so unlike what we were used to back home, where shops are open longer on weekends!).

I'm rating this with a "3" simply because I wouldn't recommend this hotel if your main destination is Brighton; it's just too far. But if you find that you need a place to stay in Worthing, then by all means, stay here!

Because Brighton is a tourist spot, restaurants are quite expensive. So on our limited budgets, we were happy to find Bombay Mix, a yummy, affordable Indian restaurant on St. James Street (near where the Brighton Gay Pride parade is held every year).

Vegetarian main courses are 3 to 5 GBP, chicken and lamb curses are 4 to 5 GBP, Biriani dishes and the chef's specials are 6 to 7 GBP. A lunch buffet is served from 12 to 5 everyday: GBP3.50 for the vegetarian buffet, GBP6.95 for the meat and veg buffet. Dinner buffet is from 5 pm until 12, GBP4.95 for vegetarians, GBP8.95 for meat-eaters. Bombay Mix also delivers. Telephone number 01273 622133.

We were quite satisfied with our lamb curry and chicken samosa orders.

After leaving our luggage at the hotel's luggage storage, we walked around Brighton some more and managed to check our mail at an Internet cafe, buy some lunch at the nearby Tesco supermarket (Jubilee Street), and then eat our lunch sitting on the grass in the park. While lazing in the park, we made friends with a seagull, and--to our joy--discovered an open WiFi connection.

After heading back to the hotel to check in, we wandered around Brighton some more, this time with our laptop! We spent a few hours in the park, firing off some email updates to friends and family.

We later learned that Brighton also has another open WiFi hotspot, on the beach, in between the two two piers.

Our cousins picked us up from my uncle's house for the drive down to Brighton. We arrived in Brighton mid-afternoon, and walked along the coast while the cousins went shopping. The scene in Brighton reminded us of Boracay Island back home, with the laid-back cafés, street musicians, and alfresco dining.

The beach, however, was completely different from the kind of beach we were used to back home. The wind that blew onshore made it quite chilly (unlike the sun-warmed beaches we knew), and instead of sand, the beach was covered with white, brown, and gray pebbles--the kind one would use to landscape an indoor garden in the Philippines!

We met our cousins again at the tourist area, then drove to our hotel, about 30 minutes away, at a little town called Worthing, also along the coast. We checked in, rested a little, and then all piled in my cousin-in-law's Vanagon for dinner back at Brighton.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel for a comfortable sleep.

The next morning, we all ate breakfast at the hotel and then walked around Worthing a bit before going our separate ways. My cousins dropped us off back at Brighton, where we were planning to stay an additional night.