Tess Langley's Qype profile

A lovely traditional Victorian age hotel with 40 bedrooms for both holiday makers and residents.

The Northern is full of character and charm with antique furniture and grand decor throughout. A stone's throw away from the beach and Bexhill's famous De La Warr Pavilion, The Northern sits comfortably in the centre of a quiet seaside town in the heart of 1066 Country.

Run by the lovely Simms family and their friendly staff, who'll always go the extra mile to make their guests feel as happy and comfortable as humanly possible, and are always available for a chat.

There are suites, double, twin and single rooms, all with en-suite bathrooms and some with lovely sea views.

The hotel has two restaurants, the bright and airy Garden Room outlooking the well kept garden, and The Richmond Room, a larger more traditional looking hotel restaurant, to the front of the building.

The food and service is exceptional; three course meals with homemade traditional food, and tantalising desserts finished with filtered coffee and mints, served by their excellent silver service waiting staff.

The prices are very reasonable, some could say even a little too cheap for the service and quality that comes with it.

As well as all this, there's the Wellington Room Bar complete with an outdoor balcony and upstairs you'll find a library and lounge, all of which are regularly used for functions.

A wonderful place to dine, drink and sleep in luxurious style.

Found on the seafront amongst the seafood stalls and art galleries, the Brighton Watersports offers kayak and wet suit hire, costal trips, mackerel fishing trips as well as classes and lessons in Eskimo rolls, basic kayaking, wake boarding and water skiing.

Having moved from Hastings and doing a short sea kayaking course there, we developed a taste for it and stumbled on this club whilst wandering along the promenade last summer. For £10 you can hire a kayak for an hour, £20 for a half day and £35 for a full day.If you don’t want to go it alone you can hire a double for slightly more.

Or if you have no idea what you’re doing but fancy having a go and learning the basics book onto a three hour course for £30. Other courses and lessons range from £15-£45.

This summer we’ll mostly be kayaking and getting dragged behind a powerboat in a dingy for £15.

One of the five centres my gym membership covers, Withdean Sports Complex is massive, the home to Brighton Seagulls at the moment but not for long as the new shiny stadium is nearly finished in Falmer.

As well as the stadium there are tennis and squash courts, a gym and exercise classrooms. I cycled up there the other day to partake in the Body Conditioning class, and left limping and aching. Being a member of the Kinetika gyms means I can visit this one as well as the nearer Prince Regents, alongside the others in the Brighton and Hove area.

The gym is much better than the Prince Regents one, if a bit dark, it’s bigger, got more equipment, and less smelly and sweaty, which is always a good thing. The fact that it’s a 2 mile bike ride to get to means that by the end of my class/gym session I really feel like I’ve worked out.

I’ve only been in here once, and it was the beginning of winter, and this is probably the cosiest pub you could wander into on a cold winter’s night. It’s tiny, got squared bay sash windows, is incredibly dark but is illuminated by hundreds of blue fairy lights draped across the walls.

The lack of space means it’s nearly always a bit of a fight to get to the bar, especially for small people like me, so I’d recommend taking a giant with you to get noticed and not trampled on.
The outside seating area is probably bigger than the actual pub, and in the summer this comes alive with the sounds of live bands and entertainment. They also do food but I’ve not tried it.

I’ve yet to venture back in here again, but fully intend to do so as it’s lovely.

I always feel a tiny bit sophisticated strutting in here with my boyfriend’s suit, I’d never been into a dry cleaners before this one, and we had a lovely burlesque night to go to so his suit needed to be cleaned.

The service is exceptional in here; the staff are friendly and helpful and always eager to please. They’re never late, if you need something done for tomorrow, they’ll do their absolute best to make sure it’s ready, and the prices are pretty reasonable too, a suit jacket and trousers costing just £6 to do.

As well as clothes they do curtains and all sorts of other fabrics and materials that you just can’t trust your washing machine with.

Situated on the sea front, the Hove Lawns provide a grassy place to sit and have a picnic, play a game of football, or just chill with friends.

Regular events and festivals are held on the Lawns; just a few weeks back we went to the Fiery Foods UK Chilli Festival, and sampled the delights of chilli icecream, chilli cocktails and chilli beer (none of which are for the feint hearted!).

There was a stage with a rockabilly band playing, a bar and various stalls of herbs, chilli plants and seeds, as well as face painting and entertainment for the kids. Perhaps the most interesting part of the festival was watching a line of volunteers chew various chillis until they couldn’t take it any more, for the chance to win £50.

Having grown up in sleepy Bexhill on Sea, where most of the population are over 60 and have free bus passes, it’s refreshing to move to Brighton and see more than one bus every half hour. Worse than Bexhill was when I lived in a little village 7 miles out of Stratford Upon Avon, and I forgot what a bus looked like.

Brighton’s bus service is brilliant, to say the least. You’ll never wait more than 10 minutes for one, you can go anywhere you want on as many buses you want for the cost of a City Saver ticket at £3.60, and some of the services run Short Hop tickets, for just a pound.

Not only are the buses frequent and reliable, the real-time displays at bus stops give up-to-the-minute waiting times, and the buses themselves are mostly double deckers, clean and tidy with plenty of room.

One interesting thing about the buses in Brighton is that every one wears the name of a famous deceased person with a connection to the area, and they do regular day trips and excursions (even if a little expensive).