Paddock Wood

Paddock Wood itself has few hotels, but its position in the Kentish Weald makes it a sensible, well-connected base for exploring this part of Kent without needing to stay in a big town. A handful of pubs with rooms and local guest houses cover the basics, while self-catering cottages in the surrounding villages of Beltring, Yalding and Horsmonden offer a quieter, more rural alternative set among orchards and hop gardens. For a wider choice of hotels, from boutique townhouses to larger chain options, Royal Tunbridge Wells is only a short hop away by train or car and makes an easy alternative base, with the added bonus of its Georgian Pantiles, spa heritage and a good spread of restaurants. Staying in or around Paddock Wood works particularly well if the plan is to explore the Weald's gardens and forests, since Sissinghurst, Bedgebury Pinetum and the wider countryside are all within easy reach, and the town's direct rail link to London Bridge and Charing Cross also makes it a workable base for anyone wanting to combine a countryside stay with the odd day in the capital. Booking ahead is sensible in spring and summer, when the gardens and orchards are at their best and demand for the limited local accommodation is higher, though outside of these months rooms are generally easy to come by.

Paddock Wood is not a big-ticket tourist destination, but the surrounding area punches well above its weight, mixing hop-growing heritage with gardens, woodland and some of the prettiest countryside in the South East.

• The Hop Farm — Just outside the town at Beltring, this former Whitbread hop farm is home to the largest collection of Victorian oast houses in the world, a legacy of its role supplying London's breweries. It is now a campsite and events venue set across 500 acres of fields and woodland, with access to the River Medway.
• Foal Hurst Wood — A local nature reserve combining 29 acres of ancient woodland with meadowland on the edge of town, laced with footpaths and popular with dog walkers and families.
• Sissinghurst Castle Garden — Vita Sackville-West's celebrated National Trust garden, with its famous White Garden and Elizabethan tower, is a short drive south-east and one of the most visited gardens in the country.
• Bedgebury National Pinetum and Forest — A vast conifer collection and working forest a few miles away, with waymarked trails, a Go Ape course and one of the best mountain-biking centres in the South East.
• Royal Tunbridge Wells — The elegant spa town is a short train or drive away, with the Georgian colonnade of the Pantiles, its chalybeate spring, and a good spread of independent shops and restaurants.
• Hop picking heritage walks — Several signed walking routes around Paddock Wood and Beltring trace the old hop gardens and oast houses, giving a real sense of the landscape's working past.

The town has a modest but solid selection of places to eat. The John Brunt VC is a well-regarded country pub with a menu overseen by chef-patron Lee Adams, while Brookers Oast offers a more traditional pub dining experience in a building that nods to the area's hop-growing past. For something different, Simla Cuisine on Church Road is a popular local Indian restaurant, and Due Amici Ristorante serves Italian food in the town centre. It is not a destination for food tourism in its own right, but there is enough variety for a satisfying meal after a day exploring the Weald.

Camping in and around Paddock Wood means camping on a proper site rather than pitching up wild in the fields, since wild camping without the landowner's permission is against the law in England. The good news is that the area has one of Kent's best-known sites on its doorstep: The Hop Farm at Beltring, a former Whitbread hop farm turned campsite and events venue, spread across 500 acres of open fields and woodland with access to the River Medway for canoeing. Its Victorian oast houses and hop-picking heritage give it a strong sense of place that few other Kent campsites can match, and its scale means there is usually room even at busy times.

The wider Kentish Weald, with its gently rolling orchards, hop gardens and mixed woodland, is well suited to camping, with a scattering of smaller farm and countryside sites in villages like Yalding, Horsmonden and Marden offering a quieter alternative if a big touring park is not what you are after. The terrain is gentle rather than dramatic, so this is easy walking and cycling country rather than a destination for serious hill country, but that makes it a relaxed choice for families and those wanting a low-key break. Late spring through early autumn is the best window for camping here, when the orchards are in blossom or fruit and the evenings are long enough to make the most of a pitch, though the sheltered, low-lying countryside means conditions can turn wet underfoot outside the summer months. For those who would rather not pitch a tent themselves, glamping options in the area range from bell tents and shepherd's huts to fixed-roof pods, several of them on working farms that let guests get a genuine sense of the hop-growing landscape that shaped this corner of Kent.