Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
headland (the Isle of Thanet) looking out to the east, you'll find Broadstairs (with
the seafront Charles Dickens pub, housed in the old assembly rooms where Dickens
himself was a visitor) and Ramsgate, which sits on Pegwell Bay, a sandy beach pro-
tected by cliffs, and a National Nature Reserve.
Essentials
GETTING THERE Trains (Southeastern) run from London's St. Pancras Station
twice an hour (with a change at Rochester), and hourly from Victoria, each taking
about 90 minutes to Whitstable, a little longer to Margate. A one-way journey costs
about £25. There are two trains an hour from Canterbury West to Margate (30 min.
trip), and four trains an hour from Canterbury East to Whitstable, changing at Rams-
gate or Faversham and taking up to 1 hour. There are two trains an hour between
Whitstable and Margate, taking around 20 minutes.
By car from London head south on the M25 east, then the M20. At junction 7
head east on the A249 and then join the M2, also east. When the motorway ends,
take the A299.
VISITOR INFORMATION Whitstable has a touch-screen Tourist Informa-
tion Point at the harbor office ( &   01227/378100; www.canterbury.co.uk). Mar-
gate's Tourist Information Centre, 12-13 The Parade ( &   01843/577577; www.
visitthanet.co.uk), is open Easter to September, daily 10am to 5pm; the rest of the
year, Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 5pm.
Exploring the Area
WHITSTABLE Whitstable is an oyster-fishing port that has reinvented itself as
the home of oyster feasts, and lots more fish too. It all started a few years ago with
the Whitstable Oyster Company, a pleasingly informal restaurant. Others followed
and now the quayside is awash with stalls selling oysters (half a dozen shucked for
£4.40 from Wheelers Oyster Bar ), crab, cooked fish, and lots of chips. At week-
ends you'll also find a market atmosphere with stalls selling all manner of crafts and
bric-a-brac. There are seafront pubs, notably the Old Neptune ( &   01227/272262 ),
right on the beach.
As befits a reborn seaside town, there are galleries, coffee bars, and individual
shops. But this is a place to wander. Lots of tiny alleys connect the streets to the sea,
and there's a seafront path that's busy with families, jolly groups, and couples holding
hands. Turn left on the path and you pass wonderful little cottages (including one with
a blue plaque proclaiming it to be the former home of horror film actor Peter Cushing),
then beach huts and, as the seafront curls around, the village of Seasalter. Go the other
way and you find the quayside and its black-painted wooden sheds, which includes
delights such as the Fish Market, selling the day's catch (whitebait, for instance), as
well as cooking it to eat on paper plates outside and the Crab and Winkle restaurant
upstairs, with its range of fish products for souvenirs. Walk around the quay to East
Quay, where you can find a quieter stretch of pebble beach, just before the Hotel
Continental, to sit on and eat your chips. Round the headland and you come to the
village of Tankerton. There are plenty of parking lots near the seafront.
MARGATE This was one of England's earliest seaside resorts, where 18th-century
tourists came to enjoy the newly fashionable, health-giving properties of sea bathing.
Margate has been through some hard times, but, located on beautiful beaches at one
of England's easternmost tips, it was always going to re-emerge. Its renaissance is led
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