Canterbury

Canterbury stands on the Great Stour in east Kent, about sixty miles south-east of London and a twenty-minute drive from the North Sea coast. It is a compact city, and you can walk the circuit of the medieval walls in well under an hour, yet few places in England carry as much history per square yard. The Romans laid out the street grid, St Augustine founded an abbey here in 597, and the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in 1170 turned the cathedral into the busiest pilgrimage destination in northern Europe. Chaucer's fictional travellers were bound for this exact spot, and the modern visitor arrives along more or less the same road.

What surprises first-timers is how ordinary the extraordinary feels. The cathedral precincts are hushed and monumental, but step back through Christ Church Gate and you are among coffee shops, buskers and bicycles. Two universities and an arts college give the place a young, term-time energy that stops it becoming a museum piece. Independent bookshops, record shops and micropubs sit alongside the chain stores on the pedestrianised High Street, and the Great Stour splits into channels that run directly beneath the buildings.

Canterbury also works well as a base for the wider county. Whitstable and its oyster beds are seven miles north, Herne Bay and Faversham are close by, the white cliffs at Dover are half an hour away, and the orchards, hop gardens and vineyards of the Kent Downs begin almost at the edge of the ring road. For a weekend you need little more than comfortable shoes; for a week you have most of east Kent within easy reach.

Top things to do in Canterbury

Almost everything worth seeing sits inside the walls or just beyond them, which makes planning refreshingly simple.

• Canterbury Cathedral - the mother church of the Anglican Communion and the centrepiece of the city's UNESCO World Heritage Site. Allow at least two hours for the nave, the Romanesque crypt, the Trinity Chapel and the spot in the north-west transept where Becket was killed.
• St Augustine's Abbey - the ruined Benedictine monastery founded in 597 and now cared for by English Heritage. The excavated foundations and the small museum explain how Christianity took hold in Anglo-Saxon England.
• St Martin's Church - the third element of the World Heritage Site and arguably the most extraordinary: a working parish church in continuous use since before Augustine arrived, with reused Roman brick still visible in its walls.
• Westgate Towers and Gardens - the largest surviving city gate in England, with a museum inside and a rampart walk above the road. The riverside gardens below are the prettiest green space in the centre.
• A river trip on the Great Stour - guided punt and rowing-boat tours slip beneath the old weavers' houses and behind the city walls, offering a view of Canterbury you simply cannot get on foot.
• The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge - the free museum, library and gallery on the High Street, mixing local archaeology and natural history with a respectable painting collection and changing exhibitions.
• Canterbury Roman Museum - built underground around an in-situ mosaic floor and hypocaust uncovered after wartime bombing, several feet below the modern pavement.
• Howletts Wild Animal Park - three miles out at Bekesbourne, a conservation-led park known for its gorillas, elephants and big cats, and an easy half-day with children.

Getting to Canterbury

Trains are the obvious choice. Southeastern's high-speed Javelin service runs from London St Pancras International to Canterbury West in roughly 55 minutes, hourly through the day and more frequently at peak, with advance fares starting at around 13 pounds. The slower classic route from London Victoria and London Charing Cross serves Canterbury East and takes closer to an hour and a half, but is often cheaper. Both stations are a short walk from the centre: Canterbury West is handiest for the Westgate end, Canterbury East for Castle Street and Dane John.

By road, Canterbury sits on the A2, which feeds into the M2 and then the M25. From central London expect somewhere between ninety minutes and two hours depending on traffic. From Ashford and the M20 corridor the A28 takes about half an hour. Driving inside the walls is actively discouraged and central parking is limited and expensive, so use one of the three park and ride sites at Wincheap, New Dover Road and Sturry Road, which run frequent buses into town for a fraction of the cost of a multi-storey.

For air travellers, Gatwick is around an hour and three-quarters by car and Heathrow closer to two hours, with coach links from both. Eurostar passengers can change at Ebbsfleet International or St Pancras for the high-speed line. The Port of Dover and the Eurotunnel terminal near Folkestone are each roughly half an hour away by road, which makes Canterbury a sensible first or last night for anyone crossing the Channel.

