Coastguard Retreat

Ramsgate's harbour front sits at the heart of a working seaside town with genuine depth to it. The Viking Trail runs through here, Canterbury's cathedral is within easy reach by bus or train, and the beaches stretch out along the Kent coast. The Granville Theatre is nearby, pubs and cafés cluster around the historic waterfront, and on clear days you can see across to France. Coastguard Retreat is a Grade II listed terraced house on the seafront itself, a former Admiralty property with character baked into its bones.

The layout gives you three bedrooms—a double, a three-quarter double and a single—and one bathroom upstairs, with a ground-floor living and dining room that opens onto the sea view. The kitchen is properly equipped: gas hob, oven and grill, dishwasher, wine cooler and coffee machine all there. Essentials like heating, electricity, bed linen, towels and wifi are included, and one medium-sized dog stays free. You get the whole place to yourself, with parking on the road outside.

The pub is a hundred yards away, shops and restaurants a quarter-mile. The beach is a two-minute walk. This suits families and groups of friends wanting a functioning seaside base rather than a quiet retreat, though the Grade II listing and sea views give it a different tone from standard holiday lets. No smoking.