Photo: Slaunger (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons
Things to do in Kent
The best holidays are planned around great days out. Here's what's on the doorstep in Kent, from big-ticket attractions to rainy-day savers.
🎟️ This weekend near Kent
Events from
Skiddle
Fri 13 Nov · 12:00
Preston Audio Tour: Echoes of Faith and Heritage
St George's Shopping Centre, Gravesend · 22.1 mi
Tickets on Skiddle ↗
Fri 13 Nov · 12:00
Maidstone Audio Tour: Courts, Cultures
Maidstone Museum And Art Gallery, Maidstone · 9.4 mi
Tickets on Skiddle ↗
Fri 13 Nov · 12:00
Gravesend Audio Tour: Riverfront Legends and Fortress Footst...
Gravesend Railway Station, Gravesend · 22.0 mi
Tickets on Skiddle ↗
Fri 13 Nov · 12:00
Canterbury Chronicles: From Cathedral Stones to Cultural Thr...
Canterbury Heritage Museum, Canterbury · 17.2 mi
Tickets on Skiddle ↗
Aquariums
24.2 mi from Kent
Blue Reef Aquarium
Blue Reef is a national chain of public aquariums in England owned by Aspro Parks. — Wikipedia
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Museums & Galleries
4 mi from Kent
Lashenden Air Warfare Museum
Lashenden Air Warfare Museum is an aviation museum at Lashenden (Headcorn) Airfield in Kent in southeast England. — Wikipedia
8.2 mi from Kent
The South East Romany Museum
The South East Romany Museum is run by the Brazil family, who have lived in Marden with their families since 1973 and have long-standing ties to Kent's Romany way of life. Using tr...
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8.3 mi from Kent
Ashford Borough Museum
Ashford Borough Museum sits in a 17th century Grade II listed building in the Church Yard, opposite St Mary's Parish Church, right in the heart of Ashford's town centre. Run entire...
8.6 mi from Kent
Woodchurch Museum
Woodchurch Village Life Museum sits in the Kent countryside near Woodchurch, housed in an eighteenth-century oak-framed barn and seventeenth-century cart shed. Inside you'll find a...
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9 mi from Kent
Colonel Stephens Railway Museum
The Colonel Stephens Railway Museum, housed in the John Miller Building at Tenterden Town Station, tells the story of Holman Fred Stephens, the engineer behind Britain's light rail...
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9.1 mi from Kent
Tenterden District Museum
Tenterden & District Museum sits in a two-storey weather-boarded building in Tenterden, Ashford, and tells the story of the town and its surrounding villages across six exhibition...
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9.1 mi from Kent
Museum of Carriages
The Museum of Carriages, on Mill Street in central Maidstone, holds one of the UK's most significant collections of horse-drawn vehicles, with more than 60 largely unrestored examp...
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9.4 mi from Kent
Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment Museum
Located within Maidstone Museum, this regimental museum traces the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment from its 1756 origins to its 1961 amalgamation. You'll see medals, uniforms,...
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9.4 mi from Kent
Maidstone Museum
Maidstone Museum sits in the centre of Maidstone, Kent, where you can explore thousands of objects from archaeology, art, natural history and more. There's a programme of exhibitio...
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9.8 mi from Kent
Sittingbourne Heritage Museum
Sittingbourne Heritage Museum has told the story of the town and its surrounding villages since 1999, with objects donated or loaned by local residents and other museums. You would...
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10.1 mi from Kent
Cranbrook Museum
Cranbrook Museum is a local history museum in Cranbrook, run by Cranbrook Museum and Local History CIO, a registered charity. You'll find changing exhibitions, with details of what...
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10.6 mi from Kent
Morgan Museum
This is a small motoring museum in Kent, home to the unique collection of Morgan 3 wheel cars, with 11 normally on display, dating from 1909 to 1935. Other vehicles include a 1929...
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11.3 mi from Kent
Rolvenden Layne Sound Museum
Rolvenden Layne Sound Museum is a disused village phone box in Rolvenden, Ashford, transformed into a tiny museum of sound. Inside, a hand-cranked digital audio player replaces the...
11.4 mi from Kent
Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre
The Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre is the Faversham Society's local history museum and archive, offering free entry to everyone. Inside you'll find archaeological discoveries, everyd...
14.7 mi from Kent
Eastchurch Aviation Museum
Eastchurch Aviation Museum, on the Isle of Sheppey, tells the story of the island's pioneering role in early English aviation, including the founding of the Royal Naval Air Service...
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14.7 mi from Kent
Eastchurch Aviation Museum
Eastchurch Aviation Museum, in Eastchurch, Swale, Kent, tells the story of the Isle of Sheppey's pioneering role in English aviation, from the founding of the Royal Naval Air Servi...
