Must-see attractions in Kent

  • Canterbury Cathedral, Kent, England

    Canterbury Cathedral

    Canterbury

    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…

  • Leeds castle taken Just before the Sun appeared over the hill

    Leeds Castle

    Kent

    Leeds Castle, an immense moated pile just east of Maidstone,  is often considered the world’s most romantic castle. It's certainly one of the most visited…

  • Westerham England - August 21 2019; Chartwell country house of Winston Churchill now part of National Trust.

    Chartwell

    Kent

    The Chartwell Estate was home of Sir Winston Churchill from 1924 until his death in 1965. It offers a breathtakingly intimate insight into the life of…

  • MARGATE, ENGLAND - DEC 10, 2014 Turner Contemporary gallery, exhibition space, designed by David Chipperfield.

    Turner Contemporary

    Kent

    Turner Contemporary is a blockbuster art gallery, bolted together on the site of the seafront guesthouse where master painter JMW Turner used to stay…

  • Down, England - July 28, 2006: Down House, Charles Darwin's home, now a Museum, seen from the back garden.

    Down House

    Kent

    Down House, on the edge of the quaint Kent village of Downe, was Charles Darwin's home from 1842 until his death in 1882. It was here that he developed…

  • Dover Castle with tourists entering.

    Dover Castle

    Dover

    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…

  • Banksy Brexit Mural - removed

    Dover

    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…

  • J962YH Canterbury, Kent, UK. Beaney House of Art and Knowledge - Royal Museum and Free Library at 18 High Street. The building takes its name from its benefa

    Beaney House of Art & Knowledge

    Canterbury

    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…

  • Secret Wartime Tunnels

    Dover

    The biggest draw at Dover Castle is the secret wartime tunnels. The claustrophobic chalk-hewn passageways were excavated during the Napoleonic Wars and…

  • Richborough Roman Fort

    Kent

    Roman Britain began here amid the windswept ruins of Richborough’s Roman Fort, just 2 miles north of Sandwich. This is where the successful AD 43 invasion…

  • Spitfire Memorial Museum

    Kent

    Around 4 miles northwest of Ramsgate’s town centre at Manston Airport, this purpose-built museum stores two WWII planes: one a Spitfire, the other a…

  • Sandwich Quay

    Kent

    Several attractions line the River Stour. The cute little flint-chequered Barbican tollgate was built by Henry VIII and controls traffic flow over the…

  • Dreamland

    Kent

    Given the kiss of life using lottery and council funds, Margate’s famous amusement park has come back to life after many years of lying derelict and stop…

  • Roman Museum

    Canterbury

    This fascinating subterranean archaeological site gives an insight into Canterbury’s everyday life almost two millennia ago. Visitors can stroll a…

  • Guildhall Museum

    Kent

    Sandwich’s small but thorough museum is a good place to start exploring the town. The exhibition space was fully renovated in 2017 to house a copy of the…

  • Salutation Gardens

    Kent

    Just along from Fishergate, this set of exquisite gardens was laid out behind a 1912 mansion by leading early 20th-century garden designers Gertrude…

  • St Augustine’s Abbey

    Canterbury

    An integral but often overlooked part of the Canterbury World Heritage Site, St Augustine’s Abbey was founded in AD 597, marking the rebirth of…

  • Chatham Historic Dockyard

    Kent

    On the riverfront in Chatham, this historic dockyard, a candidate for Unesco heritage status, occupies a third of what was once the Royal Navy’s main dock…

  • St Martin’s Church

    Canterbury

    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…

  • Shell Grotto

    Kent

    Margate’s unique attraction is a mysterious subterranean grotto, discovered in 1835. It’s a claustrophobic collection of rooms and passageways embedded…

  • West Gate Towers

    Canterbury

    The city’s only remaining medieval gateway (1380) houses a museum that focuses on the building’s use as a prison. The views from the top are pretty good,…

  • St Peter’s

    Kent

    The oldest church in Sandwich is now no longer used for worship. It’s a real mixture of styles and years: its tower collapsed in dramatic fashion in 1661…

  • Eastbridge Hospital

    Canterbury

    A ‘place of hospitality’ for pilgrims, soldiers and the elderly since 1180, Eastbridge Hospital of St Thomas the Martyr is the last of many such buildings…

  • Roman Painted House

    Dover

    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…

  • St Margaret’s Bay

    Kent

    A mile further along the clifftop trail from the South Foreland Lighthouse, you will reach the delightful village of St Margaret’s Bay, a gap in the chalk…

  • Whitstable Museum & Gallery

    Kent

    This modest community museum has glass cases examining Whitstable’s oyster industry, the Crab & Winkle Railway which once ran from Canterbury, and the…

  • Dover Museum

    Dover

    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…

  • Canterbury Tales

    Canterbury

    This ambitious, overpriced three-dimensional interpretation of Chaucer’s classic tales using jerky animatronics and audioguides is certainly entertaining,…

  • South Foreland Lighthouse

    Kent

    From the Langdon Cliffs tourist office, follow the stony path east along the clifftops for a bracing 2-mile walk to the stout Victorian South Foreland…

  • Dickens House Museum

    Kent

    This quaint museum is Broadstairs’ top indoor attraction and the former home of Mary Pearson Strong – Dickens’ inspiration for the character of Betsey…

  • St Mary’s

    Kent

    This former church is now a multipurpose venue hosting some surprisingly big acts. It’s open during the day for perusal and is worth a look for its…

  • Greyfriars Chapel

    Canterbury

    You’ll find Greyfriars Chapel in serene riverside gardens behind Eastbridge Hospital. The first monastery built in England by Franciscan monks in 1267,…

  • Biddenden Vineyards

    Kent

    Situated 1.2 miles from Wealden, this famous Kent winery runs tours for the public, which naturally include a tasting session. Booking ahead is advised as…

  • Ramsgate Maritime Museum

    Kent

    Interesting but erratically opening museum displaying loot from the more than 600 ships that have been wrecked on the notorious Goodwin Sands off this…

  • Chapel Down Vinery

    Kent

    Located 2.5 miles south of Tenterden on the B2082, this award-winning vineyard produces some of Kent’s best wine and bubbly. Tours should be booked well…

  • Roman Lighthouse

    Dover

    This Roman-era lighthouse is Britain's oldest standing building and dates from around AD 50.

  • Saxon Church

    Dover

    The restored Saxon Church of St Mary in Castro can be found up in the castle.

More destinations you need to see