Hello all! I am back in my hometown London after a crazy month in New York.
Recently, I went for a short weekend trip to the small seaside town of Bognor Regis, located in the South coast of England. The town neighbours bigger towns like Portsmouth and Sussex.
Bognor Regis was like other seaside towns, in that it was predominately a fishing town. You can see the fishing functionality of the town alive today as it was alive historically. The only difference is that today the fishing is recreationally as opposed to previously when it was conducted for commercial purposes. The town was, however, converted into a resort which fits well with the area for two reasons. The first is that the town is known as the most sunny spot in England (that's what led me there!). Secondly, the town is home to Butlins, an all inclusive holiday camp still popular with tourists today.
I would describe the town as beautifully bogus, as my title suggests, and recommend that those planning to visit there go for a day trip and not longer (unless you are going solely for Butlins).
The town is beautiful because the seaside has the most refreshing breeze, which if you go on a sunny day is absolutely magical! The tide goes extremely low at night. If you visit the seaside at night you can walk as far as the pier stems because the tide goes really in! The pebbles are not unique but the way the pebbles incline up is quite impressive and something to see. At some points, the beach can be tricky to walk up because it is so steep and the pebbles can be a little slippery.
So bar the tide and steep incline of the beach, what is so beautiful about the Bognor Regis coast?
What I loved about it, is that it was so quiet. I don't think it would be wrong to say that we were the only tourists there! The lack of tourists adds to the tranquility that the refreshing breeze that hits you with.
Also, I noticed more so than I have seen before, there were many disadvantaged groups of people. For example the beach was full of young children, in the restaurant there was a group of disabled individuals having a meal by the sea and walking in the town centre ,a number of senior citizens indulging a purchase of a bouquet of flowers or an ice cream. I loved seeing these minority groups enjoy the sun and the perfect breeze; it left my heart feeling warm and fuzzy.
So for me the demographic, beach structure and weather, made Bognor Regis a beautiful and uplifting getaway from the city!
However, at the same time I found the town to be quite bogus, as after one day, it left us heading to Portsmouth for the next day.
The town centre is extremely small and consists of about 5-6 stores including Iceland as the biggest store. As a city girl, you can imagine this leaving me quite perplexed about how people live there all their lives.
It is so small that we thought that the town centre was elsewhere and ended up driving around the centre again, which despite the one way lanes was accomplished in 9minutes!
Furthermore, if you plan to eat at the top restaurants such as Lobster Pot you have to book in advance and be there early (around 7ish) as restaurants shut fairly early. This again was hard for me to deal with, as living in London, I am used to everything being available 24/7.
That is why after day one, as a tourist you don't have anything else to do except for escape to the nearest town.
In sum, for me the trip was a great break from city especially as most of my time in New York was spent living in Manhattan which is even more busy and claustrophobic (more so because of the sky scrapers than the people) than London, I really prized the coastal landscape but would go insane if I had to stay longer!
As usual photos attached below :)
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