Whitstable

Where you base yourself in Whitstable changes the character of a stay more than in most seaside towns, because the harbour, the high street and the quieter residential stretches sit close together but feel quite distinct. A room within walking distance of the harbour puts restaurants, the Saturday market and the beach huts on the doorstep, and suits anyone who wants to arrive without a car and do everything on foot, though these central rooms are also the first to sell out over summer weekends and the Oyster Festival. Properties around Tankerton, a short stroll east along the seafront, trade a little of that immediacy for sea views, beach hut access and the calm of the Slopes above the water, making them a good compromise for couples wanting quiet evenings without losing easy access to the town.

Families and anyone travelling with a car often do better slightly further out, in Seasalter to the west or Swalecliffe and Chestfield towards Herne Bay, where self-catering cottages and larger guest houses tend to offer more space and easier parking for a similar or lower price than an equivalent room in the centre. Whitstable's accommodation is dominated by independent hotels, guest houses and self-catering conversions of the town's weatherboarded cottages rather than large chain properties, so booking ahead matters more here than in towns with a bigger supply of rooms, particularly for July and August and any weekend built around the Oyster Festival.

Across the price range, the properties that work best tend to be the ones that lean into the town's fishing and boatbuilding history rather than trying to disguise it, whether that means a converted fisherman's cottage a few doors from the harbour or a seafront hotel that still looks out over working boats. Whichever area you choose, nothing in Whitstable is more than a twenty-minute walk from the water, so the decision is really about pace and price rather than distance from the sea.

Most of what makes Whitstable worth visiting can be covered on foot, radiating out from the harbour along the seafront in either direction.

• Whitstable Harbour is the working heart of the town, where fishing boats unload their catch, a Saturday market fills the yard with food and craft stalls, and harbourside shacks sell oysters and seafood to eat looking out over the water.
• The Street is a natural shingle spit that appears off Tankerton beach at low tide, stretching almost a mile out into the estuary and letting walkers head out over the sea bed before the tide turns and covers it again.
• Tankerton Slopes is a grassy chalk headland above the beach, a protected wildflower site and the best vantage point in town for watching the sunset over the water and the colourful beach huts below.
• Whitstable Castle stands in its own grounds above Tankerton, a Georgian and Victorian folly turned tearoom and wedding venue, with gardens that slope down towards the sea.
• Whitstable Museum and Gallery tells the story of the oyster and diving trades, local shipwrecks and the town's more recent film and television connections in a compact, well-curated space just off the high street.
• The beach huts along Tankerton seafront and the black-boarded fishermen's huts on the shingle by the harbour are among the most photographed features of the town and worth the walk even if you are not staying in one.
• Harbour Street and Oxford Street are lined with independent shops selling everything from vintage clothing to local ceramics, alongside the delis, bakeries and cafes that give the town much of its character outside the main summer season.
• Reculver Towers, the ruined twin towers of a medieval church on a crumbling clifftop, lie a scenic coastal walk or short drive to the east and make a good half-day extension to a Whitstable visit.

Oysters are the reason most people first come to Whitstable, and they can be eaten straight from the shell at harbourside stalls or in proper surroundings at the Whitstable Oyster Company's Royal Native Oyster Stores, a restaurant built into a former Victorian oyster store right on the beach. Wheelers Oyster Bar, one of the town's oldest seafood restaurants, occupies a tiny shopfront on the high street and remains one of the most sought-after tables in Kent despite its modest size. Beyond oysters, the harbour market and the surrounding streets offer fresh fish and chips, whelks and cockles sold by weight, and a growing number of bakeries and delis supplying the town's cafes with sourdough and pastries. Whitstable Brewery produces cask ales close to the town and supplies many of the pubs along the seafront, several of which have direct views over the estuary and fill quickly on summer evenings. The Saturday harbour market combines food stalls with local crafts, and the town's calendar builds towards the Oyster Festival each July, when the harbour becomes the focus of parades, music and, inevitably, a great many oysters.

The land around Whitstable is gentler than the shingle beaches suggest, a stretch of flat coastal farmland, orchards and grazing marsh that runs inland from the sea wall towards Faversham and the Swale. To the west, around Seasalter, the ground flattens further into reclaimed marshland behind the beach, while the coast east towards Swalecliffe and Herne Bay rises slightly onto low cliffs. None of this is dramatic camping country in the way that Devon or the Lake District can be, but it is easy, level ground close to good beaches, which is exactly what most visitors are looking for.

Wild camping has no general legal right in England outside a handful of areas such as parts of Dartmoor, and Kent's coastline and farmland offer no exception, so pitching up without the landowner's permission on beaches, verges or farmland around Whitstable is not legal and is not something to attempt. The area's appeal for campers instead lies in a small number of established touring and camping parks just outside the town, close enough to reach the harbour and beaches by bike or a short drive while still offering the space and facilities a tent or caravan pitch needs.

The weather here is typical of the Kent coast: milder than inland areas in winter, prone to a stiff onshore breeze off the estuary even in summer, and driest in the months either side of the school holidays. May, June and September tend to offer the best combination of settled weather and lighter crowds, while July and August bring the warmest sea temperatures and the busiest pitches, particularly around the Oyster Festival weekend. Whichever month you choose, a stormproof tent or an awning that copes with wind is worth having on this stretch of coast, even when the forecast looks calm.