Sandwich

Sandwich's accommodation is as compact and characterful as the town itself, with almost everywhere to stay set within or just outside the medieval walls. At the top of the range, a Grade I listed Lutyens house sits in its own award-winning gardens and a grand Edwardian riverside hotel occupies one of the best positions on the Stour, both offering a level of history and design rarely found in a town this size. Below that, several genuinely old coaching inns and pub hotels, some dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, provide comfortable, unfussy rooms above a proper bar, a style of stay that suits golfers, walkers and weekend visitors who want a good pint downstairs as much as a smart room upstairs.

At the more modest end, family-run bed and breakfasts occupy period houses on quiet streets just back from the centre, offering a warmer, more personal welcome and often better value than the hotels, while a scattering of self-catering houses suit families or small groups wanting a kitchen and garden of their own. Because Sandwich is so small, location rarely varies much between properties: almost everything is within a ten-minute walk of the Guildhall, the quay and the railway station, so the real choice tends to be between the grandeur of a historic hotel, the sociable buzz of a pub with rooms, or the quieter privacy of a B&B or self-catering house a street or two back from the centre. A handful of options a few miles out in the surrounding villages suit visitors who would rather stay in the countryside and drive or cycle in.

Sandwich rewards slow exploration on foot, but there is a solid list of sights to build a visit around.

• Sandwich Guildhall Museum occupies the town's Elizabethan Guildhall and tells the story of the Cinque Ports through civic treasures, courtroom relics and a copy of the town's own 1300 Magna Carta and Charter of the Forest.
• The Barbican and Fisher Gate are the best surviving of Sandwich's medieval town gates, the Fisher Gate dating from 1384 as the last original water gate left standing, guarding the approach to the quay.
• St Peter's Church, a Norman-era church with a distinctive tower, can be climbed for panoramic views across the rooftops, the river and out towards the dunes.
• Strand Street itself is worth simply walking end to end, taking in the longest unbroken run of ancient timber-framed buildings in England, leaning and jettied above the narrow pavement.
• Richborough Roman Fort, a couple of miles outside town, marks the site of the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43 and includes a rebuilt timber gateway, excavated fort walls and a small museum of finds.
• The Salutation Gardens, laid out by Gertrude Jekyll around Sir Edwin Lutyens' Grade I listed house, are nearly four acres of walled and woodland garden open to visitors for much of the year.
• White Mill Rural Heritage Centre preserves a working 1760s smock windmill along with a recreated blacksmith's and wheelwright's workshop on the edge of town.
• Sandwich Bay and Pegwell Bay offer wide sandy beaches, dunes and important bird reserves, with Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory a serious draw for birdwatchers following migration along the Kent coast.

Sandwich's food scene leans on good pub cooking and Kentish produce rather than showy fine dining, with riverside pubs such as the Bell Hotel's bar and terrace making the most of views over the Stour. The Crispin Inn on the High Street claims a particular piece of food history, serving its own take on the sandwich in the town credited with giving the snack its name, while the George and Dragon and several other historic inns serve real ale and traditional pub fare in beamed, centuries-old rooms. Independent cafes such as Goats That Dance serve proper coffee and cake to visitors resting between sights, and a handful of small Italian and bistro-style restaurants add some variety to the town's traditional pub offering. A weekly market brings local produce, fish and baked goods into the town centre, and the surrounding countryside and coast supply much of what appears on menus, from Stour Valley game to fish landed further down the coast.

There is no large holiday park within the old town itself, but a small, well-regarded touring and camping park sits on the edge of Sandwich, and a scattering of farm-based sites in the villages just inland offer a quieter, more rural alternative within a few miles. This part of east Kent is gently farmed countryside rather than dramatic scenery, but it has its own appeal: quiet lanes, orchards, and easy access both to Sandwich's medieval streets and to the beaches and golf links along the coast.

Facilities across the sites below range from a full-service touring park with electric hookups and a shop to smaller, back-to-basics fields aimed at tents and campervans rather than large caravans, so the choice comes down to how much comfort matters against how quiet and rural a stay is wanted. All three are within about ten miles of Sandwich, making them practical bases for exploring the town, Richborough Roman Fort and the wider Kent coast while keeping costs well below those of a hotel room in the centre.