Travel tips for Brighton and/or London

General Chat
1

I intend to visit a gig in Brighton on Thursday 22 August with our eldest daughter.
This will be our first (road) trip to the UK again since Brexit, so not familiar any longer with current state of ferries, hotels, public transport, parking, etc.

Things to find out:

  • by car to Brighton or fly to Gatwick
  • when by car, how best to cross the Channel
  • when Gatwick, how to get best and cheapest to Brighton with public transport
  • hotel and parking recommendation in Brighton
  • how best to visit London from Brighton with public transport or by car parking outside M25/ULEZ?

Most third party sites I found for ferries and trains seem to be scams, so I hope you could help with some tips. Non related feedback is welcome as well, since that is the fun of this forum.
Thanks in advance and cheers!

2

Being totally public transport, I’d be getting the Eurostar to St Pancras. Are you coming from the Netherlands or Germany?

When in London there is a (usually) very good “Thameslink” train service central London → Gatwick → Brighton every half hour.

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3

p.s. what’s the gig?

I’m 100% there for Dad instilling gig culture, but I’m ready to judge regarding the band :grinning:

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4

We live in the border area close to Arnhem (NL), but can travel from Oberhausen (D) too.

5

Rotterdam → St Pancras direct Eurostar.

St Pancras → Brighton 1 hour direct train

?

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6

Corinne Bailey Rae and Kymara at Concord 2.
I introduced CBR to her, she introduced Kymara to me, I quite like both singers.

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7

Nice :ok_hand:

She / you both should enjoy Brighton too.

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8

We have 2 daughters, now 16 and 19.
List of gigs with one or both of them:
Keb Mo, Kehlani, Seeed, Cloudy June (2x), Christina Branco, Joshua Basset, Kymara (5x), Sammy Rae and the Friends, Gioli & Assia, Raye, Coco Jones, Emlyn, Chibi Ichigo.
They missed out on Faithless because of school. Youngest likes prog and Britpop as well, but not my cup of tea.

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9

Great alternative, I’ll look into that! (but NS site, dutch railways, not working atm.)

10

Actually

Cat Glasses GIF by Leroy Patterson

you want to delay by a week and blow everyone’s minds with Pigsx7

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11

Tried Pigsx7. It is indeed mind blowing, I don’t think I could stay on a full concert.
The guitars and drums are overwhelming, but I hardly can recognize a word of the lyrics from the singer :man_shrugging:

12

Wow, don’t know any of those, although heard of Keb Mo.

13

Fabulous gif, has to be said.

14

I have the same with many of the festival posters including the one above.
Dozens of artists and none of them that I ever heard of.
Very happy with that, because it means great cultural variety that goes way beyond what you hear on (mainstram) radio, or the audio bubble you’re in. There’s always so much more to explore!

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15

Spot on Rudy, spot on :+1:

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16

If you fly to Gatwick there are regular fast direct trains to Brighton (25mins}
Trains from Brighton to London take 1 hour
Go after peak hours on a travelcard which includes tube

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17

Parking in Brighton is a nightmare. Parking in London is even worse. I would use the train to St Pancras and then the train to Brighton. There are frequent trains between the two. No idea what the cost is now.

Try National Rail for planning and fare info in the UK. In the alternative, The Trainline

As for hotels, we used the usual suspects when our daughter was in Brighton - Premier Inn, Travel Lodge (these are lower tarrif supermarket hotels but Brighton is not inexpensive.wherever you stay).

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18

Super-this :point_up_2:

Although in the cold light of day I have half a memory of the line to/from Rotterdam being a bit squirrely at the minute and this

might not be entirely true. You might need to change in Brussels.

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19

Eurostar is a brilliant idea, but also expensive depending on day and time.
So now we fly from Amsterdam to Gatwick and fly back from London City Airport (is in zone 3, so could be reached with a Travel Card?).
Take the train to/from Brighton 22/23 August with a weekend in London 23-25 August.

Can’t find out how much a 2 day Travelcard zone 1-4 for 2 days (Sat/Sun) cost and where to buy it upfront. Is it also possible to buy them when we arrive in the UK?

20

Tap your card or phone as you go in and out and it will charge you appropriately.

image

If/when you hit the limit for the zones you’ve been through then it stops charging you.

Register with the TfL app if you want to track spending etc.

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