Looking to get out to the beach in East Sussex? This blog is for you.
Within easy reaching distance of London and Brighton, the south-east coast has a lot more beach to it than just Brighton beach, especially if you don’t mind pebbles!
Luke and I live in Hove, and we’ve been up and down this coast many, many times. Here are the beaches near the Seven Sisters worth knowing about.
The “Seven Sisters beach”
The Seven Sisters are seven chalk headlands with shingle at the bottom, and there are a few places to get down to the sea along them. There isn’t one specific “Seven Sisters beach,” but the beach most people will be thinking of is Cuckmere Haven beach, the one closest to the first sister.
Cuckmere Haven — the beach by Seven Sisters Cliffs
Walk down the valley from the Seven Sisters Country Park visitor centre at Exceat until the river runs out into the sea and you’ll reach Cuckmere Haven beach. The first of the Sisters rises up on your left. It’s about a 20-minute, flat walk to get there along the stunning river valley.
It’s a shingle beach and it is usually windy. There are no facilities down there, so the closest ones are back at the Seven Sisters Country Park visitor centre or the Cuckmere Inn pub on the other side of the river. If you want to make a day of it, our Seven Sisters cliff walk guide has multiple routes that all start from this same spot.
People do swim at Cuckmere Haven, but treat it as wild swimming rather than a beach day and you’ll be fine. There are no lifeguards, the shingle shelves away steeply, and there are currents where the Cuckmere runs out to sea.
Birling Gap — the easiest beach to get onto
Birling Gap is at the eastern end, with a metal staircase down to the shingle run by the National Trust, plus a café, toilets, bus stop and a car park at the top. You arrive, walk a few metres and you’re on the beach looking straight up at the chalk.
Luke grew up coming here — beach days and picnics with his family, whole afternoons on the shingle. It’s the one to pick with small children, a picnic or anyone who isn’t up for a walk. Worth knowing the staircase gets rebuilt as the cliffs erode, so it moves.
People swim here too, and the same rules apply — no lifeguards, and shingle that shelves away steeply once you’re in. It’s wild swimming, not a lifeguarded beach.
The other thing to know is the chalk. These cliffs are actively eroding, which is why the staircase keeps being rebuilt, and pieces come away without warning. There are signs asking people not to sit directly under the cliff face. However good the photo would be, don’t.
Seaford beach — the big pebble beach with a promenade
Just west of the Cuckmere and the most straightforward beach day on this stretch. A long, expansive shingle beach, a promenade to walk along, and a town behind it with plenty of lunch stops and pubs. It;s not a bad beach, but the town isn’t anything to write home about.
If you come down from London, Seaford is the station you arrive into, so it’s the easiest beach here to reach without a car.
Eastbourne beach — the proper seaside one
Four miles east of Birling Gap and Eastbourne has a Victorian seafront, a pier, deckchairs, the lot. If what you want is a traditional English seaside day rather than a windswept clifftop, this is where to go. The beach is also shingle with sand appearing at low tide.
In town, Nelson Coffee and Urban Ground are the popular coffee and lunch stops. Eastbourne is a popular retirement destination, so the crowd here tends to be older, and plenty of families visit during the day.
Normans Bay — the quiet one
East of Eastbourne, past Pevensey, and almost nobody goes. Open shingle, big skies, a level crossing and not much else. There’s a campsite and a pub and that’s about the extent of it.
Pevensey Bay — sand at low tide
Between Eastbourne and Normans Bay, and quieter than both of its neighbours. The tide goes a long way out and leaves flat sand behind it, which is the bit that makes it worth timing.
Camber Sands — the sandy one
Camber Sands is about an hour’s drive east, so it is not near the Seven Sisters in any meaningful sense, but people rave about Camber because it’s beautifully sandy. A welcome break from pebbles! Miles of flat golden sand, though also rammed on a hot weekend.
Getting to the Beaches Without a Car
Seaford and Eastbourne both have train stations, making them the easiest to get to.
For Cuckmere Haven, take the Coaster 12 or 12X to the Seven Sisters Park Centre at Exceat — singles on Brighton & Hove buses are capped at £3. Don’t rely on the 12A, which diverts via Denton and Chyngton and doesn’t run out to Exceat.
Birling Gap needs the seasonal 13X — daily in summer, Sundays and bank holidays in winter. If you’re coming down for the day from the city, our guide to the Seven Sisters cliffs from London has the whole journey.
Keep Exploring Sussex
- Want the walk above the beaches? All five routes in our Seven Sisters cliff walk guide.
- Coming from the city? How to do the Seven Sisters cliffs from London in a day.
- Prefer the valley? The Cuckmere Haven and Alfriston walk, inland and much quieter.