The all new open top ‘route 66’ bus will be hitting the streets of Hastings on Saturday 25th May - for the first time ever!
The route will start at Harley Shute, serving Combe Haven Holiday Park, down to the The Bo-Peep Pub and along the seafront, as far as The Stade.
There’s plenty to do and see along the route! Here are a few ideas:
Take a look into the world of Serial Killers, Forensics, Gangsters, Prisoners and much more at the True Crime Museum.
Go back in time and visit Hastings Castle, built by William the Conqueror himself – it’s nearly 1,000 years old!
Listen to the "Smugglers Adventure" story, including interactive displays & life-size characters!
Ride the East Hill lift, the UK's steepest funicular railway.
Take a shot at Hastings Adventure Golf, it features no less than 3 separate 18 hole courses! So bring one, bring all, play one, play all!
Get creative with some contemporary British art at the Jerwood Gallery, soon to be Hastings Contemporary.
Get up close to countless species of marine life at Blue Reef Aquarium – from sharks and stingrays to seahorses and clownfish.
Hop on and off all day with an adult dayrider, it costs just £4.50 on the bus - it’s even cheaper at £4.20 if you buy it on our app. With an adult dayrider you can add a kid for a quid, bargain! You can add up to four kids for £1 each. Hastings and South East megarider tickets are valid on the route at all times and concession passes can be used within the usual times of validity.
Look out for the bus! It will be in a special colourful design featuring all the fun things you can do along the route.
And finally.......................
Not the first time Hastings has had a dedicated open-top bus service. Several decades ago in the last century (!), Maidstone & District operated just such using a couple of AEC Regal single-decks with Beadle bodywork.
June 1976 and fleet number 4003 (HKL 436) heads for the seafront ready for the first trip around the town. Originally SO26 in the National Bus Company subsidiary M&D fleet from 1947 as a closed top bus, it was converted during 1958 to open-top form.
Ten years on and 4003 had become 436 in the post NBC privatised Hastings & District fleet. Repainted with the green replaced by red on the livery, 436 made an appearance at the annual Southsea Spectacular bus rally and illustrated here as it headed a parade of vintage buses around the common area during June 1986.
