Shopping for an experience gift for a loved one? You already know you’ve come to the right place.
Brighton: the home of the Royal Pavilion, Brighton Palace Pier (and the ruined West Pier) and Brighton i360, it’s fondly known as the unofficial gay capital of the UK, and more officially the green capital of the country, too.
It’s where we’ve listened to spoken word events in pubs, danced the night away in ProudBrighton, and gotten lost in Snoopers Attic.
If you’re lucky enough to either live in Brighton or have a trip to the seaside city in the diary, you might be looking for things to do. Like Batman to the Bat Signal, the Going Out team are here to suggest some top experiences which you’ll remember for years to come.
Whether you’re looking for a London theatre show, golf gift experience, steam train experience or murder mystery experience, in big cities which host the best London experience gifts and Manchester experience gifts, the Going Out team have researched the top activities to cross off your bucket list.
We’ve selected experiences from reputable experience days retailers such as Buyagift and Indytute, which offers flexible bookings. For example, Indytute provides free exchanges — so if someone doesn’t like their experience gift, they can swap it for a preferred one — and the option to gift via email voucher or post.
In our specially-selected Brighton gift experiences, we’ve chosen activities for couples, friends, and plenty of outdoor activities too (fingers crossed for the summer weather we all deserve!), with days out ranging from foraging and kayaking to cooking classes and crafting.
For the best UK family days out, be sure to check out our guide.
Jump to:
- Things to do in Brighton at a glance
- Best Brighton outdoor activities
- Best Brighton dining experiences
- Best things to do in Brighton for couples
- Best Brighton activities for groups
- Best Brighton aquarium experiences
- When is Brighton Pride 2024?
- How do I get to Brighton?
Things to do in Brighton at a glance:
- SEA LIFE Brighton | from
£24£20.50 (save £3.50 or 15%) - Yoga and Forest Bathing | from £35
- Coastal and Seaweed Foraging | from £40
- Drag Brunch with Bottomless Cocktails | £40
- Kayaking Experience | £45
- Brighton Coast RIB Ride and Lighthouse Tour | from £45
- Forage and Feast Experience | from £55
- Wakeboarding | from £55
- Brighton Cookery Class Experience | from £65
- Entry to Brighton Pavilion and Fish and Chips at Harry Ramsden’s |
£76£69 (save £7 or 9%) - Wing Surf Taster | £90
- Personalised Silver Ring Making Workshop | from £99
- Sky High Adventure with Afternoon Tea | from £137
- Plastic Up-cycling Workshop | from £150
Best Brighton experience gifts 2024
Best Brighton outdoor activities
Forage and Feast Experience
Take a walk on the wild side… Wild food, that is! When you walk amongst nature, do you take notice of the things around you? And do you notice how fungi, fruit and wild plants could make up your lunch? The Forage and Feast experience in Brighton will ensure you view nature through a different lens.
In this activity, you’ll walk around the city’s largest park (the Stanmer nature reserve) and learn from professional forage guides about how to forage. After the walk and talk, you’ll eat a delicious foraged lunch, all prepared by a professional chef.
Buy Forage and Feast Experience from £55 at Indytute
If you like the outdoors, be sure to check out the best London walking tours.
Coastal and Seaweed Foraging
Oh, we do like to be beside the seaside! When tasked with selecting unique gift experiences for Brighton, the Going Out team couldn’t resist including this quintessentially seaside activity: coastal and seaweed foraging.
This experience will see you visiting the sea and the clifftops of Brighton, and you’ll get to watch the sunset as you learn all about seaweed and sea herbs – did you know seaweeds have been used for everything from eating to paying taxes, and for salts and medicines?
Buy Coastal and Seaweed Foraging from £40 at Indytute
Yoga and Forest Bathing
Looking to reduce stress, improve your memory, and regain clarity? Aren’t we all! This Yoga and Forest Bathing experience promises to do just that. You’ll head to the South Downs, an area of outstanding natural beauty, to experience the Japanese exercise called Shinrin-Yoku (forest bathing). In the exercise, you’ll learn to connect with nature and practice calmness.
