Kent and East Sussex from Dover

Editor's note

One night for Canterbury and Whitstable. Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170; the cathedral is a World Heritage Site, and you can climb to the Bell Harry Tower. The city also has St Augustine's Abbey, founded after Augustine arrived in 597, and St Martin's, the oldest church in continuous use in the English-speaking world. Walk under the Westgate Towers of 1380 or take a punt on the Stour. At Whitstable, eat oysters on the beach or at the harbour market, walk the weatherboarded alleys and watch the sunset from the Old Neptune. The oyster festival comes round every summer.

Editor's note

One night between Rye and the shingle. Walk up cobbled Mermaid Street past the Mermaid Inn, whose cellars date from 1156 and where the Hawkhurst Gang drank openly in the 1740s. Climb the Ypres Tower, on guard since the 13th century, for the view over Romney Marsh, and St Mary's church tower for the roofs, then cross the Rother to the sands at Camber. At Dungeness, ride the 15-inch gauge railway of 1927 from New Romney out to the point and walk the shingle past black tarred huts to the old lighthouse. Derek Jarman's garden at Prospect Cottage can be seen from the road.

Editor's note

Two nights around Battle and Hastings. William built his abbey on the battlefield, with the high altar on the spot where Harold is said to have fallen on 14 October 1066; walk the slope from the English ridge down to the Norman line. At the Stade in Hastings, boats are still winched up the shingle beside tall black net shops. Ride both cliff railways, walk the castle ruins on the West Hill and go into St Clement's Caves. Save a day for Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain at 162m, and the Seven Sisters beyond Belle Tout and Birling Gap.

Editor's note

One night for Sissinghurst, Bodiam and Tenterden. Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson turned Sissinghurst into a series of garden rooms; walk the White Garden, the most copied in the world, and climb the tower to Vita's writing room. Bodiam, built in 1385 with no keep, sits square in its moat: walk round it and climb the spiral stairs to the battlements. From Tenterden, a Wealden market town with a broad high street under the limes, the Kent and East Sussex Railway runs down the Rother valley to Bodiam. Colonel Stephens's collection is at Tenterden Town station.

Editor's note

One last night at Dover before the crossing home. Walk the White Cliffs from the Langdon Cliffs visitor centre, about 110m above the Channel, towards South Foreland Lighthouse: the first lit by electricity, in 1858, and where Marconi sent the first ship-to-shore radio message in 1899. Tour Henry II's castle above the town and go down into the Secret Wartime Tunnels, from which the Dunkirk evacuation was directed in 1940. Dover Museum keeps a Bronze Age boat some 3,500 years old.