White Cliffs and All Mod Cons

We’ve visited the hopping small city of Brighton more times than I can count.

Over the years, day trips from London (just an hour south by train) morphed into weekend-long stays after we learned about a great Mod music weekend event that we’ve attended several years in a row.

While I’ve loved these longer forays into the area, filled with fab 60s music and fashion -- and let’s not forget the scooters – I can’t help feeling a pang of longing when we leave for our flight home from Heathrow. Yes, I’m always heartbroken to leave the UK, but this pang is more about missing a chance to explore some of the nature along Britain’s south coast.

Mod scooters along Madeira Drive, Brighton

Thankfully, our last visit in late August finally gave me the outdoor time I’ve longed for!

We technically had two extra days in Brighton, but sketchy weather was expected for our final day so we had to make the most of our one day which had glorious weather in the forecast.

We’ve stayed at the same Holiday Inn along Brighton’s seafront for years and happily know a few of the staff at this point. In the hotel’s restaurant is lovely Cliff, who has provided tips on things in town to see and do – and now with a bit more time for nature, he was quick to suggest a number of walks and historic areas.

A hard decision, but we whittled down the options to Seven Sisters, a set of white chalk cliffs easily reached by public bus from Brighton’s high street.

Seven Sisters sits within the 402,000-acre South Downs National Park which hugs the south coast for 87 miles from roughly Southampton eastwards to Eastbourne. Oddly enough we’ve visited the more westerly area of the park on visits to Chichester but with so many acres to explore, we barely scratched its surface.

The 12X bus was an easy ride (though a little long thanks to Monday bank holiday traffic), transporting us from Brighton’s busy pier to tranquil countryside in a matter of minutes. Travel tip: sit on the top deck in the back of the bus to enjoy almost panoramic views of the English Channel on the right and rolling farmland and villages to the left.

Our bus stopped in front of the Visitor’s Center that featured restrooms (thankfully, as our journey was over an hour), a shop/information area, a café, and a grab-and-go market. I also learned that there are cottages and cabins available to rent for overnight stays. Something to think about for a future visit…

The River Cuckmere, South Downs National Park

Rather than the café, we opted to walk a short distance for a pub lunch with a great many of our fellow visitors (the entire South Downs park reported 18 million visitors in 2024). The Cuckmere Inn, located along the banks of the river by the same name, offered a beautiful location and tasty lunch before we began our walk, and a place for Mitch’s post-lunch, pre-walk cigar.

The wide trails are easy to reach from either Visitor’s Center or pub, and there are several to choose from. We opted for flat, rather than the steep-angled path going up to the cliffs, and had an easy stroll along the River Cuckmere. Given the time of day, it wasn’t going to be much of a birding adventure, though very argumentative Black-headed Gulls were there to represent the Aves class. Ponies and sheep also provided the farm animal experience I adore.

Grazing pony in South Downs National Park

People, myself included, often associate white cliffs with Dover, but the stretch of cliffs known as Seven Sisters are frequent stand-ins for film and television. Dover is a busy port city, and the cliffs don’t film as well (in a nutshell, and per Wikipedia — not my opinion), but the Seven Sisters cliffs have eroded naturally, thus maintaining a more photogenic bright white along the cliff face.

Photogenic doesn’t even cut it when you arrive. The white is not only blinding at first but almost feels radioactive with light and heat when you are nearby. But I’m not saying the cliffs are hot to the touch (they are not) – it’s more about the intense brightness of that white, reflecting a warm summer day and giving me a sensory experience I’ve not had before.

It’s stunning – there are no other words, so I will stop writing and just offer photos!