The palace pier - gloriously tacky fairground with stalls, amusements and rides.
The Brighton Wheel - Print off The Brighton Wheel’s “I Spy From The Sky” map and getting the children to spot the famous landmarks.
West Pier Playground - paddling pool, adventure playground and sand. Perfectly situated next to coffee shops!
Volks Railway - starts just east of the Palace Pier at the end of Madeira Drive and runs along the coast for a mile. It has open-air carriages and goes past the nudist beach, which always makes my kids giggle. One of the stops on the route is Peter Pan’s Playground. It’s small but has a few climbing frames, slides and water sprouts it’s popular and suitable for small children. There is also a mini crazy golf course and outdoor cafe.
Natural History Museum - I remember my dc loved the giant stuffed brown bear mother and cub at the entrance as well as the lion, zebra and the extinct Tasmanian tiger, rare owls and eagles. We also saw the bones of a dodo and a sinister-looking python skeleton.
Toy Museum - massive train set (with lots of buttons to press!), old-fashioned teddy bears, Meccano sets and penny arcade games, including one where the puppets can be made to dance.
The Painting Pottery Cafe in North Laines
Brighton Marina - ten pin bowling, cinema, trampolines, novelty rides, crazy golf, shopping, eating...
Brighton Cycle hire or Amsterdammers’, near Brighton train station, has a good selection of bikes for hire including kids bikes and tag alongs.
Rottingdean beach - just east of Brighton, a pebbled beach backed by chalk cliffs which makes it great for rockpooling. Rottingdean is easy to get to by bus or by car and the village has a wide selection of cafes, pubs and shops.
Mechanical Memories - vintage penny arcade with around 50 vintage penny slot machines to play. Buy big old pennies from the shop. A useful place to hide from the rain, although it’s only open on weekends and school holidays (weather permitting during the winter).
My eldest dc liked Brighton Museum’s World Stories treasure trail at the Royal Pavilion and learning about the pharaohs in the Ancient Egypt gallery.