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

Park View, owned and run by Alex and Helen, is one of those tall (4 floors), rather grand Victorian town houses in Wilmington Gardens which is set back from and accessed from Carlisle Road near the junction with Compton Road. The hotel has 13 rooms, all en-suite, over the three upper floors (there is a lift) and there is parking space for guests directly outside. It is in a quiet location and within a few minutes walk of the seafront. A short way along Carlisle Road, on the other side of Compton Road, going towards the seafront are a number of places to eat of which we tried only two; a Thai restaurant, the 'Siam Orchid', which was good and Favo'Loso which was very cheap but the food was mediocre at best.

As we booked at the last minute we had the only room available - a family room. This room had a dividing wall with a door-sized archway through it separating the childrens section and the parents section. The childrens section was large enough for two bunk beds stacked one on top of the other with space to get along the side of the bunks and our section was adequate without being cramped. There was a dressing table, a chest of drawers, a wardrobe, two bedside tables incorporated into the headboard of the bed, a television and tea making facilities. The room was well decorated, clean and bright, the bed was comfortable and we couldn't fault the housekeeping. The bathroom was a reasonable size, with natural light from a good sized window and there was a bath with shower over. Some of the other bedrooms are really quite large and do look very nice.

Downstairs there is a very comfortable lounge with a very large television and the dining room. Our only quibble was with the stairwell. There were no windows in the stairwell at all and artificial lighting is the only option but the light switches are timed. Once switched on the light stays on long enough to easily get from one floor to the next but not long enough to go two floors so, on reaching the next floor, the light switch has to be pressed again to go up the next flight otherwise, as we dicovered, you will be plunged into total darkness between floors. We found that irritating after a while and seems to be penny pinching. The phrase that springs to mind is "Why spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar".

There is a good choice for breakfast and the cooked breakfast is very good. They will also provide evening meals on request but the menu has to be arranged well in advance so that the appropriate ingredients can be obtained.

Alex and Helen were two very nice hosts and we would happily go back again and have no hesitation in recommending the Park View Hotel.

They also have their own web site