Brighton in 6 Days on a Budget (Daily Costs)
Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use.
Six days is the 5-day plan plus one slow, mostly-free day back in Brighton itself, useful after three straight days of day-trip transport. Days 1-2 cover the free city core, Days 3-5 are Lewes, Devil’s Dyke and Seven Sisters. The 7-day plan adds one more Sussex day trip on top of this.
Book these before you go
- A budget room for all six nights in one booking, since Brighton’s a huge London weekend-break market. Check rates on Booking.com .
- Royal Pavilion tickets online if you’re going inside, for the 5% discount.
- Your Lewes train ticket ahead of Day 3, cheaper booked the night before.
- Check the bus 77 timetable before Day 4: Devil’s Dyke only runs weekdays in summer, otherwise weekends and bank holidays.
| Day | Focus | Rough daily cost (GBP, £) |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Pier, seafront, The Lanes, North Laine, Pavilion Garden | 77-139 |
| Day 2 | West Pier ruins, Undercliff Walk, Kemptown, beach | 75-121 |
| Day 3 | Lewes: castle grounds, high street, day trip | 85-130 |
| Day 4 | Devil’s Dyke and the South Downs Way | 81-121 |
| Day 5 | Seven Sisters and Birling Gap | 81-121 |
| Day 6 | Stanmer Park, North Laine street art, Brighton Museum (optional) | 75-131 |
Day 1: the free spine, Pier to Pavilion Garden
Brighton Palace Pier is £2 per person, March through September 2026, free the rest of the year and free year-round on a BN1, BN2, BN3 or BN41 postcode. Walk it, then The Lanes’ narrow twittens into North Laine, 400-plus independent shops, free to browse both. The Royal Pavilion Garden is free without the £21.50 building ticket. Dinner at Terre à Terre, vegetarian since 1993, or a doughnut made fresh to order on the pier.
| Item | Cost (GBP, £) |
|---|---|
| Bed | 60-90 (budget guesthouse; a hostel dorm bed runs lower) |
| Food | 15-25 (Pompoko, Roti King, Brighton Open Market) |
| Transport | 0 (fully walkable from the station) |
| Sights | 2-23.50 (Pier admission; +£21.50 only if you go inside the Pavilion) |
| Total | 77-138.50 |
Day 2: West Pier ruins and the Undercliff Walk
The West Pier ruin costs nothing to look at, still Brighton’s most photographed sight. Kemptown’s St James’s Street is free to browse, then the Undercliff Walk toward Rottingdean and Saltdean, three flat paved miles under the chalk cliffs. Skip the Brighton i360 , £20.50 for a 25-minute flight, and put that toward Bardsley’s fish and chips on Baker Street, family-run since 1926, instead.
| Item | Cost (GBP, £) |
|---|---|
| Bed | 60-90 |
| Food | 15-25 |
| Transport | 0-6 (citySAVER day bus ticket if you skip walking the Undercliff back) |
| Sights | 0 (everything on this route is free) |
| Total | 75-121 |
Day 3: Lewes, the cheapest day trip going
Direct trains to Lewes run frequently, roughly 17-20 minutes. A day return typically runs well under a London fare, book on nationalrail.co.uk the night before. Climb Lewes Castle for the view, or skip the entry fee for the free high street, antique shops and Anne of Cleves House grounds. Gotcha: Lewes hosts the world’s biggest Bonfire Night celebration on 5 November, and trains stop calling there from around 5pm that evening.
| Item | Cost (GBP, £) |
|---|---|
| Bed | 60-90 |
| Food | 15-25 |
| Transport | ~10-15 return train to Lewes |
| Sights | 0 (castle grounds, high street and Anne of Cleves House grounds are free) |
| Total | 85-130 |
Day 4: Devil’s Dyke and the South Downs Way
The Breeze 77 bus climbs from central Brighton to open downland in about 30 minutes, views over the Weald and the Channel, and nothing to pay for once you’re up there beyond the citySAVER ticket. The trap: bus 77 runs weekends and bank holidays year-round, plus weekdays in summer only. The Devil’s Dyke pub sits at the terminus for a budget pint.
| Item | Cost (GBP, £) |
|---|---|
| Bed | 60-90 |
| Food | 15-25 |
| Transport | 5.90 (citySAVER day bus ticket) |
| Sights | 0 (the walk and the views cost nothing) |
| Total | 80.90-120.90 |
Day 5: Seven Sisters and Birling Gap
The Coaster buses (12, 12A, 12X) run from central Brighton to Birling Gap in 75-100 minutes, up to 14 buses an hour combined, a citySAVER ticket covers the ride. The National Trust car park and café at Birling Gap are the base, steps down to the beach and cliff-top views of the white chalk face for free. Book a Seven Sisters day tour on GetYourGuide if you’d rather not plan the bus timings yourself.
| Item | Cost (GBP, £) |
|---|---|
| Bed | 60-90 |
| Food | 15-25 |
| Transport | 5.90 (citySAVER day bus ticket) |
| Sights | 0 (the cliffs, the beach steps and the walk are all free) |
| Total | 80.90-120.90 |
Day 6: Stanmer Park, street art and a museum if you’ve got room in the budget
After three transport-heavy days, spend this one back in the city on foot. Bus 78 runs daily from Old Steine to Stanmer Park and its historic village, footpaths continue into Wild Park and the open Downs, all free. Back in North Laine, hunt down the “Cassette Lord” pixelated cassette-tape stencils on the junction boxes around Trafalgar Street and Kensington Street, a decade-plus of free street art most visitors walk straight past. If there’s still room in the budget, the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery is £10.50 adult and shares a building with the Pavilion, but it is not free, a common wrong assumption since Booth Museum, the city’s one free museum, is closed until February 2027. Close with cheap eats: Goemon Ramen or FilFil falafel on Gardner Street.
| Item | Cost (GBP, £) |
|---|---|
| Bed | 60-90 |
| Food | 15-25 |
| Transport | 0-6 (citySAVER day bus ticket for Stanmer Park) |
| Sights | 0-10.50 (Stanmer Park and street art are free; museum entry is optional) |
| Total | 75-131.50 |
How many days do you actually need in Brighton?
Brighton’s walkable core fills about 1.5 to 2 days for free. Six days lets you add three day trips, Lewes, Devil’s Dyke and Seven Sisters, plus a genuinely restful sixth day without a single mandatory admission fee. Past six days, our 7-day plan frames it honestly as Brighton plus Sussex, not more city-only content stretched thin.
Is Brighton Museum worth £10.50 on a budget trip?
It’s the closer call on this whole itinerary. Brighton currently has almost no free indoor museum, since Booth Museum is shut for a refurbishment that’s slipped to February 2027, so £10.50 buys you the only real indoor rainy-day option that isn’t a shop. Skip it if the weather’s good and every other day on this plan is already free.
Build Day 6 as your buffer day, not just a museum day. If Lewes or Devil’s Dyke got rained out earlier in the week, this is the free-to-cheap day with enough slack to swap one of them back in.