Half-term enjoyable in Kent: 10 household days out on a decent price range | Kent holidays
As a baby I can bear in mind making an attempt to swim out to a wrecked fishing boat off the seaside at Camber Sands on the Sussex/Kent border. I stared on the horizon till the entire universe felt blue. It felt like essentially the most unique place on Earth. The south-east coast clearly made an impression, as I later settled in Kent and I’m elevating my circle of relatives right here.
I work as a guard and bouncer, incomes £11.76 an hour, which doesn’t purchase a number of excursions, even with my girlfriend’s wage chucked in (she works in a faculty for susceptible youngsters).
However since the price of residing disaster kicked in we’ve got managed to search out low cost native sights galore. Listed below are a few of our favourites.
Herne Bay
Loads of our days out are by bus (Stagecoach is providing a £2 price-capped grownup single fare till 31 October, and an ongoing kid-for-a-quid deal). Herne Bay seafront is an everyday vacation spot. I really like chasing my daughter across the steps of the Victorian clock tower, or watching the bikers rev up within the Neptune automotive park. As a result of my daughter’s beneath 16 she will get free entry to the Seaside Museum on William Avenue, the place we will learn in regards to the last-known “pursuit by HM Customs beneath sail” (old-school smuggling), which reportedly passed off on 4 September 2004 and concerned an area boatman.
If it’s sunny, we’ll go crabbing off the pier with a bucket and kite string. If it’s windy, we’ll spend our change on air hockey within the arcade. On the seaside, I’ll open the compass app on my telephone and gaze due east, previous the free-to-access Reculver Towers, a part of a ruined medieval church, close to the stays of a Roman fortress, and out to Europe.
Whitstable
My daughter’s guide of monsters has led us on a quest to Whitstable searching for Crabzilla, a 15-metre-wide crustacean whose {photograph} was posted on the Bizarre Whitstable weblog in 2014 and shortly turned a global headline.
We’ve by no means seen it, however we love strolling previous the stalls on Harbour Market, or sitting within the Bubble Cafe searching on the distant sea. I maintain my head down if anybody grumbles about “the DFLs” (Down-from-Londons – I used to be born in Leytonstone). If my daughter wants a runaround, we’ll head to the free play space exterior Whitstable Fort. If climbing a pirate ship doesn’t exhaust her, performing some sparring on the biscuit-coloured sand when the tide’s out by no means fails. Her karate is an efficient match for my avenue combating.
Romney Marsh
We discover the identical large horizons – however fewer boutiques – if we take a bus and practice to Romney Marsh. The 100-square mile space spreads into East Sussex and was as soon as beneath the ocean. In the present day it consists of fields dotted with grazing sheep, waterways and villages.
At its south-east tip is Dungeness, the place climbing the Previous Lighthouse prices £5 grownup, £3 baby. We like to look at the native anglers – none of whom budge yr spherical come rain, shine, explosions on the close by Lydd navy ranges, or bizarre noises from contained in the nuclear energy station on the seaside.
Quex Park
Quex Park is a 100-hectare (250-acre) nation property and exercise centre on the best way to Margate and free to enter. There may be loopy golf or paintballing for a payment, however we’re fairly comfortable chasing one another over logs, or spying on the peacocks exterior the Powell-Cotton Museum. To get even nearer to wildlife, strolling an Anglo-Nubian goat prices £22.50 for half an hour.
Kearsney Abbey
One other good picnic spot is Kearsney Abbey, a few miles inland from Dover. The four-hectare website has orchards, an superior wood jungle health club, a number of ponds – one guarded by swans, one other by toy-boat customers – and a flint-lined stream for teenagers to dangle their toes in. On our go to I had my fingers full chasing after the gull who’d run off with half my cheese sandwich.