Lodges with private hot tubs in Sussex

For a hot tub stay, the east-west split matters less than it first looks. East Sussex has most of the seaside, the 1066 history and Brighton's city life. West Sussex has the Downs around Arundel and the deep Weald country inland. The catch is that the South Downs National Park runs through both, so what shapes your trip isn't the county line but something simpler. Do you want the sea on the doorstep, or open country and a slow walk back to the hot tub?

That choice shapes the kind of stay as much as the view. The coast holds most of the larger places, houses with room to spread out and a beach within walking distance, the sort families and groups book together. Inland, the stays shrink and quieten into couples' boltholes, the self-catering kind where the plan is a walk, a good pub and a long soak after.

Most of the accommodation on both sides is dog-friendly, though not every coastal house takes dogs, so check the listing if you are bringing one.

Distances are short, which helps. Sussex sits about an hour and a half from London, with the A23 coming down to Brighton from Gatwick and the A27 running across the county, west to Arundel and east to Eastbourne. Hastings and Rye, beyond it on the slower A259, take a little longer, but wherever you base yourself the other side is still a comfortable day out. Winter is no reason to hold off either. If anything, a hot tub holiday here is best in the cold, the water steaming after a frosty walk on the Downs or a blustery hour on the beach.

Rye, Hastings and the 1066 coast

This is the historic, seaside end of Sussex, with dog-friendly cottages on the lanes outside Rye. Hastings and the shore at Pevensey Bay have grand sea-view houses big enough for a celebration. Rye itself is the prettiest base, a hilltop medieval town of cobbled streets, antique shops and old inns, with the wide sands of Camber a few minutes away. Camber and its car parks both fill fast on hot weekends, so an early start or an out-of-season visit pays off.

Hastings earns more time than its reputation suggests. The Old Town is the heart of it, a tangle of narrow twittens and independent shops behind the Stade, where tall black net huts stand beside a beach-launched fishing fleet that still works. Two cliff railways climb to the parks above.

A short way inland, the 1066 story is the natural thread for a day out. Battle Abbey marks the spot where the battle was actually fought, about six miles from the coast, and the moated Bodiam Castle nearby is the one that wins children over, with spiral stairs and a portcullis.

West along the shore, Pevensey Bay is quieter, a long pebble beach near Pevensey Castle, where William of Normandy first landed in 1066 and sheltered behind walls the Romans had built. Keep going past Eastbourne, and the chalk of the Seven Sisters and Beachy Head rears up, the most dramatic stretch of the whole Sussex coast and a proper half-day walk when the weather is kind.

Brighton and Hove for a livelier break

Most hot tub stays trade on peace and quiet. This one does the opposite. A base in Brighton and Hove puts a hot tub of your own within a short walk of the seafront, the bars and the restaurants. It is the pick for a group that wants a city behind the beach rather than a field. Hove is the calmer side, residential and a little smarter, with rows of colourful beach huts and the wide lawns along the front. Brighton proper is louder and later, ten minutes east.

The city is the day out. The Royal Pavilion, George IV's wild seaside palace with its Indian domes and Chinese rooms, sits five minutes from the front. Around it, the Lanes and North Laine are some of the best browsing in Sussex, all narrow alleys, vintage shops and coffee. It rewards good weather, but there is enough under cover, in the Pavilion, the museums and the independent shops, to see out a wet afternoon without a car. For a quieter day, the open top of the South Downs is fifteen minutes inland at Devil's Dyke, with one of the widest views in the south.

Quieter nights around Arundel and the Weald

Inland is where the couples go. The stays around Arundel and back into the Weald are the small ones, high-spec cabins, pods and one- or two-bedroom cottages set on smallholdings and down farm tracks. They are built around a hot tub and a quiet night. Several are luxury boltholes with the welcome touches to match, a woodburner, dressing gowns and a hamper on arrival. Most take dogs, with private grounds or a fenced garden so they can come too.

Arundel is the showpiece, a small town under a vast castle, the seat of the Dukes of Norfolk, with a French-Gothic cathedral on the hill and the Wetland Centre down by the river for a slower morning. The South Downs Way runs the ridge behind, and the racing and motoring crowd head for the Goodwood estate close by, busiest during its summer festivals when the lanes around it slow to a crawl. Book around those dates rather than into them.

Behind the Downs, the Weald is deeper country, a fold of woods, hop gardens and sandstone ridges. The most secluded stays hide here, some with acres of private walking on the doorstep. It is gentle, low-key territory rather than headline sights. Families staying on the East Sussex side still have an easy day out at Drusillas Park near Alfriston, a small and well-run zoo for younger children. This is the quietest side of Sussex, the kind of hot tub break you book when doing very little is the whole plan.