A Weekend in Brighton | Love C4 Cactus

This was the three days in Brighton I mentioned last week, the ones that were sandwiched in between visiting The Liquor Store in Birmingham and heading to Geneva with Kia. "But how did you end up in Brighton", I hear you ask...after a few tweets + emails we ended up with a sweet ride for a few days c/o the folks at Citroen. They asked us if we fancied test driving the new Citroen C4 Cactus for the weekend – of course we did! The brief was to go have fun and explore a destination of our choice within the British Isles. Easy? Well the choice was easy to make, we set the Sat Nav to the south coast.

Having visited Brighton several times I considered myself pretty well-versed in the city, but like London, this place moves sharpish, so there's always somewhere new to discover. Hollie couldn't make this trip so Nik enthusiastically stepped in her place. As Nik's a big foodie he beavered away, researching into all the known + off-the-beaten-track places for us to visit. 

 Wearing - Timberland Jacket | Leith Shetland Wool Jumper | Uniqlo Tee | Albam Jeans | Vintage Scarf | 
Patagonia Backpack | ASOS Hat | Skagen Watch

With a recommendations list as long as our arm and a few potential discount codes from VoucherBin to try out we knew we'd be in for a busy weekend.

We arrived early evening so there was time for a quick stroll on the prom, a couple of tasty burgers + beers at The New Club, and finishing with a whisky chat at Waggon & Horses. We headed back to our hotel, the Oriental Hotel and planned our next couple of days. Our hotel was ideal, a sweet little independent boutique hotel, located slap bang central, with lovely staff and great service.

We knew we wanted to cover as much ground as possible on the first day, so we set out early, with our first stop being a caffeine hit Small Batch Coffee in Hove. About five flat whites down the line we found ourselves visiting our old friends at Peggs & son – one of my favourites menswear stores – and making new ones at independent lifestyle store Our Daily Edit.

The weather was a total mixed bag, so when we weren't escaping the gloom we found ourselves wandering the backstreets in search of street art, classic car spotting, joshing about in the arcades and testing the Citroen C4 Cactus out on its inner city capabilities. Brighton is a tricky city to navigate, but the old Cactus had it covered. The bad weather did however give me chance to test out this navy waterproof Field Jacket by Timberland, 10/10 for rain performance guys!

We called it a night after a huge helping of Yo!Sushi, and a perfectly sized Belgian beer at the Brighton Bier Dispensary. Onwards.

I'm not going to lie, we had way too much fun at the Brighton Toy Museum. This place was packed with wall-to-wall memories, collectables, classic design and 50/60's aspiration. We've still not quite mastered the whole living-in-space thing, but this reminded us why being a kid was so much fun. It's amazing how much you remember, what James Bond cars you collected, the model steam train you used pretend to crash into the skirting board...£4 very well spent, recommended!

Hen Restaurant was a great find too – loads of great tasting chicken with endless side salads, hot sauces and sharing sliders. A simple concept, easy to get wrong it seems, but these guys have it nailed. Great staff too. Thanks to Laura for the recommendation on this one.

Thankfully the sun did come out briefly, so we hopped in the motor and whizzed down to the coast. Brighton always seems like such a positive place, with a real community feel and room to try a new business ideas or hook up with like-minded people – we found one such small business again on Twitter. Off the beaten track was Born & Bred, a small leather accessories brand, which takes inspiration from cycling and the open road. All their goods are handmade in their small workshop in Hove.

The day was properly knackering so we ended up retiring one again to the Waggon & Horses for more whisky chats and made plans for the next day.

For the last day we planned to donate more time to exploring the south coast. We said our goodbyes to Brighton and its endless stream of coffee shops, market stalls and unicyclists, and set the Sat Nav to some place east ----->. We didn't really have a plan but it gave us plenty of time to really test out the ol' Cactus.

We drove through endless towns with endless fields, names which all escape me, but it seems like that's what the south of England is like. New Haven had its moments, and was the ideal location for us to take in some fresh air and grab (yet another) strong black coffee.

And there our weekend ended. We made our way back to London, with just enough time to stop for fish & chips at a country pub and an hour spare to catch my train back to Lancashire. Time to catch up on sleep!

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Citroen are giving Buckets & Spades readers the chance to win a weekend away + wheels to a destination of their choice! To enter simply visit Citroen to submit your weekend wish. 

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