The SheerLuxe Guide To Sussex

Hastings & St Leonard’s

Both Hastings and neighbouring town St Leonards-on-Sea are filled with art-deco architecture and an array of caves and attractions that belie the region’s heritage as a smuggler’s paradise. East along the shingle seafront of Stade beach you’ll find Hastings Fishermen’s Museum and Shipwreck Museum – both a hit with children – while Hastings Contemporary focuses on, you guessed it, contemporary art. We recommend heading to Maggie’s for fish and chips before roaming the town’s pretty cobbled streets and vintage shops. AG Hendy & Co is a must for on-trend industrial interiors finds, while Robert’s Rummage is best for second-hand gems. Both The Crown and The Seadog serve great Sunday lunches in modern surroundings. 

Hastings is great – but the locals will tell you St Leonard’s is where all the cool stuff is happening. Just down from the train station, you’ll find a raft of independent shops, restaurants and bars – some of my favourites include The Royal for pints and roasts, Cactus Hound for cocktails and late nights, Farmyard for small plates and Heist Market for rotating restaurant concepts. Along the seafront, heading towards Hastings, Goat Ledge is a fun spot for coffee, Starsky & Hatch serves crumpets topped with roe for the ultimate breakfast by the sea, while Selkie Seafood Bar will kick your afternoon off in style with oysters and bloody marys.

Lewes

Just eight miles inland from Brighton, Lewes offers much of its neighbour’s quirky charm, but has an historical edge over the seaside town. Lined with cobbled streets and framed by Lewes Castle, the town is perhaps best known for its spectacular Bonfire Night celebrations, where rival societies parade through the streets with lit torches and effigies. Away from that one night a year, Lewes is a much more genteel location, with plenty of antiques shops (I love the Lewes Flea Market), cafes and proper old-school boozers to keep visitors occupied. The best of the latter includes the Snowdrop Inn, John Harvey Tavern, The Lewes Arms and The Rights of Man, while Abyss offers a more modern taproom experience, where Italo disco DJs spin vinyl beneath Lewes’ soaring chalk cliffs. The original Bill’s is still located in Lewes, but I prefer to head to Caccia & Tails for modern Italian dishes, Dill for Bib Gourmand-winning sharing plates that could include anything from glazed ox tongue crumpet to cured, pickled and smoked fish boards, and No 34 for nicely presented breakfasts and candlelit dinners. Make sure to book in for a dip at Pell’s Pool, a lovely lido where Nomadic Sauna pops up Thursdays to Saturdays.

Brighton

One of the UK’s most popular city breaks come summer, Brighton has everything: art, music, great places to eat and shop and – most importantly – the sea. Spots that make the most of the latter include the new Reading Rooms café near the marina (which is a nice stroll along the newly installed beach boardwalk, which runs parallel to the Volks miniature railway); the Beach Box Spa sauna, which has three saunas with windows looking down to the sea; the Bison Beach Bar and Fika, which serve excellent local beers and Swedish sandos respectively; Brighton Beach House, a Soho House outpost with a David Shrigley swimming pool; and Pearly Cow, a recently opened restaurant with a nice new terrace that looks towards the West Pier.

On the food front, current favourites include The Flint House (small plates and Sussex wines), Plateau (informal sharing dishes and a fabulous wine list), The Coal Shed (next-level steaks and cocktails), Burnt Orange (great for groups and late dinners) and O’Shio (a great combo of Korea meets Japan). For shopping, make a beeline for the massive flea market Snoopers Paradise, indie fashion and homeware shop Tidy Street Store, the best record shop in the UK Resident Records, gorgeous homeware/lifestyle shop and café Workshop, newcomer & Halt and vintage furniture emporium Era. The best coffee can be found at Milkbar, Pelicano, The Flour Pot and Bond Street Coffee.