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14.9 mi from Kent
Romney Marsh Wartime Collection
The Romney Marsh Wartime Collection is a museum in Kent covering History, Gallery and Video Gallery sections, with The Dispersal Hut Cafe for refreshments. Clubs needing a meet ven...
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15 mi from Kent
Royal Engineers Museum
The Royal Engineers Museum is the UK's largest military engineering museum, home to a nationally and internationally significant collection built up over two centuries. You'll find...
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15.1 mi from Kent
Queenborough Guildhall Museum
Queenborough Guildhall Museum tells the story of this historic Saxon-founded town on the Isle of Sheppey, from its Royal Castle built by Edward III to its Victorian industrial heri...
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Theme Parks
5 mi from Kent
Go Ape Leeds Castle
Go Ape Leeds Castle brings high ropes and zip line adventure to the grounds of Leeds Castle in Kent, with obstacles set among the treetops and a castle backdrop. The main Treetop C...
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14.1 mi from Kent
Go Ape Bedgebury
Go Ape Bedgebury sits within Bedgebury National Pinetum, offering high ropes courses, zip lines and a dual Tarzan Swing among the treetops, plus graded forest biking trails for tho...
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15.8 mi from Kent
Diggerland Kent
Diggerland Kent is located in Medway Valley Leisure Park, where guests of all ages can ride, drive and operate real diggers in a safe and family friendly setting. Alongside the dig...
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17.7 mi from Kent
Dymchurch Amusements
Dymchurch Amusements is a traditional seaside amusement park in Dymchurch, Kent, offering a fun-filled family day out with no admission fee. You'll find a range of rides suited to...
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23 mi from Kent
Adventure Island
Adventure Island is a free entry theme park on Southend seafront, packed with over 40 rides and attractions, a six storey Soft Play, prize arcades, cafes, restaurants and sideshows...
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Water Parks
Zoos & Wildlife
3.1 mi from Kent
The Big Cat Sanctuary
The Big Cat Sanctuary is a conservation centre in Smarden, near Ashford, dedicated to protecting and rescuing wild cats from around the world. You can meet more than 30 cats across...
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16 mi from Kent
Port Lympne Reserve
Port Lympne Reserve is a large wild animal park set in over 600 acres near Lympne, close to Hythe in Kent. You can go on safari to see giraffes, spectacled bears and water buffalo,...
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20.1 mi from Kent
Howletts Wild Animal Park
Howletts Wild Animal Park is a wildlife sanctuary set in ancient parkland near Canterbury, home to over 390 animals including Kent's only giant anteaters and the UK's largest herd...
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20.2 mi from Kent
Wildwood
Wildwood Trust is a woodland discovery park in Herne, near Canterbury in Kent, England. It features over fifty species of native British animals such as deer, badgers, wild boar, a... — Wikipedia
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23.5 mi from Kent
Wingham Wildlife Park
Wingham Wildlife Park is a large family-owned wildlife park near Staple, Dover, in Kent, home to the greatest number of animal species of any Kent zoo, including tigers, Asiatic li...
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29.8 mi from Kent
Barleylands Farm Park
Barleylands Farm Park is a family-friendly attraction in Great Burstead and South Green, Basildon, combining a working farm with animal experiences, a Craft Village of independent...
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Where to stay near Kent
Places to stay within easy reach of these days out.
More around Kent
Haunted Britain
Kent gives you a lot in a small space: a run of seaside towns on the north coast, a cathedral city inland, and more castles than you could reasonably visit in a week. The trick is not to chase everything. Pick a base, work outwards, and accept that the weather will make some of the decisions for you. There are 685 places to stay on BritStays in the region, so you can set up almost anywhere and still have a sensible day out in reach.
Where to start: the four towns
Margate, Broadstairs, Whitstable and Canterbury each have a different character. Margate and Broadstairs are proper seaside, with sand and the sort of front where an hour disappears without you doing anything in particular. Whitstable leans towards boats, shingle and slow pottering. Canterbury is the one for a day on foot, with history layered under your feet rather than spread along a promenade.
Broadstairs is unusually well stocked with things to go inside, which matters more than you'd think on a Kent coast day. Between the Secret Wartime Tunnels, the Spur Casemates Exhibition, the PWRR & Queens Regiment Museum and Arthur's Hall, you could fill a day there without once looking at the sky.
Good days out with children
Tunnels win with most children, every time. The Secret Wartime Tunnels in Broadstairs are the sort of place that turns a reluctant eight-year-old into someone who wants to tell you facts on the way home. Pair it with the Spur Casemates Exhibition if the interest holds, and keep The Seaside Museum in Whitstable in reserve for a different day — it's a gentler, browsier sort of visit.