Buy Yoga and Forest Bathing from £35 at Indytute
Looking to book in some well-deserved R&R? Take a look at the more conventional best London spa days.
Kayaking Experience
It may be April (the month notoriously known for showers), but we’re already noticing signs of a long, hot summer, and what better activity to do to soak up the sun than a kayaking experience on the Brighton seafront?
No prior experience is necessary with this kayaking experience — the experts at Hatt Adventures will kit you out and run through how to use each piece of equipment before you head out onto the water. In the next two hours, you’ll practise various kayaking skills, such as rescue techniques and capsize drills.
Buy Kayaking Experience for £45 at Buyagift
Best Brighton dining experiences
Sky High Adventure with Afternoon Tea
This next gift is three experiences rolled into one, and is sure to spark the debate: jam or cream first on your scone? (Cream first is a hill the Going Out team would die on). First up on your agenda is the British Airways i360 glass pod, a lift and viewing platform from which, on a clear day, you can see the Isle of Wight (over 49 miles away).
After the viewing experience, head on over to the Brighton Pavilion. This iconic structure was built as a seaside retreat for George, Prince of Wales, in 1787, and in more recent popular culture history, it was recreated by Joe Black in an outfit on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.
Next up, you’ll enjoy a cream tea in The Hotel Metropole; tuck into sandwiches, tarts, eclairs, fruity and plain scones, as well as various teas from an extensive tea leaf collection — we’ll take an English Breakfast then a Jasmine Pearl, please!
Buy Sky High Adventure with Afternoon Tea from £137 at Indytute
If you like experiencing things at great heights, why not test your nerve with these best skydiving experiences?
Entry to Brighton Pavilion and Fish and Chips at Harry Ramsden’s
When you saw ‘best Brighton dining experiences’ as a category in this eclectic guide, we hope you didn’t think it meant fine dining — this is the seaside, after all, home of fish and chips!
This activity from reputable experience gift company Buyagift gives you and a loved one entry to Brighton Pavilion, then a delicious fish and chip meal at Harry Ramsden’s. But this isn’t just any fish and chip meal, it’s an afternoon tea fish and chips. You’ll savour homemade fishcakes, onion rings, brioche fish butties, bread and butter pudding, and banana fritters with caramel sauce.
Best things to do in Brighton for couples
Brighton Coast RIB Ride and Lighthouse Tour
This journey will take you and your other half across Seaford Bay and past Seaford Head, towards Birling Gap and the Belle Tout Lighthouse along the Sussex Heritage Coast, and to the Beachy Head Lighthouse: an impressive 33-metre tall lighthouse which stands at the base of the beautiful chalk cliffs. When you reach Beachy Head, be sure to keep an eye out for harbour porpoises and harbour seals.
Buy Brighton Coast RIB Ride and Lighthouse Tour from £45 at Experience Days
Personalised Silver Ring Making Workshop
Usually with experiences, you’ll leave with the memory of the fantastic day you’ve had – but without a physical gift. If you’re looking for an experience which gives you a piece of memorabilia to take home with you, this ring making workshop is just the ticket.
During the Personalised Silver Ring Making Workshop, you’ll craft a beautiful ring in just two hours! You’ll start by designing your ring, with the tutor on hand to ensure your ring will be wearable, then you’ll craft the ring in blue jeweller’s wax before it’s sent to the workshop to be cast in silver to your specification.
Buy Personalised Silver Ring Making Workshop from £99 at Experience Days
If you fancy yourself as a bit of a crafter, take a look at the best pottery classes.
Best Brighton activities for groups
Plastic Up-cycling Workshop
If you and your friends have a passion for sustainability, this up-cycling workshop will be right up your street. In the class, you’re invited to bring your own plastic to recycle, although (as is sadly the case in most cities) there’s no lack of plastic waste in the studio already; the workshop operates a free rubbish collection service around Brighton and Hove.
In the workshop, you’ll learn the art of melting and shaping to create things such as a cheese board and coaster, which you can keep forever.
