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Kent
Awarded Best in Travel 2022
Kent isn’t described as the garden of England for nothing. Within its sea-lined borders you’ll find a fragrant landscape of gentle hills, fertile farmland, cultivated country estates and fruit-laden orchards. It could also be described as the beer garden of England as it produces the world-renowned Kent hops and some of the country’s finest ales and wines from its numerous vineyards. At its heart is spellbinding Canterbury, crowned by its enthralling cathedral. You’ll also find beautiful coastal stretches dotted with beach towns and villages, from old-school Broadstairs to gentrified Whitstable and the aesthetically challenged port town of Dover.
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Top attractions
These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Kent.
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Canterbury Cathedral
A rich repository of more than 1400 years of Christian history, Canterbury Cathedral is the Church of England’s mother ship, and a truly extraordinary place with an absorbing history. This Gothic cathedral, the highlight of the city’s World Heritage Sites, is southeast England’s top tourist attraction as well as a place of worship. It is also the site of English history’s most famous murder: Archbishop Thomas Becket was killed here in 1170. The cathedral is an overwhelming edifice crammed with enthralling stories, arresting architecture and a very real and enduring sense of spirituality – although visitors can’t help but pick up on the ominous undertones of violence and bloodshed that whisper from its walls. It's worth spending at least two hours at the cathedral © Angel Villalba / Getty Images History St Augustine, a missionary sent from Rome, built the first cathedral here sometime after his arrival in England in 597CE. He became the first Archbishop of Canterbury and formed a household here. A major fire damaged the building around 1070, leading to the cathedral being completely rebuilt by the Normans. Later, a community of Benedictine monks lived at the cathedral until Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540. Even after 800 years, it's the story of Archbishop Thomas Becket that continues to draw many pilgrims to Canterbury Cathedral. The martyrdom of Thomas Becket Not one to shy away from cronyism, in 1162 King Henry II appointed his good friend Thomas Becket to the highest clerical office in the land, figuring it would be easier to force the increasingly vocal religious lobby to fall into line if he was pals with the archbishop. Unfortunately for Henry, he underestimated how seriously Thomas would take the job, and the archbishop soon began to disagree with almost everything the king said or did. By 1170, Henry had become exasperated with his former favorite and suggested to four of his knights that Thomas was too much to bear. Becket was murdered on December 29. Becket’s martyrdom – and canonization in double-quick time (1173) – catapulted Canterbury Cathedral to the top of the league of northern European pilgrimage sites. Mindful of the growing criticism of his role in Becket’s murder, Henry arrived in Canterbury in 1174 for a dramatic mea culpa and, after allowing himself to be whipped and scolded, was granted absolution. A candle burns continuously to mark the place where Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral © Claudio Divizia / Shutterstock Canterbury Cathedral today This ancient structure is packed with monuments commemorating the nation’s battles. Also here are the grave and heraldic tunic of one of the nation’s most famous warmongers, Edward the Black Prince (1330–76). The spot in the northwest transept where Becket met his grisly end is marked by a flickering candle and a striking modern altar. The doorway to the crypt is beside the altar. This cavernous space is the cathedral’s highlight, the only survivor from another devastating fire in 1174, which destroyed the rest of the building. Look for the amazingly well-preserved carvings among the forest of pillars. The wealth of detail in the cathedral is immense and unrelenting, so allow at least two hours to do it justice. Tickets Entry to the cathedral is timed and tickets must be pre-booked online. Guided tours run with limited availability; call on the day (01227 762862) or ask at the desk on arrival.