Build in beach time either side. On the north coast you don't need a plan: buckets, a walk, and something from Scoops to stop the complaining on the way back to the car.
Rainy-day plans that actually work
Kent rain tends to be brisk rather than apocalyptic, but you want a backup. The strongest wet-weather day is Canterbury: the Canterbury Roman Museum sits below the modern streets and makes the city make sense, and the rest of the day can be spent under cover between shops and cafes.
- Canterbury Roman Museum — best first stop of the day, before it fills up.
- Secret Wartime Tunnels and Spur Casemates Exhibition, Broadstairs — underground, so the weather is irrelevant.
- PWRR & Queens Regiment Museum and Arthur's Hall, Broadstairs — small, focused, easy to combine.
- The Seaside Museum, Whitstable — a good hour when the shingle is being blown sideways.
Outdoors and big views
The White Cliffs of Dover are the obvious walk and they earn it — go on a clear day, wear something windproof, and allow longer than you planned. For something flatter, the coastal defences make good targets for a walk with a purpose: Dymchurch Redoubt and Sandgate Castle both sit on the shoreline, and Garrison Point Fort is a reminder of how seriously this coast was taken.
Castles and heritage
If you only do one, make it Leeds Castle — it's the one people picture when they think of Kent, and the grounds are as much of the visit as the building. Walmer Castle is the better choice if you like gardens and lived-in rooms rather than battlements. Upnor Castle and Saltwood Castle are smaller, quieter propositions.
For houses rather than fortifications, Bradbourne House and Gads Hill Place are the ones to look up. One of the headline properties in this list is National Trust, so check your membership before you pay at the gate.
Where to eat
Pubs do the heavy lifting here. The Dove, Quayside, The Three Mariners and the Royal Naval Reserve all hold 5-star hygiene ratings, which is a reasonable first filter when you're somewhere unfamiliar and hungry. Quayside suits a day that's ended near the water; The Three Mariners and The Dove are the sort of places to settle into after a long walk. Scoops is the ice cream stop — and in seaside Kent, that's a legitimate course.
Turning it into a short break
Three nights is the sweet spot. Give day one to your base town and the beach, day two to Canterbury and the Canterbury Roman Museum, and day three to one big castle — Leeds Castle or Walmer Castle — with a pub lunch built in. Keep the Broadstairs museums unbooked as your weather reserve.
Practically: book castle entry ahead in school holidays, check opening days for the smaller museums before you drive anywhere, park once in Canterbury and walk, and carry a waterproof even in July.
Frequently asked questions
Which towns in Kent make the best base for days out?
Margate, Broadstairs, Whitstable and Canterbury are the four to consider. Broadstairs has the most indoor attractions within the town itself, Whitstable is the quieter coastal option, Margate is good for beach days, and Canterbury suits a break spent mostly on foot. There are 685 places to stay on BritStays across the region.
What can we do in Kent if it rains all day?
Head underground or indoors. The Secret Wartime Tunnels and the Spur Casemates Exhibition in Broadstairs are unaffected by weather, and the PWRR & Queens Regiment Museum and Arthur's Hall are also in Broadstairs. In Canterbury, the Canterbury Roman Museum sits below street level. The Seaside Museum in Whitstable is a good shorter option.
Which castle should we visit if we only have time for one?
Leeds Castle is the best-known and the grounds are a large part of the day. Walmer Castle is the alternative if you prefer gardens and furnished rooms. Upnor Castle and Saltwood Castle are smaller and quieter, and Sandgate Castle, Dymchurch Redoubt and Garrison Point Fort are coastal defences rather than full day-out attractions.
Are any of the Kent landmarks National Trust properties?
Yes, one of the listed landmarks is a National Trust property, so it is worth checking your membership before you pay for entry. The full list includes Leeds Castle, Walmer Castle, Saltwood Castle, Upnor Castle, Sandgate Castle, Dymchurch Redoubt, Garrison Point Fort, Bradbourne House, Gads Hill Place and the White Cliffs of Dover.
Where can we eat with confidence about food hygiene?
The Dove, Quayside, The Three Mariners and the Royal Naval Reserve are all pubs holding 5-star hygiene ratings, and Scoops is a 5-star rated ice cream stop. Quayside works well at the end of a waterside day, while The Dove and The Three Mariners suit a longer sit-down after a walk.
What is a sensible three-night itinerary for Kent?
Spend the first day in your base town and on the beach, the second in Canterbury including the Canterbury Roman Museum, and the third at a single large heritage site such as Leeds Castle or Walmer Castle with a pub lunch. Keep the Broadstairs museums and the Secret Wartime Tunnels unbooked as a wet-weather reserve, and check opening days for the smaller museums before setting off.
More ways to explore
Not booked yet? See the best places to stay in Kent.