Our first visit to Eastbourne couldn't have been much shorter. We were on our way from Birling Gap back to Rye and chose to go via the seafront road through Eastbourne. It may have been a very short visit but we were impressed by what we saw and here we are again for a short stay.

There are a lot of very large buildings along the seafront many of which are hotels and most of them painted in light colours such as cream or white and obviously maintained very well giving the whole place a rather grand atmosphere.

A traditional English seaside resort without the normal tastelessness that often goes with it and it has a well kept Victorian pier. Ten out of ten really.

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Looking west along the seafront from near the Wish Tower towards the South Downs with the chalk cliffs begining to build up. The large white building on the right is the five star Grand Hotel - and it looks it! There are a number of garden areas along the seafront of which a small part is shown here.

Following those cliffs further west leads to Beachy Head where they become really quite impressive.

We stayed at the Park View Hotel for the duration of our visit here in September 2009.

All traditional Victorian English seaside resorts have a pier and Eastbourne is no exception and a very nice pier it is too. There is large beach although it's made of pebbles rather than sand.

Work on the pier was started in 1866, finished in 1870, and incorporates a number of facilities for visitors including indoor amusement arcades, tea rooms and a Camera Obscura. It is 1000 feet long and access to the pier is free.

Eastbourne Old Town seems to have few of the old buildings left and these ancient buildings were, apparently, still being demolished as late as the 1970s. The original town was much smaller than the current town which is now mostly Victorian.

This, the Lamb Inn, is one of the remaining ancient buildings. There was a Lamb Inn here in the 12th century but this one probably dates from the 16th century. There is supposed to be a secret passage from the cellar to the church next door but I don't know how true that is.

The western side of Eastbourne abuts the South Downs and it is possible to walk out of the town on to the Downs and thence up to Beachy Head and beyond.

This area does provide some fantastic walks and scenery and for those who don't want, or are unable, to walk there is a bus service in the summer months that goes up to Beachy Head. There is a walk you could do from Eastbourne to Exceat which goes via Beachy Head, the Belle Tout Lighthouse, Birling Gap and the Seven Sisters through really beaufiful scenery.