Folkestone

Folkestone''s hotels trade on the town''s Victorian seaside heritage, with grand townhouses along The Leas clifftop offering some of the best sea views on this stretch of coast, many converted into boutique hotels with a period feel alongside contemporary comfort. Closer to the harbour and town centre, a mix of independent guesthouses and larger chain hotels puts you within walking distance of the Harbour Arm and Creative Quarter, useful if you want an evening stroll to dinner without needing a car. Budget and business-style hotels cluster near the station and the M20, handy for an overnight stop before an early Eurotunnel crossing or as a base for exploring the wider East Kent coast, including Dover and the White Cliffs, Sandgate and Hythe.

Self-catering apartments overlooking the harbour are increasingly popular for weekend breaks, particularly since the Harbour Arm''s redevelopment, letting visitors watch the fishing boats and Channel traffic from their own balcony. Families tend to look toward the streets behind Sunny Sands beach or the quieter west end of town near the Leas Lift, both an easy walk from the sand and the coastal park. Whichever part of town you choose, Folkestone''s compact size means nowhere is more than fifteen or twenty minutes'' walk from the seafront, the station or the Creative Quarter''s restaurants and galleries.

Folkestone rewards wandering on foot, with most of its highlights within easy reach of the town centre and seafront.

• Folkestone Harbour Arm — the old Victorian harbour railway pier has been transformed into a pedestrian promenade lined with independent food stalls, bars and a restored 1900s lighthouse, with sweeping views back across the town and out to sea.
• The Creative Quarter — a cluster of streets around the Old High Street, Tontine Street and Rendezvous Street filled with independent galleries, artists'' studios, vintage shops and cafes, born out of a major regeneration project that has turned empty shopfronts into working creative spaces.
• The Leas — a long Victorian clifftop promenade with uninterrupted Channel views, linked to the seafront below by the historic Leas Lift funicular and bordered by the landscaped Lower Leas Coastal Park.
• Folkestone Museum and F51 — the town museum tells the story of Folkestone''s smuggling, seaside and wartime past, while the nearby F51 skate park, housed in a striking modern concrete building, is one of the largest in Europe.
• White Cliffs walks — the chalk cliffs made famous at nearby Dover begin just outside Folkestone, and coastal footpaths lead east along the clifftops with far-reaching views across the Channel towards France on a clear day.
• Folkestone Warren and East Cliff — a wild, undercliff nature reserve of tumbled chalk and scrub beneath the cliffs, popular with walkers and birdwatchers and a quieter alternative to the town beaches.
• Sunny Sands and the harbour beach — a small, sheltered sandy beach right beside the harbour, popular with families and one of the few proper sand beaches on this stretch of coast.

The Harbour Arm is the obvious starting point, its converted huts and stalls serving everything from fresh oysters and fish and chips to wood-fired pizza and craft beer, with communal seating looking straight out to sea. In the Creative Quarter, independent cafes and bakeries around the Old High Street cater well to a slower pace, while the town has a growing reputation for seafood thanks to its working fishing fleet still landing catches at the harbour. Pubs and bars are spread through the town centre and seafront, ranging from traditional real ale houses to newer bars that have opened alongside the creative regeneration of recent years.

Folkestone sits on a dramatic stretch of the Kent coast where chalk cliffs, wooded downland and the Channel meet, and the surrounding countryside offers a good range of campsites and glamping sites for visitors who want to combine a coastal break with time outdoors. As in the rest of England, wild camping without the landowner''s permission is not legal here, so it''s worth sticking to licensed sites, of which there are several within a short drive of the town, from traditional touring and tent pitches to farm-based glamping with shepherd''s huts, yurts and bell tents. Many sit inland toward the North Downs or along the coast towards Dover and Hythe, giving easy access to both the cliff path walks and the beaches around Folkestone Warren and Sunny Sands.

The terrain here is a mix of exposed clifftop grassland, sheltered wooded valleys cut into the downs, and the flatter coastal strip around the harbour and Romney Marsh to the west, so site conditions vary a good deal over a short distance; some pitches are fully open to the Channel winds while others sit tucked into farmland a mile or two inland. This makes late spring through to early autumn, roughly May to September, the most comfortable window for camping, when daytime temperatures are mild and the coastal paths are at their best for walking, though the White Cliffs and Warren nature reserve are striking to visit at any time of year if you''re prepared for wind and rain.

Glamping has grown steadily in this part of Kent as an alternative to a traditional tent, with several sites offering fixed-structure accommodation that takes the uncertainty out of the notoriously changeable Channel coast weather while still keeping campers close to the cliffs, the coast path and Folkestone''s harbour and Creative Quarter. For visitors without their own kit, this is often the easiest way to combine a countryside stay with easy access to the town''s restaurants, galleries and beaches, and many sites make a useful, quieter base for exploring nearby Dover, Hythe and the Romney Marsh area as well as Folkestone itself.