Benji Lanyado’s one-day Twitter adventure amassed 250 tweets, dozens of off-guide finds – and he even got to meet the local tweeters

Back in February, I visited Paris having planned nothing. Except, that Twitter would be my sole guide. Forty-eight hours later, I had stomped across the city and back, powered by hundreds of ideas generated by the good people of the Twittersphere. A few weeks later, the Guardian’s Anna Pickard ventured out on her own “TwiTrip” in San Francisco – Twitter HQ. And a few days ago, we brought the TwiTrip home … to Brighton.

During the course of the day, I received over 250 tips, from subterranean music venues to tweeted invites for me to help out with a Brighton local’s house chores. Here’s how it panned out:

The TwiTrip Tips

It started badly. The entire TwiTrip was pinned on the reliability of mobile internet, and, timed to perfection, my network provider managed to screw up its internet provision across the country. Thus the first tweeted tip I received was imbued with irony – “Try a guidebook. They never go offline.”

But the technology gods were smiling on me, and mobile internet was restored, so off I trotted to St Pancras. My first request was for things to do near Brighton station … and I was inundated. I decided to go with artistmaker‘s and greg_dreyfus‘s suggestions, admiring the vintage car collection in the ancient Brighton Toy Museum via the iconic Banksy graffiti daubed on a pub wall depicting two policemen snogging. Dionne and NickHS recommended following this up with a coffee Coffee at 33, so I duly obliged.

I began my march seawards via North Laine, admiring the packed shelves at cult store Dave’s Comics and grabbing a bite to eat in the heaving Hell’s Kitchen, as instructed by blog_brighton and electroweb respectively. Alas, I didn’t have time to pop over to wilsondan‘s house to do his hoovering. Next time, Dan.

Down at the beach, I found Brightonians sprinkled across the pebbles sunbathing, and a brave few hazarding a dip in the sea. Downatheel gave me the instructions I had been hoping for (I admit), and I sprinted for the Palace pier, where I stalked some old ladies hovering around the penny machines, and battled gamely for a packet of immovable Parma Violets.

Jodyraynsford rescued me from certain bankruptcy at 2p at a time, ushering me towards the Volks Railway, the world’s oldest operating electric line, where I sniggered maturely while gliding past the halfway point at Banjo Groyne and kept my eyes peeled for HussyBrighton‘s “fat naked men wearing trainers”.

It was beer time. Pjwhitehouse16 and ricard67 both recommended the Barley Mow, a cracking little neighbourhood pub in Kemptown, where boxes of latterday sweets sit innocently alongside the booze. I opted for a handful of Disco Disks and a caramel Freddo washed down with a pint of Harvey’s Bitter. Superb.

By far the most tweeted tip of the day was the Basketmakers pub, back in North Laine, another great local brimming with post-work drinkers, where the walls are coated in tins containing messages penned by punters. Fortuitously, a tipster from earlier in the day, NickHS, was sat at the bar, so I joined him.

The next tip was likewise matched with a real-life person to accompany the online recommendation. Jonathas had picked out a gig at subterranean arts space The Basement, where guests were stacked on large terraced stairs watching Richard Walters perform. I sat next to Jonathas and his girlfriend throughout.

Finally, a challenge. Chrisbillett tweeted that “you have to finish any day in Brighton at the Bee’s Mouth… I did as I was told, and dragged Jonathas and his girlfriend along, finding a pleasantly seedy nightspot with a DJ playing electronica as the bar filled up with one-for-the-road drinkers.

The end of another very fun TwiTrip, with plenty of things I wouldn’t have found without Twitter at my fingertips. And meeting some of the Brightonian twitterers was an unexpected highlight. Turns out the world’s hottest social networking site can be social offline, too.

• Benji Lanyado stayed at the Pelirocco Hotel (doubles from £90pn, +44 (0)1273 327055), as recommended by M_Hensh and smoxlington.