This seaside town has been name as one of the best places to visit in the UK for 2026, with independent shops, art galleries and stunning beaches making it a must-visit destination
Hastings has been named the second best place to visit in the UK this year(Image: Alexey_Fedoren via Getty Images)
A fishing town with a high street packed with independent shops and an excellent arcade scene has been tipped as one of 2026’s places to go.
If, like myself, you grew up in the South East of England, then there is a fair chance that the large, plasticy, somewhat demonic face of the caterpillar ride at Hastings‘ Flamingo Park is etched into your mind. Many a day of my childhood was spent, arms aloft, aboard the trundling larva, which was sadly mothballed earlier this decade.
The ride may be a thing of the past, but Hastings – which has just been named Time Out’s second best place to go in the UK this year – is certainly not. The East Sussex seaside town of 90,000 now links up to London in one hour and 23 minutes via a new, speedier train service, making the commute to the Capital viable, particularly in the post-Covid world of flexible working.
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But rather than getting fixated on leaving Hastings, there’s plenty to keep you entertained in the town itself. The Old Town is the place to go for some shopping, or just for a stroll through the rickety High Street and George Street that give York’s famous Shambles a run for its money in the sloping buildings stakes.
There are dozens of antique, interiors and brocante shops here. You can find everything from old typewriters in the Goods Depot and unusual pottery and pictures at Butler and George, to endless treasures at Hastings Antiques Warehouse and Roberts Rummage.
Hastings is one place where the high street is thriving and independent shops dominate. One particular treasure is Old Hastings Pottery, where all the items are handmade on site and the potter is on hand to chat. Perhaps the jewel in the crown is A.G. Hendy, an extraordinary three floors of beautifully displayed household essentials housed behind a 1920s-style shopfront. It is the work of famed food wrtier Alistair Hendy, who spent over three years restoring the late-Georgian building.
If shopping isn’t your thing, or you’ve simply hit your limit, then there’s plenty else to do in the town. Hastings is lucky enough to have a thriving independent cinema, the Electric Palace, which can be hired out for private screenings for £260. To mark a recent birthday in the family, we took over the Palace for a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s 2021, well accompanied by the Palace’s pick a mix and bar.
Wander down the hill to the seafront and you’ll find Hastings Contemporary, a brilliant independent art gallery that shows contemporary British artists. In 2024, Quentin Blake (best known for his work on the Roald Dahl books) displayed 100 portraits at the gallery.
Then there are, of course, the chips. Locals and regulars will have their favourite chippy, but for me, the active fishing village is best represented by the Blue Mermaid. After you’ve tucked into its delightful fried fare, it’s a short walk to the West Hill Lift, a funicular railway that first opened in 1891 and retains its original wooden Victorian coaches. The runs through a tunnel, which is both very exciting to experience and rare from a railway perspective.
If you’re lucky enough to visit when the weather is nice, the town’s beach is very dipable, but not a patch on the excellent Fairlight nudist beach a few miles down the coast.
Most visitors park at the top of the hill and then walk down, scrambling down the hillier parts, hopping over logs and taking time to appreciate streams that tumble into little waterfalls beneath the thick tree cover. The trees on the path down are densely packed and verdant, giving the place a slightly Jurassic feel on a hot summer’s day when the air mists up and the fern leaves begin to glisten.
After a mile-long walk in the relative gloom, beachgoers suddenly burst out of the trees into the light of the day and into Fairlight proper. To either side of the beach 30m cliffs form a bay, providing a sense of seclusion from the world and plenty of large flat stones at their base where you can lay down your towel and relax.
The sandstone and clay mix of the cliffs produces an almost gold colour in the evening sun, which gives Fairlight the feel of being somewhere much closer to the Mediterranean than it really is.