West Sussex 

Petworth

Best known for its grandiose National Trust property Petworth House, this West Sussex gem is close to the border of Surrey, so it’s easy to get to from the capital. As well as the house itself – which has a magnificent collection of Turners, Van Dykes and Blakes, a huge deer park and a decent second-hand bookshop – you’ll find a small town full of antiques shops (the most prestigious of which is Augustus Brandt, although I also love a rummage through the more affordable Petworth Antiques Market), small delis such as the excellent Hungry Guest and quaint tearooms. For an arty hit, check out Newlands House Gallery; for book browsing pop into Readers on the market square; and for a spot of homeware shopping, make sure to pay Tallulah Fox a visit. Finally, walk across the deer park and you’ll find The Horse Guards Inn in the village of Tillington, an excellent gastropub with one of the nicest suntrap beer gardens I’ve come across.

Chichester

Known for hosting the Festival of Speed and Goodwood Revival events at Goodwood Estate each year., new for summer 2025 is the Goodwood Art Foundation, a contemporary art museum within 70 acres of landscapes. Chichester is also home to a pretty harbour, where visitors can watch the boats sail past, and is just a short drive to West Wittering beach, a designated Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Here, families can take the Windmill Trail, a relaxed walk that leads to the picturesque Halnaker Windmill, or visit Medmerry Nature Reserve for some wildlife spotting. If food’s your thing, nearby Littlehampton and the sculptural Thomas Heatherwick-designed East Beach Café is more than worth a detour, while historic Bailiffscourt Hotel just off pretty Climping beach has a great spa and lovely walled garden where guests can have afternoon tea or early evening drinks.

What To See & Do

Art & Museums

Much of the South Downs is associated with the Bloomsbury Group, the collective of unconventional 20th-century artists, writers and thinkers. Beautifully painted Charleston in Firle is the former home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, and is now a much-Instagrammed museum and art gallery with an excellent café and annual arts festival, which just this year brought together Nigel Slater, Grayson Perry and Deborah Levy. Monk’s House and its lovely gardens in Rodmell was the final home of Virginia and Leonard Woolf and is now looked after by the National Trust. Elsewhere, Farleys House & Gallery is the former abode of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose, and these days celebrates Surrealist art and sculptures. Between Charleston and Alfriston, you’ll find Berwick Church, which is well worth a stop in. The striking place of worship is covered in paintings by the Bloomsbury Group during WWII, and today the colourful works by Vanessa and Quentin Bell and Duncan Grant painted around the pulpit, altar and naves continue to marvel.

Along the coast, Towner Eastbourne is an ever-growing collection of 5,000 works of modern British and international contemporary art, with a focus on landscape, women artists and moving image. Easily spotted thanks to its multicoloured striped design courtesy of Lothar Götz, the recent Turner Prize host is home to an impressive amount of works by artists such as Eric Ravilious – who painted so many of his most loved works in Sussex – plus Duncan Grant, Sandra Blow, Alfred Wallis and Tacita Dean. Its current Sussex Modernism exhibition is a must see.

On a smaller scale, the Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft is found in the small village of Ditchling. In a striking building that blends the origins of a Victorian school with a modern extension, the museum showcases the work of artists and craftspeople associated with the village, particularly those linked to the Arts & Crafts movement. There’s an excellent permanent collection focused on typography, plus two new exhibitions a year and a genuinely wonderful gift shop.

If you’re looking to stretch your legs, Wakehurst house and botanical gardens is the sister site to Kew Gardens. Home to the Millennium Seed Bank and over 500 acres of the world’s plants, this is a great place to visit with families: in Woodlands of the World, visitors can walk beneath the sweet gum trees of North America or search for the Wollemi pine and there’s the Tree Trunk Trek for those who like adventures. Away from children’s activities, there’s a 150-acre nature reserve, the Elizabethan Mansion – which houses an impressive collection of paintings – and a decent cafe and restaurant. Located in Ardingly, this is an ideal place to head for lunch and a walk after a morning at the famous antiques fair.

