Top-deck views and seaside swims: a car-free trip to Worthing

The Sussex town’s beach, pier and sights are just the start of a coastal adventure taking in Eastbourne and the South Downs

It’s an uncrowded weekday morning on Worthing seafront. The solitary dog walker just makes the beach seem even emptier.

I’m eating hazelnut gelato, looking out across sun-warmed pebbles and rippling blue sea towards the renovated art-deco pier, and trying to work out why everyone I mentioned this trip to had said “Worthing!?” in Lady Bracknell-esque tones. True, the only person I’ve known who lived here was my husband’s 102-year-old aunt, but she always seemed good fun.