BRIGHTON might sell you a stylish fascinator but Southend will plonk a kiss-me-quick hat on your head and tell you to get stuck in. Which I do, diving through the gates of Adventure Island funfair whooping up, down and sideways.

The Essex resort's fortunes soared with the coming of the railway in the 1850s as it provided Londoners with a beach just an hour away. The town blossomed taking on a dual focus: raucous workingclass attractions east of the pier and a more genteel ambience for the well-to-do to the west.

Now a new influx looms with easyJet's plans to make Southend Airport a new hub from April 2012 with around 70 flights a week bringing in passengers from all over Europe.

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Before taking the train to sample the forthcoming Olympic action at Stratford, new arrivals should check where they've landed.
It's not quite Essex's answer to San Tropez but it sure has a strong sense of place. There's the world's longest pleasure pier for starters. Trains offer a lazy way to cover the mile-anda-third stretch. I prefer walking on water, retracing a route made famous by the end credits of the legendary TV series Minder. Tightwad Arthur Daley famously chose to walk to save the nominal fare - now strollers have to fork out (£3.60) too.

Arthur would doubtless have referred to sharks, but I set aside any grumbles to check out the real ones at the nearby aquarium, pausing en route to blow a few quid in the arcades, whose names take me on a trip from New York to Las Vegas via Monte Carlo.

Nearby, the ornately domed 19th-century Kursaal, thought to be the world's first theme park, proclaims itself a "Palace of Fun" where high-rollers and low-rollers mingle thanks to a quirky Essex combo of a casino and tenpin bowling alley.

You can raise the tone with a stroll up to Southchurch Hall, nestled amid pretty ponds and leafy walkways in Southchurch Park. This 14th-century manor, houses a charming domestic panoply of the ages: a Great Hall decked out with Middle Ages mementos, a Tudor kitchen, 17th-century living room, a Victorian bedroom and it's free. Arthur would approve.

In search of a good cuppa, I ask the locals and get pointed towards The Alexandra Bowling Green Cafe west of the pier where I discover another world.
It turns out to be the pretty La Petite Petanque at Cambridge Square Gardens and I have to agree with the locals' tip as I sip tea from a porcelain cup in the sun beside a bowling green as smooth as a billiard table.

On Royal Terrace I admire the Georgian balconied villas with their grand views, then dive into Hamiltons, a Grade II-listed bolthole that's now an upmarket B&B artfully blending antique chandeliers with new boutique touches (top showers, Egyptian cotton bedding, DVDs).

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For dinner I try Bacchus on Alexandra Street where amid the ornate décor, my pork done three ways passes muster.
Later I'm happy drifting off to sleep wondering what Nelson's mistress Emma Hamilton (after whom the B&B is named) made of Southend on visits here with her famous lover.

Next day, a bracing 15-minute stroll brings me to the Beecroft Art Gallery and its collection of 18th and 19th-century paintings of the area and contemporary photography. Bang opposite, the Cliffs Pavilion is Southend's showtime mecca, emblazoned with ads featuring telly folk, West End transfers and new gigs by veteran stars such as the aptly named David Essex.

For lunch it's a quick train trip to Leigh-on-Sea where I amble along its pretty high street a few yards from bobbing boats that helped the Dunkirk evacuation.
I catch the tail-end of the Leigh Art Trail and ponder novel sporting events at Old Leigh Regatta: we'd be gold shoo-ins if we added cockle-eating and mudflat football to the Olympics.

After admiring a sand sculptor at work on charming Bell Wharf beach, I grab a table at Osborne Bros for obligatory quayside worship of fabulous cockles and fresh anchovies.

I'm not sure what European visitors would make of jellied eels, mind but washed down with a pint from the atmospheric Crooked Billet across the road I'm sure they could acquire a taste for the Essex seaside.

THE KNOWLEDGE:
c2c (0870 333 4871/www.c2c-online.co.uk) offers return rail travel to Southend from Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street from £10.80. easyJet (0843 104 5000/www.easyjet.com) offers 10 European flight routes from Southend Airport from April 2012, tickets on sale from July. Hamiltons Boutique Hotel (01702 332350/www.hamiltonsboutiquehotel.co.uk) offers doubles from £60 per night (two sharing) B&B.
Visit Southend: 01702 618747/www.visitsouthend.co.uk