Vineyards

Forget Champagne. Sussex is rightly famed for its English sparkling wines – and these days most vineyards offer tastings and tours. Nyetimber near Pulborough is probably the best known, although the team currently only hosts the occasional open day. For a full experience, Rathfinny Estate, Ridgeview and Tillingham combine excellent wines with great overnight experiences. I also really rate smaller producers such as Charles Palmer in Winchelsea, Wiston Estate near Pulborough, Albourne Estate and Artelium in the South Downs and Tinwood near Chichester.

The Gallivant, Rye

This coastal adults-only escape is tucked behind steep sand dunes and surrounded by English vineyards. It makes the most of its location with Hamptons-style accommodation and some great wellness activities on the beach. As part of the hotel’s Drinks in the Dunes package, guests can stroll through the undulating sand dunes that fringe the shoreline and find the perfect spot to settle for sunset hot toddies or margaritas, pre-made by the bar team. The Gallivant offers e-bike adventures so that guests can discover the rugged beauty of nearby Dungeness (which is technically in Kent – but well worth crossing the border to see the late artist, activist and film director Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage, a black timber cottage where he managed to grow a garden among the shingles. The Met Office calls the shingle beach that surrounds it ‘Britain’s only desert’). 

Visit THEGALLIVANT.CO.UK

The Star, Alfriston

From the team behind Hotel Endsleigh in Devon and striking Hotel Tresanton in Cornwall, glossily refurbished pub-with-rooms The Star is set in a Grade II-listed 16th-century building in the medieval Sussex village. The property was overhauled a few years ago with 30 contemporary bedrooms and bathrooms – all complete with contemporary art and thoughtful details – but its new Forte Suite is the star of the show. Personally designed by owner Olga Polizzi and covered in her favourite wallpaper, the suite has a lovely bathroom, huge bed and separate living area, complete with a statement bookcase, help-yourself decanters of local gin and a deep sofa you won’t want to get up from. Back in the public spaces, a lunch in the courtyard is a must in the summer, while two huge fireplaces in the bar are the spots to bag as autumn creeps up. A really lovely restaurant, wall of wellington boots and a guests-only library rounds off a perfect overnighter – and its collection of smartly designed walking maps are an extra touch that make a difference to anyone wanting to make the most of the South Downs (I suggest the walk to see neolithic chalk giant, The Long Man of Wilmington).

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The Pig In South Downs, Arundel

Close to the West Sussex coast, The Pig in South Downs is a 20-minute drive from Petworth. The group acquired Grade II-listed Madehurst Lodge back in 2018 and transformed it into a destination hotel with the kitchens, gardens and restaurant at its heart. As with all Pig properties, rooms are cosy and characterful (many with statement baths), most of the food is grown in the gardens, and there are plenty of nooks around the hotel where you can settle in with a book or glass of wine. 

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The Alfriston, Alfriston

The Signet Collection – the group behind ever-popular The Mitre in Hampton and The Retreat at Elcot – opened its fourth hotel this March. In pretty Alfriston, the hotel has 38 individually designed bedrooms, complete with playful colours, upcycled antiques and modern bathrooms. Guests can dine at the 70-seat 1554 Brasserie or enjoy casual dining in the bar and Orangery. There’s also a show-stopping outdoor pool, as well as a spa with a steam room, sauna and treatment rooms.

Visit THEALFRISTON.COM

No 124 By GuestHouse, Brighton

GuestHouse’s boutique hotels in Margate and Bath are loved for their chic interiors, friendly staff and thoughtful extras. Late last year, the group opened its flagship on Brighton’s seafront. Spread across two former Regency-style townhouses, the 32-room hotel has those all-important sea views and the brand’s signature interiors – think neutral palettes, plush furniture and vintage decorative accessories. Guests can enjoy the outdoor terrace bar, dine at Pearly Cow restaurant, and unwind with wellness offerings. True to the GuestHouse ethos, the hotel is designed to feel like a home from home, with record players in every room, a help-yourself pantry and luggage collection from the train station on arrival, so you can get stuck into the Laines from the off.

