Hove is technically a separate town — Brighton and Hove together form the city — but it functions as Brighton's western neighbour, quieter and more residential, with long avenues of Regency and Victorian terraces and a seafront that gets progressively less crowded as you walk west from the Palace Pier. The "I live in Hove, actually" joke about residents who technically live in Brighton has become a local cliché, which tells you something about the neighbourhood's self-image.
Church Road and Western Road are Hove's main shopping streets, calmer and more local than Brighton's central shopping areas. The seafront lawns between the promenade and the beach are popular with families and dog walkers. The Hove Museum and Art Gallery on New Church Road has a collection of early cinema memorabilia and decorative arts in a Victorian villa. For a less crowded version of the Brighton seafront experience, walking west into Hove is the easy answer.