Anyone know Brighton well?

[PrettyCandles]

This weekend dh is running the Brighton Marathon. We'll all be going on Saturday, staying the night in a youth hostel nearby (Hove? Don't remember.) and the intentionw as to go and cheer him the following day.

Drastic rethink, as I don't envision us being able to wait anywhere to see him pass. He estimates it will take him 4h to complete the course. We had been planning to watch for him at different points to cheer him, but he doesn't know quite when he would be where, so we would have to wait until he passed, and even possibly miss him in the crowd.
So what can I do in Brighton, on a race day (ie loads of road closures and car-less crowds), with 9, 7 and 3yos?

bump?

There are lots of good playgrounds in Brighton and Hove - one by the West Pier (surrounded by cafes and nick-nack shops, plus bang on the beach); another by Black Rock in Kemptown (halfway down the seafront electric railway, which is always good for an outing); a very good one in Queens Park in Hanover, again with a lovely cafe.

I usually make a bee-line for the West Pier playground (it's called Kings Road I think). Once the children have had their fill there, it's a short walk to the seafront shops, cafes, fishing museum (more interesting than it sounds). Take swimming costumes if the weather is warm because there's a big paddling pool.

Basically right along the seafront there are LOADS of things for kids. If you can take scooters/roller skates then they could use them to get around. There is a paddling pool, a couple of excellent playgrounds with cafes attached for parents, the pier itself, with various rides etc (although that wont be the cheap option) and the beach. The beach is pebbly, but the playgrounds have sand so you may want to bring bucket and spades.

The paddling pool at the West Pier wasn't yet filled up when we were at that playground on Friday. But you could go along Madeira Drive, East of the pier, towards the Marina. There is the Volks Railway you can ride on to either the marina, or half-way there is a stop called Peter Pan's playground. THat has a cafe, good loos, and play equipment. You could walk it if you didn't want to pay for the train.

ALso at the Peter Pans stop, there is the Yellowave beach volleyball court. You can drop in there for a glass of vino and let the dcs do the climbing wall. Not too expenseive. They will probably be able to potter a bit in the sand too.

If you want to take your DH for a meal afterwards you could always get the Volks railway to the Marina, where there is a nice selection of restaurants up on the boardwalk. Cafe rouge, Frankie & Benny's, Zizzis, Pizza Express etc etc

Thanks for your suggestions!

This is the course. I don't know whether it will be possible to cross the route. Do you think that the things you suggest will be affected or accessible?

I'm sure the seafront will be open - the marathon route will be along the promenade above the beach (doubt they're sadistic enough to make people run 20-odd miles on shingle).

The course starts in Preston Park, which is also nice - playpark, cafe, novelty bike hire etc.

BTW - if you're still using a pram for your three-y-o it will be difficult to take it on the beach. Just to warn you.

Hi there

I'm not taking part in the Marathon but I am singing on one of the entertainment stages. Wherever you see the orange E markers on the map there'll be stages with singers, DJs etc.

We have been informed that it will not be possible to cross the route of the marathon once the roads close for that particular section until they are reopened.

So (assuming we've been informed correctly) if you want to get to the beach and playground/paddling pool, cafes etc by the West Pier, you might have to go fairly early in order to cross the route prior to it being closed. The race starts at 9am and the West Pier is at around mile 14 so I guess that section of road would be closed by 10am for the elite runners.

It is possible that they'll have set up some temporary bridges or something for pedestrians to get across the course to/from the beach, but I don't know.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for your suggestions and info.

It was a brilliant day - perfect weather for the viewres, a little too warm and sunny for the runners - and we managed to cheer dh on twice on the promenade near the underpass between the piers.

Dh finished in 3h52mins. And then sat on the shingle letting the waves wash over his aching legs for as long as he could bear the cold.

The dc and I didn't manage to do anything other than picnic by the sculputre that looks like a skate-park, and bother the fishermen on the groyne by the pier.