Brighton, East Sussex

Brighton is the easy-win weekend: barely an hour by direct train from London, walkable end to end, and full of personality. The seafront and Palace Pier deliver the classic day-by-the-sea, while The Lanes and North Laine are a warren of independent shops, cafes and bars. The Royal Pavilion — George IV's flamboyant Indo-Saracenic seaside palace — is a genuine one-off worth an hour of anyone's weekend. It's one of the UK's most welcoming and LGBTQ+-friendly cities, with a food and drink scene that punches well above its size. It sits at number five mainly because it's a busy, buzzy break rather than a peaceful one, the beach is pebbles not sand, and summer weekends get packed — but for a low-effort, high-energy couples' getaway from the South East, it's excellent value and the cheapest to reach on this list.