Holiday rentals and lettings in West Sussex

The wholesale beauty of Sussex, with its stunning coastlines, dramatic chalk cliffs, myriad picture-book towns and villages and the scenic South Downs National Park can all be accessed within just an hour of London, making it one of the most popular weekend destinations for people taking a break from the big smoke. Coming from abroad? It is also home to Gatwick, England’s number 2 airport!

West Sussex is dominated by the South Downs, which are a wooded ripple that traverses the middle of the county, forming archetypal English countryside; profoundly green and gently undulating hills divided up by century’s old hedges and dotted with the farmsteads and picturesque villages in which time has yet to catch up. These hills make way to the coastal strip to the south, a heavily built up collection of old-school English resorts and gorgeous medieval towns

West Sussex is home to many of England’s most arresting towns and villages, and if time allows, the best way to discover them is to take a drive through the countryside and see where the windy roads take you. But if you only have time to visit a few places, head for photogenic Horsham, a thriving and market town full of period charm, with elegant houses from the Victorian and Georgian era, all embedded in delightful countryside, Petworth House, with its intoxicating mix of art, charming old streets and history, or Bosham, an incredibly cute town located next to an inlet in Chichester harbour, which emanates an enchanting olde worlde feel, with impossibly picturesque streets and houses, seemingly from a bygone era.

South Downs National Park is a band of rolling hills in the middle of the county that has been a National Park since 2011, boasting a pastoral landscape of ancient field patterns, Norman churches and wooded hills. Find a map online and choose from any one of the myriad gorgeous and gentle walks that lead you through the quintessential English countryside. And perhaps best of all, many of them end at a traditional British pub, perfect for that post-walk pint!

Arundel Castle sits in the splendour of the South Downs. Arundel is a lovely town commanded by one of the most complete medieval castles in England. Mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086, the castle was founded in 1067 after the Norman conquest of England. The layers of history, the astonishing size, and the grounds that just seem to go on forever.

Worthing, West Sussex's largest city, was once the favourite holiday resort for wealthy Victorians. Nowadays the golden age of the British coast may be over, but Worthing today offers its visitors delightful seafront gardens, imposing Georgian townhouses and a multitude of monuments that hark back to the heyday of English seaside holidays.

Dedicated to the industrial heritage of the south east, Amberley Museum is set in the heart of the South Downs National Park. Admire the exhibits including a working printshop, lime kilns, road steam engines, old radios and TVs, and much more, and watch the craftspeople such as wheelwrights and blacksmith show off their skills. It all makes for a fun and educational family day out!

Take the ultimate undersea safari and savour close encounters with seahorses, sharks, octopus and scores of awesome aquatic creatures. The highlight of the Aquarium is the hourly shark, ray and Archerfish feeds, with the latter shooting water jets from their mouths to knock the food into the water!

The Bognor Regis resort is synonymous with British beach holidays, the kind almost everyone used to take in the country until cheap overseas flights displaced British tourism to warmer climes. Bognor receives more hours of sunshine per year than anywhere else in the UK, and is just a wonderful down-to-earth, no-frills destination to take your kids to the beach!