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Dover Castle
Occupying top spot, literally and figuratively, in Dover’s townscape, this most impressive of castles was built to bolster the country’s weakest point at the shortest sea crossing to mainland Europe. The highlights here are the unmissable secret wartime tunnels and the Great Tower, but the huge area it sprawls across has a lot of other interesting sights, so allow at least three hours for your visit, more if you stand to admire the views across the Channel to France. The site has been in use for as many as 2000 years. On the vast grounds are the remains of a Roman lighthouse, which dates from AD 50 and may be the oldest standing building in Britain. Beside it lies the restored Saxon Church of St Mary in Castro. The robust 12th-century Great Tower, with walls up to 7m thick, is a medieval warren filled with interactive exhibits and light-and-sound shows that take visitors back to the times of Henry II. However, the biggest draw of all is the network of secret wartime tunnels. The claustrophobic chalk-hewn passageways were first excavated during the Napoleonic Wars and then expanded to house a command post and hospital in WWII. The highly enjoyable 50-minute guided tour (every 20 minutes, included in the ticket price) tells the story of one of Britain's most famous wartime operations, code-named Dynamo, which was directed from here in 1940 and saw hundreds of thousands of soldiers evacuated from the beaches at Dunkirk. The story is told in a very effective way, with video projected sharply onto the tunnel walls and sounds rumbling through the rock. At one point, the entire passageway is consumed in flames and at others visitors are plunged into complete darkness.
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Banksy Brexit Mural
Despite voting leave, the poor port town of Dover is possibly the Southeast community set to suffer most post-Brexit. It was perhaps for that reason that Banksy chose a highly visible gable end to create his Brexit mural that appeared overnight one May weekend in 2017. The huge artwork depicts a workman chipping away at one of the yellow stars of the EU flag, cracks splintering off in all directions across the image.
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Secret Wartime Tunnels
The biggest draw at Dover Castle is the secret wartime tunnels. The claustrophobic chalk-hewn passageways were excavated during the Napoleonic Wars and then expanded to house a command post and hospital in WWII. The highly enjoyable 50-minute guided tour (every 20 minutes, included in the ticket price) tells the story of one of Britain’s most famous wartime operations, code-named Dynamo, which was directed from here in 1940 and saw hundreds of thousands of men evacuated from the beaches at Dunkirk. The story is told in a very effective way, with video projected sharply onto the tunnel walls and sounds rumbling through the rock. At one point the entire passageway is consumed in flames and at others visitors are plunged into complete darkness.
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Beaney House of Art & Knowledge
This mock-Tudor edifice is the grandest on the main shopping thoroughfare, if not the most authentic. Formerly called the Royal Museum & Art Gallery, it has housed Canterbury’s main library, a museum and an art gallery since 1899 – its current name is in honour of the 19th-century benefactor who funded the original building. In addition to the city’s main library and the tourist office, the mixed bag of museum exhibits is worth half an hour between the main sights. There’s also a good cafe and very well-curated temporary exhibitions (admission sometimes charged).
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Roman Museum
This fascinating subterranean archaeological site gives an insight into Canterbury’s everyday life almost two millennia ago. Visitors can stroll a reconstructed Roman marketplace and rooms, including a kitchen, as well as view Roman mosaic floors. Almost everything you see here was only discovered after WWII bombs did a bit of impromptu excavation. A standout exhibit is an almost completely intact Roman soldier's helmet dating from Caesar's invasion, dug up near the village of Bridge in 2012. It's the best ever found in the UK.
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St Martin’s Church
This stumpy little building just off the road from Canterbury to Sandwich is thought to be England’s oldest parish church in continuous use. It’s also where Queen Bertha (wife of the Saxon King Ethelbert) welcomed St Augustine when he arrived in England in the 6th century. The original Saxon church has been swallowed up by a medieval refurbishment, but it’s still worth the walk out of town to see.
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Roman Painted House
A crumbling 1960s bunker is the unlikely setting for some of the most extensive, if stunted, Roman wall paintings north of the Alps. Several scenes depict Bacchus (Roman god of wine and revelry), which makes perfect sense as this large villa was built around AD 200 as a mansio (hotel) for travellers needing a little lubrication to unwind.
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Dover Museum
By far the most enthralling exhibit in the town's three-storey museum is an astonishing 3600-year-old Bronze Age boat, discovered here in 1992. Vaunted as the world's oldest-known seagoing vessel, it measures a thumping 9.5m by 2.4m and is kept in a huge, low-lit, climate-controlled glass case.