Buy Plastic Up-cycling Workshop from £150 at Indytute
Wing Surf Taster
This wing surf taster session located at Hove Lagoon is perfect for groups of up to six. In the class, you’ll be tutored by RYA Wingfoiling instructors who will teach you how to keep afloat, and fly the wing ashore. You’ll also learn how to stand and kneel on the board, and perform a gybe (changing direction) and self rescue. The wing surf taster session lasts two hours and, dare we say, you and your friends will be experts by the end of it!
Buy Wing Surf Taster for £90 at Into The Blue
Drag Brunch with Bottomless Cocktails
If the wing surfing and wakeboarding classes aren’t your group of friends’ cup of tea, how does a drag brunch with bottomless cocktails sound? Located at Proud Brighton (a historic venue which actually first opened in 1865), you’ll enjoy a Drag Extravaganza Brunch with lip-syncing queens and fierce routines, while eating a tasty two-course meal and drinking bottomless cocktails.
Buy Drag Brunch with Bottomless Cocktails for £40 at Buyagift
Brighton Cookery Class Experience
Fancy yourself as a bit of a chef? Would you like to make bao buns, vegan Indian cuisine, Japanese food or plant-based dishes? Then step right this way into our office — we mean kitchen!
Booking this activity couldn’t be easier: simply redeem the voucher online, contact the cookery school to book your class of choice, then turn up on your chosen date. There’s no need to bring anything with you, as your chef will provide all of the equipment, ingredients and aprons.
Over the next three hours, you’ll try your hand at creating a perfectly fluffy bao bun, a delicious katsu curry, or a crowd-pleasing plant-based meal, learning tips that you can put to good use in your own kitchen as you go. Once the whole group has finished making their meal, you’ll sit down together as a class to enjoy eating your hard work!
Buy Brighton Cookery Class Experience from £65 at Experience Days
Have a sweet tooth? Then check out these chocolate making classes instead.
Wakeboarding
Think you have what it takes to ollie on a wakeboard? Try your hand at this one-hour wakeboarding session. Each wakeboarding class is run by experienced BWSW (British Water Ski & Wakeboard) instructors, who will talk you through a safety briefing, the basics of wakeboarding, and skills such as riding switch and ollies.
Buy Wakeboarding from £55 at Into The Blue
Best Brighton aquarium experiences
SEA LIFE Brighton
Did you know SEA LIFE Brighton is the world’s oldest aquarium, having opened its doors in 1872? At the SEA LIFE centre, you’ll have the chance to ride on a glass bottom boat and get up close and personal with turtles and sharks (not biting-distance close, though), come face-to-face with an anaconda and piranhas, get hands-on with starfish and sea anemones in the rockpool, and see rays, octopuses and fish.
As conservation is at the heart of everything SEA LIFE Brighton does, you’ll learn all about the threats marine life face in the Conservation Cove.
Buy SEA LIFE Brighton tickets from £24 £20.50 (save £3.50 or 15%) at daysout.co.uk
When is Brighton Pride 2024?
One of the most fun things to do in Brighton is to attend Brighton Pride! The Going Out team have been to Nottingham Pride, Manchester Pride and London Pride, and this summer, we’ve set our sights on Brighton Pride. In 2024, Brighton Pride will take place over the 2nd to 5th August weekend.
While you’re in Brighton, be sure to check out our list of top experiences to make the weekend a truly memorable one.
How do I get to Brighton?
The easiest way to get to Brighton is via train. The Brighton and Hove area has eight stations, with rail connections such as Southern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express all operating services to and from the stations. The main station in Brighton — which will take you to the heart of the city’s action — it is simply called Brighton Station.
If you’re on the lookout for cheap train tickets (aren’t we all!), one of the easiest ways to ensure discounted travel is to pick up a Railcard for 1/3 off the overall ticket price.
Buy a Railcard from £30 at Trainline
How far is Brighton from London?
Brighton is approximately one hour from London from Victoria and St Pancras stations, and, best of all, there’s no change when you travel from these stations. Brighton is a great day trip if you’re travelling from London, and gives us Londoners a much-needed dose of sea air! The Thames isn’t really cutting it at the moment…
Looking to save on things other than train tickets? Here’s how to get cheap cinema tickets, how to get cheap theatre tickets, how to get cheap concert tickets, and how to get cheap Alton Towers tickets.