Itineraries:
Shopping
One of the pleasures of being on holiday is the chance to explore the shops of a new area. You don't have to look very hard in East Sussex to find speciality shops selling locally produced goods.
Day one
Head towards Lewes - but stop off at the delightful village of Alfriston on the way. (From Newhaven, take the A259 eastwards and turn inland after Seaford towards Alfriston). This picturesque village has a fine choice of shops selling arts and crafts, like Sally's Craft & Gift Shop in the High Street.
Then on to Lewes, the beautiful County Town of Sussex, in the heart of the South Downs. Street musicians regularly entertain shoppers as they browse in the bustling pedestrianised precinct, and the town has a particularly impressive range of shops. You will find dozens of specialist shops: antiquarian bookshops, antique shops, art shops, top class chocolate shops, delicatessens, and even a blacksmith who still shoes horses. Following an afternoon's shopping, rest your feet in one of the town's cafés, bistros or tea-rooms to sample a famous Sussex cream tea, or head for a traditional pub for a taste of the locally brewed beer.
Day two
Head for Brighton, a shopper's paradise. Start the day in "The Lanes", the picturesque maze of narrow streets where you will find antiques, jewellery and fashion shops, restaurants, cafés and traditional pubs. There is a more ethnic flavour about the North Laine area, Brighton's hidden 'Bohemian' quarter, with its fun mix of quirky shops and pavement cafés - just the place for a bargain. You'll find shops selling ethnic goods; exotic fabrics, furnishings and furniture; speciality breads and cheeses, and much more. Don't forget the 7-days-a-week antiques market in Kemp Town.
For the full range of modern shops, go to the Churchill Square Shopping Centre, with over 84 mainstream shops and stores. Complete the day in Brighton with dinner at one of around 400 restaurants and bistros, followed by a visit to the theatre, a concert or a show at one of the resort's major venues.
Day three
There are bargains galore to be found at the Old Loom Mill Craft Shop, south of Hailsham, specialising in wool and materials for dressmaking and soft-furnishing. Herstmonceux boasts two speciality shops with a particularly Sussex flavour: Thomas Smith's Trugs Shop (-the Sussex trug is a shallow wooden basket, very useful both in the house and the garden-) and "Say Cheese", famous for its range of unusual cheeses, many peculiar to Sussex.
At the eastern end of the County, there is more speciality shopping in Rye and Hastings. Rye has many antique and curio shops to browse in. Collectors of china and porcelain are very well served. The Old Town area of Hastings has many shops selling prints and curios; and the Shirley Leaf & Petal Company in the High Street is well worth a visit for its artificial flowers. On the sea-front you will find shops entirely devoted to seaside rock, an amazing type of sweet confectionery that makes an unusual souvenir of your stay.
Keen shoppers may also like to visit:
Hailsham Market, Hailsham
Eastbourne's wide variety of shopping malls: the Arndale Centre, the Enterprise Centre and the Langley Shopping Centre.
Carr-Taylor's Vineyard at Westfield, where you can follow a trail round the vineyard, see the wine-making process, and taste and buy a selection of prize-winning wines, including their brut champagne style sparkling wine, which won the gold medal in Bordeaux in 1999.