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South Lodge, Horsham

South Lodge hotel in West Sussex has long been a Sussex favourite but recently upped the ante by opening a collection of eight lakeside lodges on its 93-acre estate. Each one overlooks the lake and has been designed with sustainability in mind, with upcycled, locally sourced or natural materials. The luxe lodges have open-plan living areas, two bedrooms and a private terrace where you can enjoy breakfast or evening drinks. Guests will also have access to the impressive spa at South Lodge, home to three pools, a botanical sauna, a marble-lined salt and steam room, and the UK’s first heated natural swim pond. During a stay, you can also enjoy wild swimming, nature trails and breakfast hampers filled with local produce.

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Wiston Estate, Pulborough

On the Wiston Estate’s North Farm winery site, excellent restaurant Chalk draws its name from the soft white limestone the vineyard sits on, and which gives its award-winning wines their distinctive, terroir-driven profile. Considered yet approachable, the Chalk menu celebrates the nature, heritage and community of the estate, using ingredients from the estate’s allotment-styled walled garden and neighbouring artisan suppliers. For the ultimate vineyard overnighter following dinner, check out The Pump House. The renovated cottage has lovely views up to Chanctonbury Ring (another walk well worth bookmarking) and luxury interiors for a comfortable escape. The cottage sleeps up to four guests and two dogs, for three, four or seven nights. 

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Tillingham, Sussex Weald

A farm dating back to the 13th century, Tillingham is a biodynamic vineyard, surrounded by 70 acres of rolling hills and woodlands. Guests can head on a tour of the winery before heading to the restaurant where the kitchen uses the best local and seasonal produce to create five-course tasting menus. Vegetables are sourced from the on-site walled garden, meat is reared on Tillingham pastures, and fish arrives daily from Rye harbour. Guests can choose to stay overnight in one of 11 smartly pared-back rooms in what used to be a hop barn. For breakfast, you’ll get soft-yolk boiled eggs with soldiers, local apple juice and granola with raw yoghurt and fresh fruit.

Visit TILLINGHAM.COM

Knepp, West Sussex

If you want to go totally off-grid, the Knepp Castle estate in West Sussex has two treehouses – Peregrine and Tawny Owl – that stand on mature oaks in a secluded corner of ancient woodland. The 3,500-acre estate is home to Knepp Wildland, a pioneering rewilding project that exemplifies wild nature at its very best and is heaving with insects, birdsong, butterflies, wildflower meadows and free-roaming Tamworth pigs, as well as endangered nightingales and turtle doves. The lovely treehouses have comfortable handcrafted king-size beds, lighting provided by battery-powered hurricane lamps and candle lanterns, and a fire pit. Opt for Peregrine and you can also enjoy the open-air Swedish bathtub on a separate platform which is reached via a wooden walkway. You can book into a variety of guided safaris which will take you into the heart of the wildland project, either on foot or in an open-sided vehicle.

Visit KNEPP.CO.UK

One of the beauties of Sussex is that it’s well connected. If you’re travelling from London by train, Brighton is an hour away from Victoria, as is Lewes; St Leonard’s is 90 minutes from Cannon Street; Petworth is 90 minutes from Victoria; while Rye is just over an hour from King’s Cross.

However, to get there and around many of the vineyards and galleries, a car makes things easy – unless you’re happy to incorporate a walk into your day out (Lewes to Firle via Charleston is one of my favourites). For this feature, Lexus kindly lent me one of its new Lexus LBXs to test drive between Brighton and the harder-to-reach villages like Ditchling and Alfriston. I can confirm the car was just as agile going down dirt tracks at Chanctonbury Ring as it was nipping down the A-roads that link the major towns. 

For more on this good-looking, easy-to-drive SUV, visit LEXUS.CO.UK