Brighton Le Sands is located 13 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, on the western shore of Botany Bay.

Lady Robinsons Beach and Cook Park run along the eastern border of Brighton Le Sands, on Botany Bay.

Cook Park, established in about 1882, is a strip of reserve land 30 metres inland from the high water mark of the sea.

[2] Land acquisitions began in the 1840s but no significant development of Brighton Le Sands occurred until the railway opened to Hurstville, via Rockdale in 1884.

Thomas Saywell also financed and built the public swimming baths, a substantial picnic area called the Shady Nook Recreational Park (1898–1918), a race course and the Brighton Hotel, on the current Novotel site.

[citation needed] The depression of the 1890s meant that many unemployed workers lived in the district and frequented the hotel, leading to a crisis for the area.

For the first 20 years of the 20th century, a small boat ran a ferry service around Botany Bay, with an important stop at Brighton Le Sands.

[4] The main shopping precinct is located along Bay Street and extends to the foreshore on The Grand Parade and down a short length of Moate Avenue.

The landmark Novotel Hotel Brighton Beach, located on north-western corner of the intersection of Bay Street and The Grand Parade, also contains a significant amount of commercial and retail space.

Many cafés and restaurants are located along The Grand Parade and Bay Street, covering many types of cuisine: Australian, Greek, French, European, Italian, Thai and Japanese.

Shops and services include supermarket, banks, post office, clothing, jewellery, hair dressers, doctors and fishing supplies.

The supermarket is part of a high-rise residential development and the incorporation of a car park was a requirement for Coles to be allowed to trade from this site.

Historically, starting in 1903, a weekend ferry service connected Brighton-le-Sands, Kurnell, Sans Souci, and La Perouse.

The area has been dubbed 'Little Greece by the Bay' for its many Greek cafés, restaurants and businesses, including on the beach side of The Grand Parade, overlooking the sand and the boardwalk.

Bay Street was also closed at night and a large screen erected during the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics, however this proved less popular and wasn't repeated for future sporting events.

Brighton Le Sands is the site of the Bicentennial Monument which stands in Cook Park, on the Botany Bay foreshore.

A shared paved walkway and cycleway runs the length of Cook Park from Kyeemagh to Sandringham (approximately 7 kilometres) and is popular with both walkers, joggers and cyclists especially on weekends.

For cyclists it provides access to the Homebush Bay Cycle route (North from Kyeemagh), and the Cronulla to Kurnell cycleway via the Captain Cook Bridge (South), and also forms part of the Sydney Coastal Walk.

Every New Year's Eve, Bayside Council holds a popular family fireworks display over the water at 9pm which attracts tens of thousands of visitors to Brighton Beach.