Best time to visit Canterbury

Spring is arguably the best of it. The Kent orchards and the Westgate Gardens come into blossom from late March, the cathedral is comparatively calm before the coach season begins, and rooms cost less than they will in July. April can be showery, so pack for it, but the light on the cathedral stonework in May is hard to beat.

Summer brings the crowds, the language students and the highest prices, and the lanes around the Buttermarket can feel congested in the middle of the day. It remains a good time to come if you start early and make use of the evenings, once the day-trippers have gone and the pub gardens along the river fill up. The Medieval Pageant in early July is a genuinely local affair rather than a tourist confection.

Autumn is the quiet favourite. The Canterbury Festival runs through the second half of October with music, theatre, comedy and talks staged across the city, the weather often stays settled well into November, and the countryside is at its best during the hop and apple harvest. Accommodation rates drop noticeably once the schools go back.

Winter is cold and can be damp, but Canterbury carries it well. The Christmas market and the cathedral's Advent and carol services are worth planning a trip around, and a foggy morning in the precincts is genuinely memorable. Several smaller attractions reduce their opening hours between November and February, so check before travelling.

Where to stay in Canterbury

Inside the walls is the natural choice for a short break. The streets around the High Street, Burgate, Palace Street and the Precincts put the cathedral, the Marlowe Theatre and the best restaurants within a few minutes on foot, and one property sits in the cathedral grounds themselves. You pay for the privilege, and rooms facing the street can be lively on Friday and Saturday nights.

St Dunstan's, immediately outside the Westgate and across the river, is the sweet spot for many visitors. It is five minutes from the centre, three minutes from Canterbury West station, and lined with Georgian and Victorian houses that have converted unusually well into guest houses and small hotels. Parking is far easier here than inside the walls.

New Dover Road runs south-east from the centre and has a cluster of large Victorian villas turned into hotels, with gardens and off-street parking. It suits drivers and families, and the walk in takes about fifteen minutes past the Kent county cricket ground.

Wincheap, to the south-west, is the budget end: chain hotels, the biggest park and ride and quick access to the A2. Functional rather than charming, but useful if you are touring the county by car.

The surrounding villages and coast are a real alternative. Bridge, Chartham, Fordwich and Chilham all have inns or bed and breakfasts within fifteen minutes' drive, while Whitstable and Herne Bay give you a seaside base with regular trains and buses into the city.

Food and drink in Canterbury

Kent calls itself the Garden of England and Canterbury eats accordingly. Whitstable oysters appear on menus all year, Kentish lamb and Romney Marsh mutton in season, and local orchards supply cherries, plums and cobnuts from late summer into autumn. Gypsy tart, a treacly and unapologetically sweet school-dinner pudding, is a real Kentish speciality and still turns up in cafes and pubs. Wine is the newer story: vineyards along the North Downs now produce sparkling wine that features on most decent local lists.

The Goods Shed, in a Victorian railway building beside Canterbury West station, is the city's single best food destination - a permanent farmers' market with butchers, bakers, fishmongers and greengrocers, plus a restaurant on the mezzanine that cooks whatever the stalls have brought in that morning. For dinner, The Ambrette on Beer Cart Lane serves refined modern Indian cooking built on Kentish ingredients, and Cafe des Amis near the Westgate has been feeding Canterbury Mexican food for decades. Three miles out at Fordwich, the Fordwich Arms holds a Michelin star and is worth the taxi fare.

On the drinking side, Shepherd Neame of Faversham, Britain's oldest brewer, supplies much of the city, and the Millers Arms by the river is a dependable place to work through its ales. The Parrot on Church Lane occupies a building put up in 1370, the Old Buttermarket stands directly opposite Christ Church Gate, and the Foundry Brew Pub on White Horse Lane brews on the premises and distils its own gin. For coffee and cake, the independents along the Kings Mile and Palace Street are consistently better than the chains on the High Street.