The Hove seafront stretches west from the Peace Statue (which marks the border with Brighton) for about two kilometres toward the marina and beyond. The beach is shingle throughout — the same flint pebbles as Brighton — shelving steeply into the Channel, and the groynes that divide it into sections create small sheltered bays that catch the afternoon sun. The promenade above the beach is wide and flat, popular with cyclists, dog walkers, and runners in all weathers.
The beach huts at the western end are a distinctively British institution — small painted wooden structures rented by the season for changing, picnicking, and sitting in front of regardless of weather. The seafront in summer has a genuine local quality: families from the surrounding terraces, regular swimmers taking their daily dip, retirees with windbreaks and flasks.