At dusk, the lights come on over Brighton’s Palace Pier – a view best taken in, perhaps, from a freestanding bath by floor-to-ceiling windows in the bedrooms of this stylish boutique hotel. ‘It may be expensive, but it’s exquisite,’ says a Guide correspondent this year, who found the youthful place, which spans two Georgian town houses, ‘on top form’. Order a cocktail at any time of day in the small, sleek bar facing the sea. In the evening, although the town may have plenty to entice, stay in for dinner: ‘The restaurant is the best in Brighton,’ a reader reports. Served in the dining room on the lower ground floor, chef Andy Vitez’s modern European dishes might include seared scallops with langoustine foam, Sussex Mangalitza lardo, pea velouté, scallop roe sabayon; beef fillet, bone marrow cappuccino, wasabi pomme purée, spinach. Afterwards, spend the night in one of the modern bedrooms, each supplied with magazines, ground coffee, robes and slippers. The sultriest are the most spacious (and have that in-room bath with those sea views), but some of the smaller bedrooms share the watery vista – and two loft rooms (up four flights of stairs), have a private balcony so you can breathe in the sea air, too. (David Berry)